Quackenbush Square and Quackenbush House, Albany, New York

No matter where you live in North America this is home. This peaceful urban oasis is one of the most historic corners of Albany, New York. Pieter Quackenbosch, a native of Holland came to Albany about 1660. In 1668, he purchased an established brickyard on land which to this day bears his name.

The Quackenbush House sits on the southwest corner of the square where Clinton Avenue and Broadway cross. The foundations of the house date from the late seventeenth century. The brick house with its gable end facing the street in the Dutch manner, was built in two stages: the western section at the end of the seventeenth century or the beginning of the eighteenth century and the eastern end during this late eighteenth century. It is believed that the house was built with bricks fired in the Quackenbush kilns. While Pieter built this house for his family, in the following years it was also the home of Colonel Hendrick (Henry) Quackenbush who served in both the French Indian War and the Revolutionary War. Generations of Quackenbushes were born and lived in the house until 1865 when the house was leased as a bakery. In 1868, the family sold the house to an attorney. During the ensuing years, the house has been an antique shop, a bar, and a restaurant.

The pedestrian way that runs through Quackenbush Square was once Quackenbush Street with

sidewalks abutting the street; all were demolished in 1895 except for number 25 which remains on the north side of the square. In the 1870's, the Albany Water Department began acquiring land along Quackenbush Street and Montgomery Street (which ran parallel to Broadway). The complex grew as necessity dictated with many additions during the late nineteenth century. The city engaged the architectural firm of Edward Ogden and Son who built new structures and altered older ones between 1895 and 1897. The most prominent structures are the two handsome brick with stone trim industrial buildings which occupy the corner of Quackenbush Square and old Montgomery Street. These structures date from the last quarter of the nineteenth century and originally house steam pumping engines which pumped water from the Hudson (river) to the Bleecker and Prospect Hill reservoirs. These pumps were replaced in the first decade of twentieth century with two Holly engines.

In 1897, the facade of the original townhouse of 1852 was altered with orange brick and terracotta detailings and a stable was constructed behind it. In 1897, a link building united the old townhouse and the stable. In 1970s, several fires severely damaged 25 Quackenbush Square. In 1976, number 25 was rehabilitated, the street was closed, a pedestrian walkway created, and the area was named Quackenbush Square.

Quackenbush House in 1920's

Don't Mess With His Whiskey! Justin Lowe Quackenbush

Justin Lowe Quackenbush (born 1929) is a United States federal judge on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Washington.

Quackenbush was born in Spokane, Washington. His father, Carl Quackenbush, was a law student who eventually became a Superior Court judge in Spokane. Quackenbush received a B.A. from the University of Idaho in 1951. He received an LL.B. from Gonzaga University School of Law, his father's alma mater, in 1957. He was in the United States Navy from 1951 to 1954. He was a deputy prosecuting attorney in Spokane County, Washington from 1957 to 1959. He was in private practice in Spokane from 1959 until his judicial nomination. He was active in Democratic Party politics, regularly serving as the campaign manager for Tom Foley's successful Congressional election campaigns starting in 1964 for over a decade.

Quackenbush also taught at Gonzaga University School of Law from 1961 to 1967, and was an active Mason.

On May 9, 1980, President Jimmy Carter nominated Quackenbush to the seat vacated by Marshall A. Neill. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on June 18, 1980, and received his commission the same day. Because Neill was the only judge in the district, and had died in October 1979, Quackenbush and fellow appointee Robert J. McNichols immediately faced a tremendous backlog of cases.

He served as chief judge from 1989 to June 27, 1995, when he assumed senior status.

In 1991, Quackenbush was accused of illegally bringing whiskey into a Spanish restaurant that did not have a liquor license, and threatening to have the restaurant owner deported when she complained; Quackenbush paid a $100 fine for the misdemeanor liquor violation and apologized, saying that his immigration remark was a joke. The Judicial Council for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals declined to discipline Quackenbush, citing his "exemplary" record.

Cafe Quackenbush, Los Alamos, CA

Part General Store and part cafe. The General Store specializes in fine art and antiques. Chef Jesper Johansson of Gotenborg, Sweden is at the helm in the Cafe. The Cafe has become a big hit with the locals.

Quacks 43rd Street Bakery, Austin, Texas

Quack’s 43rd Street Bakery is the present incarnation of Captain Quackenbush’s Intergalactic Dessert Company and Espresso Café which opened for business on the Drag, across the street from the University of Texas at Austin, back in 1983. Over the years, the long name was truncated by patrons and consequently it was formally shortened it to Quack’s. Known locally for roasting their own coffee, and for their desserts.

Quackenbush Coffee, Klamath Falls, Oregon

Quackenbush Coffee Company operated a Coffee Shop located in Klamath Falls, Oregon. They roasted their own coffee and were quite popular with the locals. They have since closed their doors.

Annatje Quackenbos - Never A Bad Day

The following reference to Annatje Quackenbos Lansing occurs in Mr. Hawley's Memoir of Col. Henry Quackenbush: Mrs. Anna, or Annatje, Lansing as she was christened, was the oldest daughter of Col. Hendrick Quackenbush of Albany, and Margarita Oothout of New York, a family descent on both sides from Holland, and in either city is there anymore respectable.

And in her case especially, blood told. I am sure her granddaughters, Mrs. Lord, Mrs. Van Santvoord, and Mrs. Freeman will bear me out in that. They will remember with what dignity she always met the duties of life, enjoying what it gave her of its good, and when reverses came, meeting them bravely and cheerfully, and they will recall, with loving memories, the sweet composure, the gentle face, and the tender affection with which she always received us, when we went to see her.

At that time she resided in the old mansion, on the corner of Broadway and Quackenbush Street [Albany] and usually received us in the rear sitting room, and as she appeared one day she appeared always — the black silk dress, the frilled cap, the lace around the neck, the white kerchief folded across the breast and fastened in front with an antique brooch. It is all before my eyes as if printed on the air. Yes! just as she was then I can see her now, seated in a low sewing chair and knitting stockings for some of us children, while she told us of her father, of incidents of the Revolution, when the city was surrounded with palisades, which perhaps you do not know, crossed Broadway (then Market Street) about half way between Quackenbush and Orange streets; of how the Indians appeared, when bands of them in their war paint and shouting the fearful war whoop, passed the city on their way to join Gates in the North, and more than all, of the terror and confusion in every household, when, hearing that Burgoyne was advancing upon Albany, the people loaded batteaux with their most precious goods to escape by the river, and of the relief when a second messenger from the army brought the news that instead of being defeated, our army had won a victory, and Burgoyne had surrendered.

Nor must I forget, what impressed me even as a boy, that grandma was never apart from, but always of, the company in which she was. With young and old it was always the same. To both ages she was equally agreeable, and it is easy to perceive why. There was never any gloom in her face, nor irritation in her manner.

God bless her memory to her descendants, and ever keep before them the lessons of her life, as a worthy expression of the obligation beneath the beauty in the chivalrous French saying, " noblesse oblige." Annatje Quackenbush died in 1852.