The Daily Gazette is reprinting excerpts of the late Larry Hart's long-running column, “Tales of Old Dorp.” Today, Hart gives correspondent Neil B. Reynolds center stage; Reynolds writes about a memorable automobile ride of 100 years ago, and familiar places of Scotia seen along the way. One landmark mentioned, the Max Schmidt Block, has been replaced by a CVS drug store and parking lot. This column excerpt was originally was published Nov. 20, 1984.

“I remember my first ride in an automobile. It was in the summer of 1908 when I was 5.

“Scotia, just four years after its incorporation as a village, was celebrating the 250th anniversary of Sander Leendertse Glen’s purchase from the Mohawk Indians of the “plantasie” on which the village of Scotia — or much of it — now stands.

“I can recall almost nothing of the formal celebration, nothing except the parade. I suppose the two fire companies marched, along with other organizations, but most important was a parade of all the automobiles then owned in Scotia. My father, Kent C. Reynolds, was a village trustee that year. So he was one of those chosen to ride in one of the new glamorous autos. And he took me with him.

“I rode proudly the length of Mohawk Avenue, squeezed in the back seat with father and a couple of other trustees. The president (equivalent to mayor) of the village didn’t ride in a car but in his own carriage, with two smart horses and a driver.

His Honor was Dr. Herman V. Mynderse, and he was one of the last physicians in the region to make his calls with a horse. We must have started the parade at about Holmes Street and ended at the Glen-Sanders house.

Village landmarks

“I have tried to recall the landmarks I must have seen during that 1908 ride and count those that still remain after 76 years. Most obvious are the trees, which are long gone. Back then, both sides of Mohawk Avenue had trees, mostly maples, which nearly met overhead. I remember they were old and decrepit, perhaps planted soon after the Mohawk Turnpike was laid out about 1800.

“At Reeseville (the section around Mohawk Avenue and Sacandaga Road) the Max Schmidt Block still stands — a substantial, bulky brick structure facing up Sacandaga Road. Max was a tailor.

“The old Mohawk School, that I was about to enter the next February, in the second grade, is gone, after serving for many years as the home of Colonial Ice Cream. Next door, the First Baptist Church of Scotia (where I went each Sunday) remains little changed except for the addition at the rear and east.

“On down to the corner of Mohawk and Ballston avenues, with Livingston Slover’s grocery on one corner and Samuel Hillis’s store on the diagonal corner. At that time, we traded with Mr. Hillis. And next door to him was Samuel Magee’s newsroom, where I often bought penny candy or a penny ice cream cone.

Missed firehouse

“One landmark I did not see that day in 1908 — the fire house on the corner of Mohawk and Ten Broeck. Lew Jeffers must have been working on its construction at about this time.

I know, because just before the start of the parade, the board of trustees held a quickie meeting in the room the board rented as a village office in the long, low double house on the southeast corner of Ballston Avenue and John Street.

“I attended that meeting, as an onlooker — the first and only formal board session for me. That was a day of firsts.”