Glens Falls Chronicle Serving the Glens Falls/Lake George region; Warren, Washington and northern Saratoga counties since 1980
By Maury Thompson, Chronicle Freelance
The name “Ordway Hall” can still be seen on the front of the building that now houses SPoT Coffee on the ground floor and apartments on the upper floors.
Mr. Ordway, a lumber baron and paper manufacturer, died April 12, 1890, at age 77, before the Y.M.C.A. building he funded had opened.
He was born at Strafford, Vt., and came to Glens Falls at age 19, “a poor but ambitious young man” who went to work on logging and canal boat crews, The Messenger reported on April 18, 1890.
In 1840, he opened a hotel at North River, in Johnsburg, and conducted logging operations.
In 1865, Mr. Ordway became a partner in what became known as The Morgan Lumber Co., and had a 25% interest in the company at the time of his death.
The building on Glen was not Mr. Ordway’s first contribution to the Y.M.C.A.
When it opened in 1888 at its initial location in rented quarters on Warren Street, Mr. Ordway purchased and donated a Chickering grand piano that was placed in the parlor.
“This liberal offer has done more to gladden and cheer the promoters of the association than anything else which has so far occurred, for it comes when needed, comes unsolicited, and marks a successful business man’s appreciation of the effort on behalf of our young men,” The Morning Star reported on Jan. 18, 1888.
Mr. Ordway had been ill for several months prior to his death.
“With moved and united hearts, we pray for the restoration to health of him who…has filled us with gratitude and joy,” a specially appointed Y.M.C.A committee wrote in the acknowledgment of his $50,000 contribution.
“May his days and years be lengthened until his eyes shall behold and his soul be satisfied with such fruition of his benignant gift as will make these sincere and honest thanks the poorest and least abiding of his recompense of reward.”
The three-person committee appointed by the Y.M.C.A. board was J.L. Cunningham, secretary and later president of Glens Falls Insurance Co.; the Rev. G.L. Collyer, pastor of Glens Falls Methodist Episcopal Church; and William A. Wait, who was associated with the National Bank of Glens Falls.
They wrote, as reported in The Glen’s Falls Messenger on Jan. 24, 1890:
“The voice of this great deed is beyond estimation, being less in the assurance it gives for a home of this organization — beautiful and permanent as that may be — than in the grand possibilities it includes for the upholding and development of Christian character in the young men of this and coming generations throughout time, and in the force and influence of such a splendid example of beneficence.
“It is a grand and kindly act. That edifice, when erected, will form a majestic and lasting monument of a man’s noble generosity.”
Many Y.M.C.A. members attended Ord-way’s funeral, which was conducted by three pastors: Rev. Collyer, of Glens Falls Methodist Episcopal; the Rev. Dr. Fennell, of First Presbyterian; and the Rev. F.M. Cookson, of Glens Falls Episcopal.
“The crowning act of his philanthropy was the recent gift … to the Glens Falls Young Men’s Christian Association to be used in the erection of a building for that organization,” the Messenger eulogized.
The downtown Y.M.C.A. building that Mr. Ordway funded opened in 1892.
The Y.M.C.A. operated there until relocating to its present location on Upper Glen St., next to Crandall Park, in 1969.
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