100 years ago in The Record
Monday, July 2, 1917
The State Armory Commission has tentatively chosen a site in Beman Park as the new home of the Troybased Second New York National Guard Infantry regiment, The Record reports. The site directly opposite RPI at Fifteenth Street and Avenue B “is no doubt as good a one as there is in the city,” our reporter writes. Once the sale of land at the estimated price of $48,500 is finalized, construction will begin later this year to replace the First Street armory that was destroyed by fire last January. The armory won’t return to the old site because “it is not spacious enough to permit the erection of a building that would permit the holding of a battalion drill,” and acquiring additional land in that neighborhood would be too expensive. The regiment wants an armory site big enough for parade drills and machine gun practice. Its machine gun company had been based in Schenectady before the fire due to space limitations at the old armory. “The action of the committee now sets aside all suspicion that Troy was to lose the Second regiment headquarters and Schenectady to gain it,” our writer notes. The regiment is currently spread out through northeastern New York State, but mostly in Schenectady County, guarding strategic bridges, canals and railroads. A new armory “will considerably augment an imposing array of stuctures” in Beman Park, our reporter claims, while a closer relation between the regiment and RPI “may have a military effect on the famous engineering school.”
GUARDSMAN STABBED
John Joyce of the Second regiment supply company is hospitalized tonight with a stab wound near his heart after an incident in a Troy saloon. Joyce, a South Troy man who previous served in the regular army, is the company farrier, responsible for shoeing horses and hoof maintenance. He’s injured at William J. Butler’s saloon shortly after arriving there in the company of Agnes Maxwell of Cohoes. Butler tells investigators that both Joyce and Maxwell were already “under the influence of liquor” when they showed up, while he didn’t serve them any drinks. The 36 year old Maxwell is arrested on a first-degree assault charge, but claims that Joyce actually tried to kill himself. “She says they had a quarrel, but not of a serious nature, and that Joyce, without warning, after they entered the saloon, drew a blade without a handle and drove it into his breast,” The Record reports. Maxwell has a cut on her hand that resulted, she claims, from her effort to keep Joyce from hurting himself. Later, Joyce will corroborate her story.