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134-589: The Rapp Road Community Historic District is located in the Pine Bush area of Albany , New York . It is a 14-acre (5.7 ha) residential neighborhood. In 2002 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places . It was established in the 1920s by Rev. Louis W. Parson, an African American minister, and his wife, who had moved north from Mississippi in the Great Migration out of

268-634: A deflationary spiral started in 1931. Farmers faced a worse outlook; declining crop prices and a Great Plains drought crippled their economic outlook. At its peak, the Great Depression saw nearly 10% of all Great Plains farms change hands despite federal assistance. At first, the decline in the U.S. economy was the factor that triggered economic downturns in most other countries due to a decline in trade, capital movement, and global business confidence. Then, internal weaknesses or strengths in each country made conditions worse or better. For example,

402-418: A silver standard , almost avoided the depression entirely. The connection between leaving the gold standard as a strong predictor of that country's severity of its depression and the length of time of its recovery has been shown to be consistent for dozens of countries, including developing countries . This partly explains why the experience and length of the depression differed between regions and states around

536-603: A " family reunion ", and every other year holds an additional celebration in Shubuta for those relatives who still live there. As of 2008, 15 of the original 23 families remain. In 2002 the community was designated by the state of New York as a "New York State Historic District" and in 2003 as a National Historic District. In 2006 the state Department of Education chartered the Rapp Road Historical Association, which has formed to preserve and interpret

670-604: A former privately run bank, bearing no relation to the U.S. government (not to be confused with the Federal Reserve ). Unable to pay out to all of its creditors, the bank failed. Among the 608 American banks that closed in November and December 1930, the Bank of United States accounted for a third of the total $ 550 million deposits lost and, with its closure, bank failures reached a critical mass. In an initial response to

804-467: A greater reduction in credit. On 5 April 1933, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 6102 making the private ownership of gold certificates , coins and bullion illegal, reducing the pressure on Federal Reserve gold. British economist John Maynard Keynes argued in The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money that lower aggregate expenditures in the economy contributed to

938-716: A mix of cottages and traditional shotgun houses . The land upon which the Rapp Road Community eventually formed is within the Albany Pine Bush , one of the largest of the world's 20 inland pine barrens . When Europeans arrived in the early 17th century, the Pine Bush was in use as hunting grounds and woodlots of the Mohawk nation of the Haudenosaunee to the west along the Mohawk River, and

1072-600: A modern industrial city handled shortages of money and resources. Often they updated strategies their mothers used when they were growing up in poor families. Cheap foods were used, such as soups, beans and noodles. They purchased the cheapest cuts of meat—sometimes even horse meat—and recycled the Sunday roast into sandwiches and soups. They sewed and patched clothing, traded with their neighbors for outgrown items, and made do with colder homes. New furniture and appliances were postponed until better days. Many women also worked outside

1206-402: A monetary contraction first-hand were forced to join the deflationary policy since higher interest rates in countries that performed a deflationary policy led to a gold outflow in countries with lower interest rates. Under the gold standard's price–specie flow mechanism , countries that lost gold but nevertheless wanted to maintain the gold standard had to permit their money supply to decrease and

1340-694: A park system to connect the Rensselaer Lake waterworks property to the old city border. As part of the Great Migration of African Americans out of the rural South to industrial cities in the early 20th century, the Reverend Louis W. Parson and his wife migrated in 1927 from Mississippi to Albany, where he founded the First Church of God in Christ. In four trips to Mississippi, Parson encouraged friends and family to move to Albany and join

1474-462: A patent in 1661 under the name of Schenectady to a settlement on a bend in the Mohawk River to the west of the Pine Bush and about 20 miles from Fort Orange. To the settlers at Fort Orange, the settlement on the Mohawk River started by Arent van Curler was "beyond the pine plains", and therefore the name Schenectady (in various spellings) became associated with the village at that site. In 1664,

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1608-635: A position in the nation. While Mayor Corning supported the largest purchases of Pine Bush land as a city preserve, he also approved placing the Albany landfill in the Pine Bush, the construction of the Washington Avenue Extension, and authorizing much of the development that occurred during his 42 years in office as mayor. These all had adverse environmental effects on the Bush. In 1967, a portion of Albany's waterworks/Pine Bush property in

1742-567: A serious issue in the 1930s. Support for increasing welfare programs during the depression included a focus on women in the family. The Conseil Supérieur de la Natalité campaigned for provisions enacted in the Code de la Famille (1939) that increased state assistance to families with children and required employers to protect the jobs of fathers, even if they were immigrants. In rural and small-town areas, women expanded their operation of vegetable gardens to include as much food production as possible. In

1876-513: A shrub layer dominated by witch-hazel ( Hamamelis virginiana ), and a herbaceous layer composed of a variety of herbs, mosses , and lichens . The Appalachian oak-pine forest has a tree canopy of one or more oak species, primarily black oak, white oak, and red oak ( Quercus velutina , Quercus alba , and Quercus rubra ); these are mixed with pitch pine and some white pine, and a shrub layer dominated by heath shrubs, typically blueberries and black huckleberry. Marshes and wetlands occur along

2010-480: A small cadre of Labour, but the vast majority of Labour leaders denounced MacDonald as a traitor for leading the new government. Britain went off the gold standard , and suffered relatively less than other major countries in the Great Depression. In the 1931 British election, the Labour Party was virtually destroyed, leaving MacDonald as prime minister for a largely Conservative coalition. In most countries of

2144-512: A small shotgun house but not the larger house that they had started. At the neighborhood's peak, 23 families lived on Rapp Road. The community remained intact until 1971, when the state planned the Washington Avenue Extension to improve connections between Albany and its growing western suburbs. It conducted eminent domain proceedings to acquire the northern parcel. Most of the homeowners moved away. One who lived at what

2278-713: A standstill agreement froze Germany's foreign liabilities for six months. Germany received emergency funding from private banks in New York as well as the Bank of International Settlements and the Bank of England. The funding only slowed the process. Industrial failures began in Germany, a major bank closed in July and a two-day holiday for all German banks was declared. Business failures were more frequent in July, and spread to Romania and Hungary. The crisis continued to get worse in Germany, bringing political upheaval that finally led to

2412-658: Is a consensus that the Federal Reserve System should have cut short the process of monetary deflation and banking collapse, by expanding the money supply and acting as lender of last resort . If they had done this, the economic downturn would have been far less severe and much shorter. Modern mainstream economists see the reasons in Insufficient spending, the money supply reduction, and debt on margin led to falling prices and further bankruptcies ( Irving Fisher 's debt deflation). The monetarist explanation

2546-465: Is now known as the "Great Land Swindle" and sold to buyers outside the region. When they came to inspect their land, they thought the barrens were useless for agriculture; they tried to recoup their money by selling the land to other unsuspecting outsiders. As in the colonial period, the Pine Bush continued to be tapped for its natural resources, with water becoming a target for development. The Patroon Creek , roughly where three feeder streams joined in

2680-781: Is now under protection, it can be restored to the status of pine barrens, especially with the use of controlled burning. The remaining pine barrens are dominated by pitch pine ( Pinus rigida ), a tall shrub layer consisting of bear oak and dwarf chestnut oak ( Quercus ilicifolia and Quercus prinoides ), and a low shrub layer composed of lowbush blueberries ( Vaccinium angustifolium and Vaccinium pallidum ), black huckleberry ( Gaylussacia baccata ), and sweet fern ( Comptonia peregrina ). Between areas of pitch pine-scrub oak barrens are small patches of grassland dominated by prairie grasses, including big bluestem ( Andropogon gerardi ), little bluestem ( Schizachyrium scoparium ), Indiangrass ( Sorghastrum nutans ), as well as small trees like

2814-1170: Is part of the Woodlawn Pine Barrens–Wetlands Complex which borders the Woodlawn Preserve. The county deeded this property to the town. This action complemented larger plans to connect the complex to the larger Pine Bush Preserve in Albany County The Albany Pine Bush Discovery Center is a nature center in Albany, New York with exhibits and activities about the Albany Pine Bush Preserve's natural history, geologic and cultural significance. The center offers public programs such as teaching programs for school groups, guided hikes, lectures and after school programs, all of which are led by Pine Bush staff. Additionally, Pine Bush Discovery Center staff lead events like invasive species removal programs to allow community members to participating in maintaining

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2948-493: Is supported by the contrast in how the crisis progressed in, e.g., Britain, Argentina and Brazil, all of which devalued their currencies early and returned to normal patterns of growth relatively rapidly and countries which stuck to the gold standard , such as France or Belgium. Frantic attempts by individual countries to shore up their economies through protectionist policies – such as the 1930 U.S. Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act and retaliatory tariffs in other countries – exacerbated

3082-523: Is today designated as the Rapp Road Community Historic District , listed on both the state and the National Register of Historic Places . In 1912, the city of Albany commissioned a study by notable architect Arnold W. Brunner and landscape architect Charles Downing Lay for beautification of the city; it was published as Studies for Albany . Brunner and Lay proposed using the Rensselaer Lake waterworks property as

3216-417: Is today the middle of the extension, chose instead to have her house moved. Today it is located at the north end of the street, 8 Rapp Road, 300 feet (90 m) south of its original location. The community has survived despite the disruption and the large-scale development of the surrounding area. Many descendants of the original homeowners have returned to raise their families here. Every year the community holds

3350-539: The 1932 election , Hoover was defeated by Franklin D. Roosevelt , who from 1933 pursued a series of " New Deal " policies and programs to provide relief and create jobs, including the Civilian Conservation Corps , Federal Emergency Relief Administration , Tennessee Valley Authority , and Works Progress Administration . Historians disagree on the effects of the New Deal, with some claiming that

3484-674: The French and Indian Wars , the British military improved the road significantly for use by its forces. After the war it was used by numerous settlers moving west into the Mohawk Valley. During the late-18th century, taverns and the occasional homesteader began to dot the Pine Bush along the King's Highway, while development began to encroach on the Pine Bush at the Albany and Schenectady edges as those settlements began to grow. The highway and

3618-768: The Hudson River . The deposits of sand in the delta area were gradually sculpted by wind into sand dunes . Plants later colonized the land and stabilized the dunes. The Pine Bush originally occupied 40 square miles (100 km ), or 60,000 acres, at which point it was the largest inland pine barrens in North America.  Less than half of the protected areas of the Albany Pine Bush (42%, or 952 acres (385 ha)) are currently pitch pine-scrub oak barrens, with an additional 680 acres (280 ha) of disturbed areas with invasive plant growth. As this area

3752-555: The Mahican to the east, along the Hudson River. The Reverend Louis W. Parson and his wife migrated to Albany from Shubuta, Mississippi in 1927. He founded the First Church of God in Christ in Albany. In four trips to Mississippi, Parson encouraged friends and family to move to Albany and join his church. Many friends and family did during the 1930s and 1940s. Some were sharecroppers who owed money to their landlords. Eventually

3886-582: The New York Bank of United States – which produced panic and widespread runs on local banks, and the Federal Reserve sat idly by while banks collapsed. Friedman and Schwartz argued that, if the Fed had provided emergency lending to these key banks, or simply bought government bonds on the open market to provide liquidity and increase the quantity of money after the key banks fell, all the rest of

4020-540: The New York State Thruway , to the north and east. The land is generally level. The district is formed by the 27 lots that remain of the two original purchases that created the neighborhood, on both sides of the road. There are 21 buildings on those lots, all but two of which are contributing properties . One property has two stone piers marking its driveway, both of which are considered contributing objects. The buildings are all wood frame residences,

4154-539: The coming to power of Hitler's Nazi regime in January 1933. The world financial crisis now began to overwhelm Britain; investors around the world started withdrawing their gold from London at the rate of £2.5 million per day. Credits of £25 million each from the Bank of France and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and an issue of £15 million fiduciary note slowed, but did not reverse,

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4288-406: The spotted turtle ( Clemmys guttata ) and wood turtle ( Clemmys insculpta ), are also special concern animals. It is listed as a state-level Important Bird Area . About 45 species of birds breed in the Albany Pine Bush (according to the 1985 New York State Breeding Bird Atlas ) and are fairly common species for the area. About 32 species of common small mammals have been found in and adjacent to

4422-416: The wild blue lupine , which needs frequent forest fires to maintain its habitat. Other regionally rare butterflies include the dusted skipper ( Atrytonopsis hianna ), Henry's elfin ( Incisalia henrici ), frosted elfin ( Incisalia irus ), and Edward's hairstreak ( Satyrium edwardsii ). The inland barrens buck moth ( Hemileuca maia ) is a state-listed special concern animal; and other rare moths include

4556-447: The 1937 recession that interrupted it). The common view among most economists is that Roosevelt's New Deal policies either caused or accelerated the recovery, although his policies were never aggressive enough to bring the economy completely out of recession. Some economists have also called attention to the positive effects from expectations of reflation and rising nominal interest rates that Roosevelt's words and actions portended. It

4690-503: The 2010 expansion. In 1969, when Albany opened its landfill, the city of Schenectady set aside its only patch of Pine Bush as the Woodlawn Preserve , designating the 135-acre (55 ha) as a forever wild preserve. Since then, numerous developers have approached the city with proposals for development. In 2009 Schenectady County acted to protect as parkland 24 acres (9.7 ha) in the neighboring town of Niskayuna ; this

4824-476: The 44 species of amphibians and reptiles that are indigenous to Albany County. Seven of these species are generally not seen so far north in the state of New York. Three species of salamander , the Jefferson salamander ( Ambystoma jeffersonium ), blue-spotted salamander ( Ambystoma laterale ), and spotted salamander ( Ambystoma maculatum ), are state-listed special concern animals. Two species of turtle,

4958-436: The Albany Pine Bush Preserve. The southern hardwood forests are dominated by black locust ( Robinia pseudoacacia ), which is exotic, and black cherry ( Prunus serotina ); with lesser numbers of native oaks ( Quercus ) and maples ( Acer ), and the exotic, invasive tree of heaven ( Ailanthus altissima ). The shrub layer is dominated by black raspberry ( Rubus occidentalis ) and other brambles ( Rubus sp.). In contrast

5092-588: The Albany Pine Bush is a bedrock consisting of shale and siltstone , laid down 450 million years ago during the Middle Ordovician . The bedrock is covered by glaciolacustrine deposits which make up the sandy topsoils of the barrens. As the glaciers of the Wisconsin glaciation began to recede from the Hudson Valley area, a glacial lake known today as Lake Albany extended across

5226-758: The British crisis. The financial crisis now caused a major political crisis in Britain in August 1931. With deficits mounting, the bankers demanded a balanced budget; the divided cabinet of Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald's Labour government agreed; it proposed to raise taxes, cut spending, and most controversially, to cut unemployment benefits 20%. The attack on welfare was unacceptable to the Labour movement. MacDonald wanted to resign, but King George V insisted he remain and form an all-party coalition " National Government ". The Conservative and Liberals parties signed on, along with

5360-530: The Depression. Businessmen ignored the mounting national debt and heavy new taxes, redoubling their efforts for greater output to take advantage of generous government contracts. During World War I many countries suspended their gold standard in varying ways. There was high inflation from WWI, and in the 1920s in the Weimar Republic , Austria , and throughout Europe. In the late 1920s there

5494-521: The Dow returning to 294 (pre-depression levels) in April 1930, before steadily declining for years, to a low of 41 in 1932. At the beginning, governments and businesses spent more in the first half of 1930 than in the corresponding period of the previous year. On the other hand, consumers, many of whom suffered severe losses in the stock market the previous year, cut expenditures by 10%. In addition, beginning in

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5628-738: The Dutch surrendered their entire colony of New Netherland , including Albany and Schenectady, to the English. What became known as the King's Highway were a series of footpaths which the Mohawk had long used to get from west in the valley through the Pine Bush to trade with other tribes at the confluence of the Hudson and Mohawk rivers. This area was later the site of the Dutch Fort Orange. After

5762-489: The Federal Reserve did not act to limit the decline of the money supply was the gold standard . At that time, the amount of credit the Federal Reserve could issue was limited by the Federal Reserve Act , which required 40% gold backing of Federal Reserve Notes issued. By the late 1920s, the Federal Reserve had almost hit the limit of allowable credit that could be backed by the gold in its possession. This credit

5896-442: The Great Depression is right, or the traditional Keynesian explanation that a fall in autonomous spending, particularly investment, is the primary explanation for the onset of the Great Depression. Today there is also significant academic support for the debt deflation theory and the expectations hypothesis that – building on the monetary explanation of Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz – add non-monetary explanations. There

6030-642: The Great Depression. According to the U.S. Senate website, the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act is among the most catastrophic acts in congressional history. Many economists have argued that the sharp decline in international trade after 1930 helped to worsen the depression, especially for countries significantly dependent on foreign trade. Most historians and economists blame the Act for worsening the depression by seriously reducing international trade and causing retaliatory tariffs in other countries. While foreign trade

6164-481: The New Deal prolonged the Great Depression, as they argue that National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933 and National Labor Relations Act of 1935 restricted competition and established price fixing. John Maynard Keynes did not think that the New Deal under Roosevelt single-handedly ended the Great Depression: "It is, it seems, politically impossible for a capitalistic democracy to organize expenditure on

6298-429: The Pine Bush in 1978. The organization filed lawsuits for the next several decades to stop further developments in the barrens. The activist group opposed construction of Crossgates Mall in the town of Guilderland. First proposed in 1978, it was finished in 1984, then expanded to doubled to 1.5 million square feet in 1994, becoming the third-largest mall in New York. Widespread regional opposition rose against plans in

6432-458: The Pine Bush area. When Europeans arrived in the early 17th century, two groups lived in the immediate area: the Mohawk nation of the Haudenosaunee to the west along the Mohawk River, and the Mohican to the east, along the Hudson River. The Dutch traded with both native groups from their outpost at Fort Orange (present-day Albany), which was established in 1624. For the natives the Pine Bush

6566-664: The Pine Bush has come to be seen as a historical, cultural, and environmental asset to the Capital District and Hudson Valley regions of New York. It is home to the Karner blue butterfly, an endangered species first identified by author Vladimir Nabokov in 1944 using a type specimen from the Pine Bush. In 2014, Albany Pine Bush was designated as a National Natural Landmark by the National Park Service. Around 10,000 years ago Native Americans moved into

6700-421: The Pine Bush to settlement, farming, and land speculation . One of the earliest residents was Theophillus Roessle, who owned a large farm and manor in what is now the hamlet of Roessleville , just outside Albany in the town of Colonie. He claimed that the sandy soil of the Pine Bush was "the best land for fruits in the world." Further west, part of the Pine Bush was carved up in 1858 into 860 plots as part of what

6834-554: The Pine Bush was a frontier wilderness and extremely dangerous even after the end of the war. Starting in 1765, militiamen took turns escorting travelers through the area to protect them from outlaws, bandits, smugglers, and other dangers. During the American Revolutionary War , the Bush was home to Loyalists of the British Crown. Among the taverns established in the 1760s catering to Pine Bush travelers

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6968-649: The Pine Bush with better roads and soon thereafter railroads . Beginning in 1799 the Great Western Turnpike (today's US Route 20 ) and the Albany-Schenectady Turnpike ( New York Route 5 ) were built through the Pine Bush. The Western Turnpike connected Albany west across the state to the American Midwest , while the Albany-Schenectady Turnpike replaced the King's Highway to Schenectady. The Mohawk and Hudson Railroad

7102-468: The Pine Bush, disrupting habitat and ecology. Further development took place in the 1950s and 60s with the construction of the W. Averell Harriman State Office Building Campus and the SUNY Albany uptown campus . In the 21st century, the remaining Pine Bush represents only about 10% of the undeveloped land that existed prior to 1950. In the 1960s, longtime Mayor Erastus Corning 2nd pushed forward

7236-489: The Pine Bush, the Albany landfill has been expanded several times, the latest by 15 acres (6.1 ha) in 2010. As of 2010 , the landfill is expected to have seven years of operating life remaining. Fees paid by other jurisdictions and businesses enable the landfill to generate $ 4–5 million annually to the Albany budget; city residents are provided with free trash collection. The city committed to spending $ 18 million to restore Pine Bush habitat in exchange for gaining approval of

7370-481: The Pine Bush. Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty; drastic reductions in liquidity , industrial production, and trade; and widespread bank and business failures around the world. The economic contagion began in 1929 in the United States , the largest economy in

7504-554: The Pine Bush. The Pine Bush Discovery Center also encourages citizen science by running programs such as ant collection, where participants can collect and identify ants, providing data for Pine Bush staff to monitor their conservation efforts. It occupies a former SEFCU credit union bank branch on New Karner Road. The Pine Bush is within the Hudson Valley section of the Appalachian Valley and Ridge Province in

7638-569: The South Frontage Road of Washington Avenue Extension . It is just north of the boundary between the city and the Town of Guilderland . To the southeast is Crossgates Mall . Wooded lands on the east and west serve as a buffer between the historic district and the mall and various other commercial and office developments in those directions. It is isolated from any other residential neighborhoods by Interstates 87 and 90 , both part of

7772-465: The Truax Tavern along the King's Highway. Rittner disproved the prevailing historical beliefs concerning the sophistication and structure of the tavern. He discovered several skeletons under the tavern's floor, which may confirm rumors of murders having taken place at the tavern. As a result of this project, Rittner was appointed as Albany's first municipal archaeologist, possibly the first of such

7906-544: The U.K. economy, which experienced an economic downturn throughout most of the late 1920s, was less severely impacted by the shock of the depression than the U.S. By contrast, the German economy saw a similar decline in industrial output as that observed in the U.S. Some economic historians attribute the differences in the rates of recovery and relative severity of the economic decline to whether particular countries had been able to effectively devaluate their currencies or not. This

8040-490: The U.S. unemployment rate down below 10%. World War II had a dramatic effect on many parts of the American economy. Government-financed capital spending accounted for only 5% of the annual U.S. investment in industrial capital in 1940; by 1943, the government accounted for 67% of U.S. capital investment. The massive war spending doubled economic growth rates, either masking the effects of the Depression or essentially ending

8174-685: The United States, agricultural organizations sponsored programs to teach housewives how to optimize their gardens and to raise poultry for meat and eggs. Rural women made feed sack dresses and other items for themselves and their families and homes from feed sacks. In American cities, African American women quiltmakers enlarged their activities, promoted collaboration, and trained neophytes. Quilts were created for practical use from various inexpensive materials and increased social interaction for women and promoted camaraderie and personal fulfillment. Oral history provides evidence for how housewives in

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8308-543: The United States, remained on the gold standard into 1932 or 1933, while a few countries in the so-called "gold bloc", led by France and including Poland, Belgium and Switzerland, stayed on the standard until 1935–36. According to later analysis, the earliness with which a country left the gold standard reliably predicted its economic recovery. For example, The UK and Scandinavia, which left the gold standard in 1931, recovered much earlier than France and Belgium, which remained on gold much longer. Countries such as China, which had

8442-638: The Wall Street crash, after which the slide continued for three years, which was accompanied by a loss of confidence in the financial system. By 1933, the U.S. unemployment rate had risen to 25 percent, about one-third of farmers had lost their land, and about half of the country's 25,000 banks had gone out of business. Many people, unable to pay mortgages or rent, became homeless and relied on begging or charities to feed themselves. The U.S. federal government initially did little to help. President Herbert Hoover , like many of his fellow Republicans , believed in

8576-412: The Washington Avenue Extension, a four-lane divided highway extending Washington Avenue westward from Fuller Road through the Pine Bush to New Karner Road ( NY Route 155 ). This opened the heart of the Pine Bush and the western section of the city to development and has been described as "a knife through the heart of the Pine Bush". Soon afterward, Neil Hellman, a race horse magnate and major developer in

8710-572: The West Coast, where the defense industry had many jobs. Despite pressure from the city government against recruiting unemployed people due to the Depression , Parson continued to encourage people from Shubata to come to Albany throughout the 1930s. But many of the migrants did not like life in the South End . Their religious values were affronted by the bars, brothels and gambling houses in

8844-435: The area is the Karner blue ( Plebejus melissa samuelis ), discovered in the 1940s and named by the author and lepidopterist Vladimir Nabokov . The butterfly is now on the Endangered Species List . Once found in large numbers throughout the grassy openings of the pine barrens, it is today extremely rare and found in a handful of sites. Attempts to reintroduce the butterfly focus on the food and host plant for its larvae –

8978-405: The banks would not have fallen after the large ones did, and the money supply would not have fallen as far and as fast as it did. With significantly less money to go around, businesses could not get new loans and could not even get their old loans renewed, forcing many to stop investing. This interpretation blames the Federal Reserve for inaction, especially the New York branch . One reason why

9112-465: The behavior of housewives. The common view among economic historians is that the Great Depression ended with the advent of World War II . Many economists believe that government spending on the war caused or at least accelerated recovery from the Great Depression, though some consider that it did not play a very large role in the recovery, though it did help in reducing unemployment. The rearmament policies leading up to World War II helped stimulate

9246-419: The bottom of a ravine in the Pine Bush and is the only place in the New York Bight watershed where this plant appears. Bayard's malaxis ( Malaxis bayardii ) is a rare orchid that occurs in the Pine Bush as well. The Albany Pine Bush is home to hundreds of species of Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths), including over 40 Noctuidae considered to be pine barrens specialists. The most well-known species in

9380-418: The broad-lined catopyrrha ( Catopyrrha coloraria ), several noctuid moths ( Apharetra purpurea , Chaetaglaea cerata , Chytonix sensilis , Macrochilo bivittata , and Zanclognatha martha ), bird dropping moth ( Cerma cora ), and a geometrid moth ( Itame ). The Albarufan dagger moth was last seen in the Pine Bush in 1983 and is presumed locally extinct. The Pine Bush is also home to 30 of

9514-426: The church, which many did during the 1930s and 1940s. The reverend felt that the mores of Albany's South End , where they originally settled, was not conducive to religious life. He started a community in the Pine Bush along Rapp Road, purchasing two 14-acre (5.7 ha) undeveloped properties in 1930 and 1933. It is a rare example of a chain migration community surviving from the Great Migration. This narrow entity

9648-425: The city, proposed a huge "city within a city" on 390 acres (160 ha) that would have apartments, stores, an office park, one or two schools, and fire and police stations. Mayor Corning estimated between 10,000 and 15,000 persons would live there. Environmentalists and neighborhood groups fought and ultimately defeated this proposal. Mayor Corning gave archaeologist Don Rittner a $ 500 donation in 1972 to excavate

9782-462: The collapse in global trade, contributing to the depression. By 1933, the economic decline pushed world trade to one third of its level compared to four years earlier. While the precise causes for the occurrence of the Great depression are disputed and can be traced to both global and national phenomena, its immediate origins are most conveniently examined in the context of the U.S. economy, from which

9916-412: The core of a new 1,000-acre (400 ha) natural park, preferably leaving much of the grounds in their natural state; "[i]n fact the less done to it the better." The city never acquired more land for a park here, and portions of the original waterworks property were sold off piecemeal and developed over the following century. In the 1950s, the New York State Thruway ( Interstate 90 ) was built through

10050-635: The cost of their passage some were sent to work camps in the Pine Bush to harvest pines for pitch and rosin for the construction of English naval vessels. Some of these immigrants named the Helderberg Escarpment and settled Schoharie County . Others, largely from work camps in Dutchess County along the Hudson River , settled further west in the valley in 1723, past Little Falls on the Burnetsfield Patent. During

10184-475: The crash was a mere symptom of more general economic trends of the time, which had already been underway in the late 1920s. A contrasting set of views, which rose to prominence in the later part of the 20th century, ascribes a more prominent role to failures of monetary policy . According to those authors, while general economic trends can explain the emergence of the downturn, they fail to account for its severity and longevity; they argue that these were caused by

10318-625: The crisis, the U.S. Congress passed the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act on 17 June 1930. The Act was ostensibly aimed at protecting the American economy from foreign competition by imposing high tariffs on foreign imports. The consensus view among economists and economic historians (including Keynesians , Monetarists and Austrian economists ) is that the passage of the Smoot–Hawley Tariff had, in fact, achieved an opposite effect to what

10452-633: The decade. The Depression had devastating economic effects on both wealthy and poor countries: all experienced drops in personal income , prices ( deflation ), tax revenues, and profits. International trade fell by more than 50%, and unemployment in some countries rose as high as 33%. Cities around the world , especially those dependent on heavy industry , were heavily affected. Construction virtually halted in many countries, and farming communities and rural areas suffered as crop prices fell by up to 60%. Faced with plummeting demand and few job alternatives, areas dependent on primary sector industries suffered

10586-408: The depression. Not all governments enforced the same measures of protectionism. Some countries raised tariffs drastically and enforced severe restrictions on foreign exchange transactions, while other countries reduced "trade and exchange restrictions only marginally": The gold standard was the primary transmission mechanism of the Great Depression. Even countries that did not face bank failures and

10720-435: The domestic price level to decline ( deflation ). There is also consensus that protectionist policies, and primarily the passage of the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act , helped to exacerbate, or even cause the Great Depression. Some economic studies have indicated that the rigidities of the gold standard not only spread the downturn worldwide, but also suspended gold convertibility (devaluing the currency in gold terms) that did

10854-402: The drop in demand. Monetarists believe that the Great Depression started as an ordinary recession, but the shrinking of the money supply greatly exacerbated the economic situation, causing a recession to descend into the Great Depression. Economists and economic historians are almost evenly split as to whether the traditional monetary explanation that monetary forces were the primary cause of

10988-427: The economies of Europe in 1937–1939. By 1937, unemployment in Britain had fallen to 1.5 million. The mobilization of manpower following the outbreak of war in 1939 ended unemployment. The American mobilization for World War II at the end of 1941 moved approximately ten million people out of the civilian labor force and into the war. This finally eliminated the last effects from the Great Depression and brought

11122-576: The end of the month. A large sell-off of stocks began in mid-October. Finally, on 24 October, Black Thursday , the American stock market crashed 11% at the opening bell. Actions to stabilize the market failed, and on 28 October, Black Monday, the market crashed another 12%. The panic peaked the next day on Black Tuesday, when the market saw another 11% drop. Thousands of investors were ruined, and billions of dollars had been lost; many stocks could not be sold at any price. The market recovered 12% on Wednesday but by then significant damage had been done. Though

11256-500: The explanations of the Keynesians and monetarists. The consensus among demand-driven theories is that a large-scale loss of confidence led to a sudden reduction in consumption and investment spending. Once panic and deflation set in, many people believed they could avoid further losses by keeping clear of the markets. Holding money became profitable as prices dropped lower and a given amount of money bought ever more goods, exacerbating

11390-503: The few women in the labor force, layoffs were less common in the white-collar jobs and they were typically found in light manufacturing work. However, there was a widespread demand to limit families to one paid job, so that wives might lose employment if their husband was employed. Across Britain, there was a tendency for married women to join the labor force, competing for part-time jobs especially. In France, very slow population growth, especially in comparison to Germany continued to be

11524-505: The first week of June, 540 million in the second, and 150 million in two days, 19–20 June. Collapse was at hand. U.S. President Herbert Hoover called for a moratorium on payment of war reparations . This angered Paris, which depended on a steady flow of German payments, but it slowed the crisis down, and the moratorium was agreed to in July 1931. An International conference in London later in July produced no agreements but on 19 August

11658-401: The founding of Schenectady, the name was used for what became a major route between the two settlements but, until the mid-18th century, it was not improved beyond a footpath. During the war from 1699 to 1707, Albany residents collected firewood from the Pine Bush for the large army that was camped at Fort Frederick . In 1710, Germans immigrated from Palatine to the Albany area. To pay off

11792-606: The government tried to reshape private household consumption under the Four-Year Plan of 1936 to achieve German economic self-sufficiency. The Nazi women's organizations, other propaganda agencies and the authorities all attempted to shape such consumption as economic self-sufficiency was needed to prepare for and to sustain the coming war. The organizations, propaganda agencies and authorities employed slogans that called up traditional values of thrift and healthy living. However, these efforts were only partly successful in changing

11926-772: The grounds that the bill was creating another state agency (like the Adirondack Park Agency ) that would wrest control from local communities over their development. The legislature established the Albany Pine Bush Preserve Commission in 1988. Its members consist of representatives of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation , the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation , The Nature Conservancy ,

12060-453: The heart of the Pine Bush along Albany's northern border, was dammed in 1850 to form Rensselaer Lake waterworks . In 1871, the northwestern portion of Albany west of Magazine Street, consisting of mostly undeveloped Pine Bush, was annexed to the neighboring Town of Guilderland after the Town of Watervliet refused it. Portions of this territory were ceded to Albany in 1910 established its current border. A telling perspective of how it

12194-425: The history of the area. Albany Pine Bush The Albany Pine Bush is the sole remaining undeveloped portion of a pine barrens that once covered over 40 square miles (100 km ),  and is "one of the best and last remaining examples of an inland pine barrens ecosystem on Earth." By 2008 it included all parcels of the Albany Pine Bush Preserve (a state nature preserve spanning 3,200 acres (1,300 ha)),

12328-519: The home, or took boarders, did laundry for trade or cash, and did sewing for neighbors in exchange for something they could offer. Extended families used mutual aid—extra food, spare rooms, repair-work, cash loans—to help cousins and in-laws. In Japan, official government policy was deflationary and the opposite of Keynesian spending. Consequently, the government launched a campaign across the country to induce households to reduce their consumption, focusing attention on spending by housewives. In Germany,

12462-527: The initial crisis spread to the rest of the world. In the aftermath of World War I , the Roaring Twenties brought considerable wealth to the United States and Western Europe. Initially, the year 1929 dawned with good economic prospects: despite a minor crash on 25 March 1929, the market seemed to gradually improve through September. Stock prices began to slump in September, and were volatile at

12596-563: The lack of an adequate response to the crises of liquidity that followed the initial economic shock of 1929 and the subsequent bank failures accompanied by a general collapse of the financial markets. After the Wall Street Crash of 1929 , when the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped from 381 to 198 over the course of two months, optimism persisted for some time. The stock market rose in early 1930, with

12730-464: The late 1990s to more than double the mall againwith more than 2 million additional square feet of retail space, plus a 12-story hotel, and activities such as bowling, ice skating, miniature golf and soccer; the project was finally dropped in 1999. In 1985, a bill to establish a state-controlled preserve to protect Pine Bush lands never made it out of committee. The bill was proposed the following year by Assemblyman Robert Connor ( D )- New City . Among

12864-427: The local politicians who opposed the bill was Albany Mayor Thomas Whalen III , who sparred with Assemblyman Connors in a series of letters. Connors stated, "if the mayor allows the final destruction of the Pine Bush, the city of Albany will be an ancient archaeological ruin before the pine barren is replaced." Assemblyman Arnold Proskin ( R )-Colonie, whose district included portions of the proposed preserve, opposed on

12998-514: The majority of African Americans from Shubuta moved to Albany. They were among the nearly 1.5 million African Americans who left the South during what has been called the first wave of the Great Migration , going to northern and midwestern industrial cities for more opportunities and to escape violence against them. From 1940 to 1970, another 5 million African Americans migrated from the South, many to

13132-521: The market entered a period of recovery from 14 November until 17 April 1930, the general situation had been a prolonged slump. From 17 April 1930 until 8 July 1932, the market continued to lose 89% of its value. Despite the crash, the worst of the crisis did not reverberate around the world until after 1929. The crisis hit panic levels again in December 1930, with a bank run on the Bank of United States ,

13266-480: The mid and upper Hudson Valley and a large delta formed west of Albany where the predecessor of the Mohawk River flowed into the lake. Along the shoreline of the lake, lacustrine sands were deposited between the present-day cities of Hudson and Glens Falls ; this became the Hudson Valley sandplain. Relieved from the weight of the glacier, the land began to rebound , and the lake receded by draining into

13400-414: The mid-1930s, a severe drought ravaged the agricultural heartland of the U.S. Interest rates dropped to low levels by mid-1930, but expected deflation and the continuing reluctance of people to borrow meant that consumer spending and investment remained low. By May 1930, automobile sales declined to below the levels of 1928. Prices, in general, began to decline, although wages held steady in 1930. Then

13534-423: The monetary base and by not injecting liquidity into the banking system to prevent it from crumbling, the Federal Reserve passively watched the transformation of a normal recession into the Great Depression. Friedman and Schwartz argued that the downward turn in the economy, starting with the stock market crash, would merely have been an ordinary recession if the Federal Reserve had taken aggressive action. This view

13668-502: The most to make recovery possible. Every major currency left the gold standard during the Great Depression. The UK was the first to do so. Facing speculative attacks on the pound and depleting gold reserves , in September 1931 the Bank of England ceased exchanging pound notes for gold and the pound was floated on foreign exchange markets. Japan and the Scandinavian countries followed in 1931. Other countries, such as Italy and

13802-427: The most. The outbreak of World War II in 1939 ended the Depression, as it stimulated factory production, providing jobs for women as militaries absorbed large numbers of young, unemployed men. The precise causes for the Great Depression are disputed. One set of historians, for example, focuses on non-monetary economic causes. Among these, some regard the Wall Street crash itself as the main cause; others consider that

13936-582: The need to balance the national budget and was unwilling to implement expensive welfare spending . In 1930, Hoover signed the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act , which taxed imports with the intention of encouraging buyers to purchase American products, which worsened the Depression because foreign governments retaliated with tariffs on American exports. In 1932, Hoover established the Reconstruction Finance Corporation , which offered loans to businesses and support to local governments. In

14070-488: The neighborhood. Having come from rural areas, they found northern city life hard to adjust to. Some returned to Mississippi. Between 1930 and 1933, Parson found two 14-acre (5.7 ha) parcels of undeveloped land west of Albany in the Pine Bush as a site for his community. Others from Shubata moved to this location. They saved money and built, by themselves, houses similar to what they had known in Mississippi. After

14204-530: The northern boundary of the Pine Bush and along the bottoms of ravines. Roughly 35 acres (14 ha) of vernal pools have been mapped, these are ground-water fed ponds that are dominated by grasses, sedges, herbs, and low shrubs. The Pine Bush is home to bog bluegrass ( Poa paludigena ), a federal species of concern , as well as the rare red-rooted flatsedge ( Cyperus erythrorhizos ), Houghton's umbrella-sedge ( Cyperus houghtonii ), and Schweinitz's flatsedge ( Cyperus schweinitzii ). Bog bluegrass occurs at

14338-484: The northern hardwood forests are dominated by aspen ( Populus ), black cherry, red maple ( Acer rubrum ), white pine ( Pinus strobus ), gray birch ( Betula populifolia ), green ash ( Fraxinus pennsylvanica ), and oaks. Ravines within the Pine Bush contain mixed forests of pine-northern hardwoods and Appalachian oak-pine. The pine-hardwood forests are dominated by species such as white pine and yellow birch ( Betula alleghaniensis ), mixed with scattered red maple,

14472-415: The original buildings. Most of the original families' descendants still live there. It is a rare intact example of a chain migration community from the Great Migration , although many such communities formed in northern cities. Rapp Road is located in the long, narrow western protrusion of Albany known as the Pine Bush . The portion of the street on which the district is located lies between Pine Lane and

14606-483: The physical volume of exports fall, but also the prices fell by about 1 ⁄ 3 as written. Hardest hit were farm commodities such as wheat, cotton, tobacco, and lumber. Governments around the world took various steps into spending less money on foreign goods such as: "imposing tariffs, import quotas, and exchange controls". These restrictions triggered much tension among countries that had large amounts of bilateral trade, causing major export-import reductions during

14740-480: The policies prolonged the Depression instead of shortening it. Between 1929 and 1932, worldwide gross domestic product (GDP) fell by an estimated 15%; in the U.S., the Depression resulted in a 30% contraction in GDP. Recovery varied greatly around the world. Some economies, such as the U.S., Germany and Japan started to recover by the mid-1930s; others, like France, did not return to pre-shock growth rates until later in

14874-459: The political situation in Europe. In their book, A Monetary History of the United States , Milton Friedman and Anna J. Schwartz also attributed the recovery to monetary factors, and contended that it was much slowed by poor management of money by the Federal Reserve System . Chairman of the Federal Reserve (2006–2014) Ben Bernanke agreed that monetary factors played important roles both in

15008-557: The properties that connect these protected parcels, and some of the surrounding areas that abut the preserve. The 135-acre (55 ha) Woodlawn Preserve and surrounding areas in Schenectady County are the western sections of the Pine Bush, separated geographically by other properties from the Albany Pine Bush Preserve in Albany County. Historically regarded by European settlers as desolate and dangerous to cross,

15142-482: The purchases were fully closed in 1942, two years after Parson's death, families began building their own houses with help from friends and family over the next decades. Many began growing crops and raising animals on the land, becoming self-sufficient. During the World War II years, especially, building materials were hard to obtain because they were diverted to the war effort. One family found they could complete

15276-404: The rural South to industrial cities, originally settling in Albany's South End . He was followed by other members of his congregation . Neither he nor they liked urban life much, and eventually he bought the land along Rapp Road where they all moved. Half of the original purchase was taken by the state for road projects in the 1970s. The remaining half, today's historic district , has many of

15410-434: The scale necessary to make the grand experiments which would prove my case—except in war conditions." According to Christina Romer , the money supply growth caused by huge international gold inflows was a crucial source of the recovery of the United States economy, and that the economy showed little sign of self-correction. The gold inflows were partly due to devaluation of the U.S. dollar and partly due to deterioration of

15544-456: The shrubby willows ( Salix humilis and Salix tristis ). Characteristic flowering plants include bush clover ( Lespedeza capitata ), goat's-rue ( Tephrosia virginiana ), and wild lupine ( Lupinus perennis ). Due to prolonged periods of natural fire suppression , much of the Pine Bush has evolved into northern or southern hardwood forests. These forests, often dominated by invasive species , occupy roughly 500 acres (200 ha) of

15678-478: The state of New York, and occupies parts of the city of Albany and the towns of Colonie and Guilderland within Albany County, as well as parts of Schenectady County to the west . The Pine Bush includes not only pine barrens, but also grasslands of prairie grasses, northern and southern successional forests , and numerous ravines with some wetlands . The Pine Bush ranges in elevation from 260 feet (79 m) to 360 feet (110 m) above sea level . Underlying

15812-470: The town of Colonie along Central Avenue was sold to developers who built the Northway Mall . Two years later the city moved its dump to the Pine Bush. The Dunes , a single-family housing development in the middle of the Pine Bush off the Washington Avenue Extension, was built in the mid-1970s. In response to these developments, concerned citizens worried about the future of the habitat formed Save

15946-595: The towns of Colonie and Guilderland, and the city of Albany, Albany County; and four private citizens appointed by the governor. In 2001, the State Employees Federal Credit Union (SEFCU) donated their bank branch on New Karner Road to the state, following the discovery of an underlying issue with the title. The bank branch was adapted for use as the Albany Pine Bush Discovery Center. Located since 1969 in

16080-476: The world, recovery from the Great Depression began in 1933. In the U.S., recovery began in early 1933, but the U.S. did not return to 1929 GNP for over a decade and still had an unemployment rate of about 15% in 1940, albeit down from the high of 25% in 1933. There is no consensus among economists regarding the motive force for the U.S. economic expansion that continued through most of the Roosevelt years (and

16214-671: The world, with the devastating Wall Street stock market crash of October 1929 often considered the beginning of the Depression. The Depression was preceded by a period of industrial growth and social development known as the " Roaring Twenties ". Much of the profit generated by the boom was invested in speculation , such as on the stock market , which resulted in growing wealth inequality . Banks were subject to minimal regulation under laissez-faire economic policies, resulting in loose lending and widespread debt. By 1929, declining spending had led to reductions in manufacturing output and rising unemployment . Share values continued to rise until

16348-673: The world. The financial crisis escalated out of control in mid-1931, starting with the collapse of the Credit Anstalt in Vienna in May. This put heavy pressure on Germany, which was already in political turmoil. With the rise in violence of National Socialist ('Nazi') and Communist movements, as well as investor nervousness at harsh government financial policies, investors withdrew their short-term money from Germany as confidence spiraled downward. The Reichsbank lost 150 million marks in

16482-778: The worldwide economic decline and eventual recovery. Bernanke also saw a strong role for institutional factors, particularly the rebuilding and restructuring of the financial system, and pointed out that the Depression should be examined in an international perspective. Women's primary role was as housewives; without a steady flow of family income, their work became much harder in dealing with food and clothing and medical care. Birthrates fell everywhere, as children were postponed until families could financially support them. The average birthrate for 14 major countries fell 12% from 19.3 births per thousand population in 1930, to 17.0 in 1935. In Canada, half of Roman Catholic women defied Church teachings and used contraception to postpone births. Among

16616-658: Was a scramble to deflate prices to get the gold standard's conversation rates back on track to pre-WWI levels, by causing deflation and high unemployment through monetary policy. In 1933 FDR signed Executive Order 6102 and in 1934 signed the Gold Reserve Act . The two classic competing economic theories of the Great Depression are the Keynesian (demand-driven) and the Monetarist explanation. There are also various heterodox theories that downplay or reject

16750-478: Was a small part of overall economic activity in the U.S. and was concentrated in a few businesses like farming, it was a much larger factor in many other countries. The average ad valorem (value based) rate of duties on dutiable imports for 1921–1925 was 25.9% but under the new tariff it jumped to 50% during 1931–1935. In dollar terms, American exports declined over the next four years from about $ 5.2 billion in 1929 to $ 1.7 billion in 1933; so, not only did

16884-405: Was an important source of firewood and animal pelts to trade with the Dutch. By 1640 the natives were having trouble finding enough animals in the Pine Bush to supply the growing European demand. The Mohawk referred to the settlement at Fort Orange as skahnéhtati, meaning "beyond the pine plains," referring to the large area of the Pine Bush between the Hudson and Mohawk rivers. The Dutch granted

17018-551: Was chartered in 1826 in order to reduce travel time between Schenectady and Albany via the Erie Canal ; it was the first railroad in the state of New York, and the fourth in the United States. On July 2, 1830, the DeWitt Clinton pulled the first passenger train in the United States, traveling over the 16-mile (26 km) route through the heart of the Pine Bush. Over time, the turnpikes and railroad opened up parts of

17152-474: Was endorsed in 2002 by Federal Reserve Governor Ben Bernanke in a speech honoring Friedman and Schwartz with this statement: Let me end my talk by abusing slightly my status as an official representative of the Federal Reserve. I would like to say to Milton and Anna: Regarding the Great Depression, you're right. We did it. We're very sorry. But thanks to you, we won't do it again. The Federal Reserve allowed some large public bank failures – particularly that of

17286-426: Was given by American economists Milton Friedman and Anna J. Schwartz . They argued that the Great Depression was caused by the banking crisis that caused one-third of all banks to vanish, a reduction of bank shareholder wealth and more importantly monetary contraction of 35%, which they called "The Great Contraction ". This caused a price drop of 33% ( deflation ). By not lowering interest rates, by not increasing

17420-500: Was in the form of Federal Reserve demand notes. A "promise of gold" is not as good as "gold in the hand", particularly when they only had enough gold to cover 40% of the Federal Reserve Notes outstanding. During the bank panics, a portion of those demand notes was redeemed for Federal Reserve gold. Since the Federal Reserve had hit its limit on allowable credit, any reduction in gold in its vaults had to be accompanied by

17554-446: Was intended. It exacerbated the Great Depression by preventing economic recovery after domestic production recovered, hampering the volume of trade; still there is disagreement as to the precise extent of the Act's influence. In the popular view, the Smoot–Hawley Tariff was one of the leading causes of the depression. In a 1995 survey of American economic historians, two-thirds agreed that the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act at least worsened

17688-571: Was the Truax Tavern owned by Isaac Truax, a descendant of French Huguenots and a Tory sympathizer; he said that he was "not a Tory, but a man for the King". Rumors circulated of several murders/robberies being carried out at the tavern. Travel became easier in 1793 following the revolution, when a stage coach began carrying passengers between the two cities and through the Pine Bush for three cents per mile. The 19th century saw great improvements in modes of transportation for traveling through

17822-470: Was the rollback of those same reflationary policies that led to the interruption of a recession beginning in late 1937. One contributing policy that reversed reflation was the Banking Act of 1935 , which effectively raised reserve requirements, causing a monetary contraction that helped to thwart the recovery. GDP returned to its upward trend in 1938. A revisionist view among some economists holds that

17956-452: Was viewed at the time is contained in the enabling law (Chapter 375 of the Laws of New York, 1910), which described the Pine Bush as "being a territory lying to the west of the present boundary line of the city and which is in large part waste and unoccupied land, the ownership of which is uncertain." This law authorized Albany to lay out the newly annexed territory into lots and acquire land for

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