Why did my wife and I want to take a side trip to visit Dolgeville? Actually it was more me than my wife, although she was a good sport about it. I wanted to see for myself what this historic place was like. Its long ago abandoned felt factory made the felt used in high quality hammers such as was used to make Steinway hammers, but is now a long lost art. No one seems to know what it was about the felt that made the piano hammers sound so good. Today they are saying "Wieckert" felt is made similarly, and is the closest thing to what was. Maybe so.
In April of 1874, when Alfred Dolge first arrived at that little Adirondack village in upstate NY, it was known as Brockett’s Bridge. By December 1881, the townspeople successfully petitioned for the name to be changed to Dolgeville, in honor of him, building not only thriving businesses, including the felt making firm, but also a thriving community with forward-looking ideas. The realization of these ideas were not without its bumps in the road however, and by 1899, his businesses were bankrupt, his dreams dashed. The story is laid out in the book by Eleanor Franz entitled “Dolge”.
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