H. S. Barney Building

Howland Swain Barney founded a dry goods store in 1858 that grew into one of Schenectady's most successful retail operations for decades. The H.S. Barney Building, a commercial property consisting of six interconnected sections, served as the store's home. Construction on the building ostensibly took fifty years, having been built or acquired and connected from 1873 to 1923. A commercial-style facade added in 1923 unified the complex and now exists as its most significant architectural feature. As a complex, it survives as a reminder of Schenectady's most prosperous era in the decades before and after the turn of the century. 

The development of the H.S. Barney Co. corresponds with Schenectady's emergence as an important regional industrial center. The city, which dates back to 1661, evolved into a bustling trading center, notably after the construction of the Erie Canal during the 1820s. During the mid and late nineteenth century, the commercial district developed in conjunction with the canal, especially on lower State Street, where H.S. Barney Building stands. Railways and electricity eventually followed, noted by two other significant businesses in the district, the American Locomotive Company and General Electric. 

In 1858, Howland S. Barney acquired a controlling interest in Barringer & Co., a dry goods store on lower State Street west of the Erie Canal. Barney had lived in Schenectady since moving to the city at the age of fourteen in 1836 and subsequently took a job as a clerk at a dry goods store. Four years later, in 1840, he took a position with the John Ohlen Company (mercantile establishment) and remained there for eighteen years until he acquired the Barringer & Co. store. By 1870, the success of Barney's business resulted in a need for a bigger store, which manifested in a three-story commercial structure completed in 1873. The new structure was located only one block east of his original location, but also one-half block west of the Erie Canal and railroad; the store stood at the center of Schenectady's commercial center during the last half of the nineteenth century. One year after the new store opened, H.S. Barney & Co. could boast of its position as the wealthiest and most extensive dry goods concern in the city. 

The Schenectady population increased tenfold after the end of the U.S. Civil War, which benefited H.S. Barney immensely. The continued expansion of the store reflects the population growth well into the first two decades of the twentieth century. Hence the reason the historic building exists as several components all tied together. The first major expansion took place after the turn of the century, mainly after Howland Barney had passed away in 1904. The company went on to built a five-story building on Liberty Street and also acquired the adjacent two-story building, which the company converted to suit its needs and connected it to the other buildings. As well, the company added a fourth story to the original 1873 Barney Block and followed that by adding a three-story connector to join the Liberty Street buildings with the Barney Block. Finally, in 1923, the company acquired two buildings adjacent to the Barney Block (on State Street) and converted them into retail space. Finally, the company added additional height to the stores on State Street, which resulted in uniform height for all five stories, and added a common facade to unite the entire complex. 

By 1923, the interior of the store matched the evolving consumerism trends of the era. H.S. Barney stores included large open spaces for displaying merchandise, which contrasts the layout of the crowded dry good stores common during the late nineteenth century. Barney also invested in the most advanced technology of the day to increase its efficiency. The Barney store also proved to be one of the city's first to include a bicycle shop, a sign of America's bicycle boom around the turn of the century. 

The decline of H.S. Barney arrived after World War II, notably during the 1950s and 1960s, which coincided with the demise of Schenectady's downtown business center. By 1973, fifty years after the building's completion, the company was liquidated and the building vacated. The decline of the store and the downtown area speak to the changing economics (and demographics) of the twentieth century. The Erie Canal and railways had long given way to automobiles and airplanes, and malls arose in suburban locations (matching population moves away from the city, too). And today, as is often the case during the late twentieth and early twenty-first century, the historic building has been transformed into a residential building. However, the Barney's name, though faded, can still be seen on the brick exterior serving as a reminder of a time when the city existed as a growing, trading town with roots back to the Erie Canal and beyond. 

Bryer, Lucy A. "Nomination Form: H.S. Barney Building." National Register of Historic Places. nps.gov. July 19, 1984. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75321661

Eignor, Ann. "Barney's Department Store." Grems-Doolittle Library Collection (blog). gremsdoolittlelibrary.blogspot.com. May 28, 2014. http://gremsdoolittlelibrary.blogspot.com/2014/05/barneys-department-store.html

Tobin, Gary Allan. "The Bicycle Boom of the 1890s: The Development of Private Transportation and the Birth of the Modern Tourist." Journal of Popular Culture. 7, 4 (Spring 1974): 838 - 849. https://assets.theatlantic.com/static/mt/assets/science/j.0022-3840.1974.0704_838.x.pdf