9 WWlItlW Mil, :• I 
 
 7 
 
 * 
 
New York State 
 
 Soldiers' and Sailors' Home, 
 
 ♦ ♦ . Bath. 
 
 mm 
 
 PHOTOGRAVURES. 
 
 mm 
 
 Copyright 1901 by 
 
 A. W ITOCMANN, 
 
 The Albektype Co., PrBr-isneK ok American Views, 
 
 BROOKLYN, N. Y. 25() ADAMS St.. BROOKLYN, Y. 
 
£x Htbrtfi 
 
 SEYMOUR DURST 
 
 ~t ' ~Tort nwiw ^im^trJa-m, oj> Je M<rnhatans 
 
 FORT NEW AMSTERDAM 
 
 (NEW YORK ) , 1651. 
 
 When you leave, please leave this book 
 
 Because it has been said 
 " Ever'thing comes t' him who waits 
 
 Except a loaned book." 
 
'HE New York State Soldiers' and Sailors' Home is located one mile and a half northwest 
 of the village of Bath in the beautiful Conhocton Valley, which at this point is about 
 half a mile wide, and nearly surrounded by verdant hills gracefully ascending to a height 
 of several hundred feet. 
 
 The Conhocton River skirts along the easterly boundary of the picturesque grounds of the 
 Home, which are artistically laid out in a park transversed with shady boulevards and pleasant 
 walks and generously adorned with fine old trees, choice shrubs, plants and flowers. At night 
 these grounds are brilliantly illuminated by electric lights. The Heme farm comprises about 
 350 acres of fertile upland and furnishes, for the use of the Home, large quantities of vegetables 
 and other farm products. One passes the Commandant's residence to ihe left, ascends the 
 wooded pathway and lands upon an immense field of potatoes covering the entire crown of the 
 hill and ending apparently where the sky begins. Thrift and order speak out from the nicely 
 terraced rows of plants, also a >urmise that the supply may keep pace with a liberal consump- 
 tion. From this point offer beautiful views north of the Home grounds and south of the vil- 
 lage of Bath. The grounds are kept in the most perfect order. 
 
 The principal buildings of the Home are five story brick barracks affording accommoda- 
 tions for 1,700 men, a spacious hospital with a c.ipacity for 300 patients and attendants, a 
 handsome building for headquarters, a chapel, an amusement hall, a green-house, boiler and 
 engine-house, bakery, laundry and bath-house, nurnerous,workshops and storehouses. There 
 is also a Home store, a well supplied reading room and a library of 10,000 volumes. All these 
 buildings are warmed by steam and lighted by electricity generated at the Home by its own 
 plant, which furnishes 900 incandescent lights of 16 candle power each for interior of build- 
 ings and 12 outside arc lights of 2,000 candle pow er each. 
 
 To the Grand Army of the Republic of the State of New York is due the establishment cf 
 this home. Under their beneficient auspices it w T as incorporated in 1876 and $100,000 raised 
 by subscription ; then, in 1878, the property with the buildings gratuitously transferred to the 
 State of New York as a home for its disabled veteran soldiers and sailors. The opening took 
 
place on Christmas day, 1878, with admission of 25 veterans, since which time there have been 
 some S.joo admissions and 1,320 deaths in the Home. Those on the rolls number 1,725, those 
 present 1,450. Their average age is 63 years. The different branches cf the service furnished 
 in 1S94: Regular army 128, volunteers 5.522, navy 350. Foreign born were 3,200, native born 
 2,800 ; those who had trades 3,710, married 1,752, single 4,248. Thereof 4,023 could read and 
 write, and 1,977 could not. During the last five years there has been an increase in these 
 numbers of about 10 per cent. 
 
 The pensions are received by the Home cashier and credited to each man, who on every 
 Tuesday can draw $1.50 for spending money. This arrangement compels the men to save, so 
 they can contribute to their families or lay- away enough of sustenance for their customary 
 ninety days' furlough. The profits from the "canteen" go into the Contingent fund which 
 now amounts to several thousand dollars. • 
 
 The new amusement hall in course of erection will be a brick building, one story high, 
 with Indiana lime stone trimmings, 62x128 feet. Seating capacity w 11 be 1,200. 
 
 The new Post Exchange building, or canteen, is nearly completed, and will be a two-story 
 frame building, 24x48 feet, with an extension cf 10x24 feet. 
 
 Entertainments of various nature are given in the amusement hall, which is also the 
 headquarters of the musical band There are tailor, paint, shoe, barber, maehine, tin, black- 
 smith, carpenter shops and various stores r perated by the veterans, so that the whole forms a 
 little city by itself. 
 
 In the chapel services are held every Sunday, also when a member is carried to his last 
 rest in the cemetery. Here sleep over 1.200 of the brave men whose last days were made 
 -.uifjrable or c >mfi >rtable by a staff of devoted physicians and nurses, among them several 
 trained female nurses. The cemetery overlooks the H< n e and the valley, and has been beauti- 
 fied, through the generous gift of Capt. Samuel Dietz, of New York City, by a tall granite 
 shaft which stands a crowning ornament to this soldiers' eden. 
 
 October 15TH. 1900. 
 
General View of the Home. 
 
c 
 
Officers of N. Y. State Soldiers' and Sailors' Home. 
 
Headquarters. 
 
* 
 
Main Drive— North View. 
 
Barracks A, B and C, 
 
Band Stand. 
 
Barracks H and I. 
 
 Barracks C. Barracks D, E, F, Dining Hall. 
 
 The Battery. 
 
1 
 
Dining Hall. 
 
New Amusement Hall— Seating Capacity 1200. 
 
1 
 
 i 
 
Hospital. 
 
New Post Exchange or Canteen. 
 
V 
 
Commandant's Residence and Entrance to Main Drive. 
 
Scene on the Conhocton. The Adjutant's and Surgeon's Residences. 
 
1f 
 
 1» 
 
Bath, New York and the Conhocton River. 
 
The Home Soldiers' Monument and Cemetery.