Paula Lemire is the historian for the Friends of the Albany Rural Cemetery. She is involved in a number of local historical groups, a regular at such places as the Albany Institute of History and Art and a founding member of the Friends of Albany History social media project.
Q: What got you involved in history and why is it so important to remember and preserve our past?
A: I think that simply growing up in an old house in Albany at the right time contributed greatly to my love of local history. My local roots only go back to the 1910s which isn’t very long when you look at the timeline of Albany’s recorded history, but my Aunt Camille felt it was very important to take me to museums and similar sites. One of my very early memories is of a visit to the Albany Institute of History and Art when I was about four or five; a gentleman in a tweed suit came down those lovely marble steps and stopped to chat with us. Years later, I realized it was Norman Rice. Norman is a trustee emeritus at the cemetery and someone I admire a great deal. He was amused when I told him I remembered that meeting and said he probably still has that tweed jacket. Another influence was the Albany Tricentennial in 1986. I was 12 and a half that summer and there were so many wonderful events which really put local history in the spotlight. There were all these fascinating historical articles in the newspaper and I saved many of them. That was also around the same time that remains from the old Dutch burial ground between Beaver Street and Hudson Avenue were discovered during construction and that also intrigued me because, when I was in first grade, I wanted to be an archeologist (unfortunately, my teacher scoffed at the idea.)
Q: What got you involved in history and why is it so important to remember and preserve our past?
A: This is a tricky one because I’ve been visiting the cemetery for so many years (since I was 14) that many of them feel like old friends and I have so many favorites among them. Some I love for story behind them and some because of the incredible artistry. That said, “The Angel At The Sepulcher” by Erastus Dow Palmer will always be my favorite. It was commissioned by Robert Lenox Banks for the grave of his wife, Emma after she died of complications of childbirth, but Palmer had long wanted to sculpt an angel of this sort. It was completed in 1860 and drew visitors from all over. And It’s what brought me to the cemetery in the first place. When William Kennedy’s “Ironweed” was filmed, the local news stations did stories on the various locations used and one of those features included this majestic statue that I just had to see for myself. Even before I found my way to the Angel, I fell in love with the cemetery itself. So it will always be a sentimental favorite and I couldn’t be happier that it was restored to its former glory by a careful cleaning thanks to Tyler Kattrein, a volunteer and trustee at the cemetery.
Q: What are the two most historically significant sites in Albany County and why?
A: I would say that the two most significant sites in Albany County are the little plaza in front of the SUNY Administration building and Albany Rural Cemetery. The intersection of Broadway and Hudson Avenue in front of the SUNY Administration building is a focal point of so much of Albany’s very early history. Standing there and looking around, one is in view of just so many key locations. Just yards away to the south was Fort Orange with its trading house and the first residence of the Patroon. To the north was the first stone church with its little graveyard. To the west, the oldest green space and oldest house still survive as Liberty Park and 48 Hudson Ave. And right there in front of SUNY Plaza was the site of the Stadt Huys or “state house” served as the first city hall, court, meeting place, and even jail. It was from the steps of the Stadt Huys that Declaration of Independence was first read to the people of Albany. Just a great deal of early history in one small space and having Marcus T. Reynolds’ architecture as the backdrop adds to it. The cemetery is a place where so many aspects of local history converge. A lot of physical history has been lost to progress, especially pre-Civil War. But at the cemetery, it’s all very present and very tangible. One can walk through the grounds and come so close to history. You can turn in any direction and find Revolutionary War soldiers, artists and writers, abolitionists, scores of mayors, a Lakota Sioux child, and, if you know where to look, headstones from the 1720s with text in Dutch. We don’t see many traces of early Albany like that so those are a treasure to me. And, of course, President Arthur is our most famous “permanent resident.”
Q: Preserving history and advancing society through development and other progress are often at odds. How do you think we should balance the conflicting needs of stakeholders in both camps?
A: I tend to be fairly idealist and I don’t see progress and history as being mutually exclusive. For example, on a small scale, often there are buildings that absolutely meet the definition of historic that are demolished through neglect rather than adaptive reuse which depends as much on having vision and motivation as it does money. And when buildings are indeed too far gone to be saved, at least salvage some original elements and incorporate them into new structures rather than create an endless cityscape of drab, uniform buildings without character or any sense of heritage or, worse, leaving empty voids. Visitors don’t come looking for parking lots, and there is a market for heritage tourism. I walk a lot and meet a lot of people who are visitors who are so dismayed that there are few amenities for them downtown on weekends. Sometimes, it’s hard for a visitor to find a place to get a cup of coffee before visiting a museum here. People do come, they do want to spend money. Heritage tourism is fairly niche part of any city, but it has its place in the overall local economy and, importantly, in the quality of life by giving a city character and making it attractive to visitors and, among them, we might even find future residents.
Q: Who is one person in history you would like to have lunch with and why?
A: This is the hardest question! I’ve always loved the old question, “What 10 historical figures would you invite to a dinner party,” because there’s just so many who would make that list; Oscar Wilde, David Bowie, Tadeusz Kosciuszko. I could name so many. But if I had to pick just one, it would probably be Dianna Mingo, a formerly enslaved woman buried at Albany Rural. Believed to be the oldest person ever buried there at 105 years, she was born near Schodack about a decade before the Revolutionary War and died in 1872. It’s amazing to think of how much history passed during her lifetime. In her later years, she planted a chestnut tree in front of her home near the corner of State and Willett streets as her legacy. She would sit beside it and talk to visitors about events she had witnessed, helping the women of the household bury their valuables in the woods and hiding as Tories burned the house, and seeing Lafayette pass by in the yellow carriage of Stephen Van Rensselaer III during the Marquis’ 1825 visit. She was much loved and the newspaper accounts of her funeral talk of people crowding into the Israel A.M.E Church, standing in the aisles and even on the sanctuary steps to pay their respects. She seems to have been a remarkable woman and I would love to sit with her and hear the story of her long life.
If would like to see someone featured in Five Questions, contact Jim Franco at 518-878-1000 or [email protected]
