I've told you about the speed of smell thing, right? Maybe. Once I worked in an office building that had been emptied of staff waiting for a reno - except for my corner of one floor and the basement cafeteria. Oddly, they still were cooking for 273 down there even though there were only five of us left and we were mainly eating elsewhere at lunch. One noontime, we headed down to street level by the stairwell and immediately smelled the smell of the fish for lunch. But as we headed down we moved through archaeological strata of smells, eat two floors or so having the aroma of previous lunches. It was weird but they had turned off the air circulation and we had been using the elevator for weeks. I started to wonder about the speed of smell as well as the cultural fact of public smell.
To the upper right is a part of an insurance map of downtown Albany that Craig passed around via email today. Really an atlas, it's from 1892. An insurance map was a mapping of all elements of buildings a fire crew might encounter during a blaze. Building by building. Block by block. For whole cities. The Google maps of their day with interior information The detail is impressive. 
To the left is a detail of one page of the atlas showing Taylor's Brewing and Malting forty or fifty years after the city may well have been the biggest brewing center in the western hemisphere, pumping out over 200,000 barrels a year and 250 years or so after brewing started there. Taylor's place sat where Broadway met the Greenbush bridge on the waterfront. You can see that it stood five stories, where the cooperage was and that the malting floors were made of concrete. You can see that the hops were stored on the third floor.
Now click on the map above. Every insurance map book starts with an index map showing where all the other maps could be found. I have placed green around the location of the downtown breweries and their likely zones of stinkiness. Around these in red I have place their likely zones of lesser but still significant smelliness. I live in a relatively old place. Settled by the French in 1673 with British population starting in 1783 - when Loyalists from around Albany settled the place. The centers of these communities were smelly stinky places. Not like today. One of the main reeks in Albany in 1892, but by no means the only one, was the stink of the breweries. But it would have been normal.
Cities would have reeked of brewing. Imagine what happened when it was windy or when you walked across town.
Comments
Bailey - October 19, 2012 6:00 AM
That is an excellent source.
Craig - October 19, 2012 7:45 AM
You scooped me! *shaking fist*
Okay, not the stinky bit, but I did notice the brewing "zones". The western-most Hedrick and Kirchner breweries buck that idea a bit, but you can still that there were definite brewing hubs within the city. Hinkel and Dobler were, literally, across the street from each other. What amazes me, is the amount of breweries operating (eleven) in a city of 90,000 people.
Now I have to go think of something else to write about. Thanks Alan, thanks.
Alan - October 19, 2012 9:27 AM
Listen. I got a copy of "O Albany" yesterday which I expect to be full of capital district smelly data.
Craig - October 19, 2012 10:04 AM
Be careful with "O Albany." William Kennedy is known for being, shall I say, a little liberal with the facts. Keep in mind, it's the history of Albany from his perspective.
I have a book I need to send you called "Before Albany"
Alan - October 19, 2012 9:49 PM
OK, but this is a good passage from page 57:
"The ancient custom was to throw garbage in the street and let the pigs clean it up, eliminating the need for garbage collection, and developing fat and sassy porkers. The final crackdown came in 1854 when city officials rounded up fifteen thousand wandering pigs and the citizenry finally got the idea."
Steve Gates - October 24, 2012 2:33 PM
Alan, the insurance map is a fantastic reference source, I have recently discovered the original map for the James A Roy Brewery in our Belleville and the detail is surprisingly useful. I also found the original real estate description of Belleville's Severn Brewery which has proven to be another great reference source for specific construction and dimension details. I love this aspect of your blog, keep up the great work.
Alan - October 24, 2012 3:42 PM
Thanks, Steve! I was thinking of our own smelly piggy brewer of the 1840s or so when I read that line about culling the 15,000 hogs of Albany.
Next, I plan to compare some lay outs of breweries in the map. I will be interested if we can see any technological advances right there in the layout of each brewery floor.
Steve Gates - October 25, 2012 9:35 PM
I noticed that line as well, 15,000 pigs wandering about aimlessly! Our poor Mr. Burd was fined for having one escape it's pen and that was 30 years before the Albany cull! I think that is a direct result of the British influence on the developement of our Kingston and area. I am interested in your layouts, it will be interesting to compare them to layouts in our neck of the woods. I always find the brewer's selection of the location of his malthouse interesting, some are separate, some are centremost and others added on as an almost after thought. Often, the brewer purchased malted barley initially and as he progressed in his skills he ventured into the tricky vocationt of a maltster and was forced to retrofit his malthouse accordingly. I also like to see what he did with his icehouse after he retrofits a new refrigeration unit as was the case with several late 19th century brewers, oftentimes, this is the time he adds a bottling facility.Take care.
Alan - October 25, 2012 9:43 PM
Unfortunately, the Kingston maps have far less detail than the Albany ones as far as internal infrastructure goes. These are also, however, the things I need you to pick out as I am more focused on the trade and shipping end, the input and outputs. The actual brewer is a bit of a black box for me.
Steve Gates - October 25, 2012 10:21 PM
Our maps are alot prettier though, the colourful Roy map from Belleville I mentioned previously is almost a work of art, circa 1870.