Booth kept a diary, which is preserved at the Senate House Historic Site. “He wrote in his dairy about 150 wagons loaded with bluestone that went by his house in one day,” said Ford. Geoffrey Miller, a retired teacher and local historian who is an expert on the diary, said Booth’s writings comprise a fascinating compendium of Jacksonian America. Originally from Saugerties, where his father was an engineer, he traveled widely and commented on many of the trends of the time.
“After he loses his dry goods store in Georgetown [in Washington, D.C.] in a fire in the early 1820s, he buys an interest in a lead mine in Missouri and travels overland carrying his wife’s piano,” said Miller. “His wife dies, possibly in childbirth, and he’s left with a newborn. The mine goes bust and he takes a steamer on the Ohio River and travels to Kingston. He’s an old curmudgeon and amateur musician who always carried a sketchbook and built his own rowboat. He visited the Oneida Community, and writes about the phrenologist and black jubilee. He’s an incredible figure.”
Will said the stone building could be part of a larger D&H Canal heritage park, which could encompass High Falls (location of the D&H Canal Museum), Accord, and other former canal towns. “The city could jumpstart a linear park and canal trail with an interested nonprofit and save the building,” Will said. Others said the building could be protected as a historic landmark, restored under private ownership and put back on the tax rolls, with perhaps a plaque out front noting its role in the city’s history.
Noble said he was committed to saving the building, if possible, and noted the house’s plight was a wake-up call. “The city needs to look at its assets and find out which buildings on its watch list posing a threat to public safety should get moved into the hands of people who could preserve them,” he said. “Taking abandoned properties back onto the tax roll leads to a much better situation in the end. You plan ahead. Right now, we’re all in reactive mode.”
Noble noted that some policy changes may be in order. “Maybe that law for unsafe buildings is fine, but maybe there’s some better policy on how to vet these buildings,” he said. “I’ve scheduled a meeting with our team and the Common Council to discuss ways to do this better in the future. Our city needs a preservation plan,” Noble said.
In the meantime, “We’re trying our best to balance the need to protect public safety with the interest of the historic community,” said Gartenstein. “Safety comes first. The two-story building has a three- to four-foot setback from the road and God forbid there’s three feet of snow.”
