S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
 ________________________________________________________________________
 
                                   7731
 
                        2017-2018 Regular Sessions
 
                           I N  A S S E M B L Y
 
                               May 11, 2017
                                ___________
 
 Introduced  by  M. of A. FAHY -- read once and referred to the Committee
   on Governmental Operations
 
 AN ACT to amend the public buildings law, in relation to  directing  the
   office  of  general  services  to install and maintain a commemorative
   plaque in the Capitol honoring Samuel J. Abbott

   THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND  ASSEM-
 BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
 
   Section  1. Legislative findings. The legislature hereby finds that at
 2:42 a.m., on March 29, 1911, Fire Box 324  was  pulled,  notifying  the
 City  of Albany Fire Department of a fire at the State Capitol. Investi-
 gators would later determine that the fire originated in the third-floor
 Assembly Library, spreading  quickly  to  the  adjacent  State  Library,
 before  engulfing  the  building's fourth and fifth floors. According to
 reports, the building, known at the time as "one of the most costly  and
 celebrated  buildings  constructed  in  19th-century  America", had been
 burning without impediment for at least  thirty  minutes  prior  to  the
 alarm.   Firefighters, operating with horse-drawn pumpers, found a roar-
 ing inferno when they arrived on scene.
   The mammoth fire burned so forcefully that it twisted metal framing in
 the iconic skylight above the Great Western Staircase, sending the glass
 panels raining down on the stairs below; the stairway's carved sandstone
 filigree melted, and at  the  top  of  the  "Million-Dollar  Staircase",
 prized   archaeological  objects,  including  the  State's  world-famous
 Iroquois collection, were consumed by  flames.  When  extinguished,  the
 fire had decimated the entire collection of the State Library, with more
 than 800,000 books and manuscripts being lost.
   According to the March 29, 1911 edition of the ALBANY EVENING JOURNAL,
 at  approximately  3  a.m.,  shortly after the fire alarm sounded at the
 Capitol, Mr. Samuel J. Abbott, a 78-year-old watchman in  the  building,
 "was seen by an orderly opening some windows".

  EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                       [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                            LBD10738-02-7
              

 A. 7731                             2
 
   Samuel J. Abbott was born in September 1833, one of at least five boys
 and four girls born to William B. and Lucretia A. Abbott. William Abbott
 had  a  stave  and  barrel  factory where Samuel and his brother, Henry,
 worked off-and-on as turners and coopers. During the Civil  War,  Samuel
 Abbott served in Company E of the 12th New York State Volunteer Infantry
 in the regiment that also was known as the Onondaga County Regiment, the
 Independence  Guard,  and  The Dozen. Mr. Abbott was recorded as holding
 the ranks of Ensign, Second Lieutenant (May 13,  1861-August  2,  1861),
 and  First  Lieutenant  (August  2,  1861-September 19, 1861) and he was
 later described in the ALBANY EVENING JOURNAL as having "an enviable war
 record".
   After the war, Samuel Abbott returned to the village of  Salina,  part
 of present day Syracuse, where he resumed his work at his father's shop.
 From  1867  through  1870, Mr. Abbott served as Postmaster at the Salina
 Post Office. He married Jane "Jennie" Utting, the  daughter  of  English
 immigrants  James  and  Sarah  Utting,  in 1867.   According to the 1860
 census, Jennie worked as a dressmaker. The couple was  blessed  with  at
 least  five  children,  three  of whom, Ellen "Nellie", born circa 1869,
 George W., born circa 1876, and Mabel E.,  born  circa  1880,  lived  to
 adulthood.
   Mr. and Mrs. Abbott were a noted couple in Syracuse. Samuel Abbott was
 a  member  of Root Post and the Grand Army of the Republic, while Jennie
 Abbott had been a prominent member of the Women's Relief Corps. In 1875,
 Samuel Abbott started working in the Office of the Overseer of the Poor,
 a position he held until 1894.
   In 1895, Samuel J. Abbott took a  job  as  a  watchman  in  the  State
 Library  at  the  Capitol  in Albany. Following the passing of his wife,
 Jennie, in January, 1911 Mr.  Abbott moved in  with  life-long  friends,
 Mr.  and  Mrs.  Thomas Behan, at 3 Washington Avenue. The ALBANY EVENING
 JOURNAL later reported that  Mr.  Abbott's,  "territory  as  watchman...
 comprised  three  floors of the State Library; he was wont to leave home
 about 9 p.m. each night, go to the library, lock himself in  and  remain
 until 6 a.m. when he returned home".
   When  Mr.  and Mrs. Behan, and, "several boarders were awakened by the
 fire alarm and realized that the Capitol was on fire,  they  immediately
 thought  of the safety of Mr. Abbott; àtwo of the men hustled right over
 to the scene of the fire; one of them went into the building  and  asked
 another watchman if he had seen Mr.  Abbott and the answer was 'Oh, yes,
 he's  all right. I saw him opening windows.' but hour after hour went by
 and he failed to appear". Two days later, on March  31st,  Mr.  Abbott's
 partially  burned  body  was  found in a narrow passageway on the fourth
 floor, his silver-handled cane a short distance  away.  In  his  pocket,
 remained  a  key to a locked door just a few paces away through which he
 might have escaped.
   According the TIMES UNION, his funeral service, held  at  St.  Peter's
 Church in Albany on April 1, 1912, "was one of the most largely attended
 funerals  ever  held  in this church".   The commanders of Albany's four
 Grand Army of the Republic posts served as pallbearers. Governor John A.
 Dix was in attendance, along with "representatives from every department
 in the Capitol". In August 1912, the Legislature allocated $280.16  for,
 "George W. Abbott, son of the late Samuel J.  Abbott, an employee of the
 department  of  education,  who  lost  his life in the Capitol fire, for
 funeral and burial expenses, and other expenses incidental to the  find-
 ing of the body".
   Samuel  Abbott  lost his life in service to the people of the state of
 New York, yet his sacrifice has never been fully recognized at the Capi-

 A. 7731                             3

 tol. His tragic passing, along with  the  lives  lost  in  the  Triangle
 Shirtwaist  Factory  fire,  together  spurred a wave of workplace safety
 laws, including the Sullivan-Hoey Fire Prevention  Law.  Now  therefore,
 the  state commission on the restructuring of the Capitol and the office
 of general services shall work in  conjunction  to  install  a  memorial
 plaque  bearing the likeness of Samuel Abbott and appropriately describ-
 ing Samuel Abbott's service and sacrifice to the citizens of  the  state
 of New York while performing his official duties.
   §  2.  The public buildings law is amended by adding a new section 5-c
 to read as follows:
   § 5-C. SAMUEL J. ABBOTT COMMEMORATIVE PLAQUE. THERE SHALL BE INSTALLED
 AND MAINTAINED IN THE  CAPITOL,  A  COMMEMORATIVE  PLAQUE  HONORING  THE
 SERVICE  AND  SACRIFICE  OF SAMUEL J. ABBOTT TO THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE.
 SUCH PLAQUE SHALL BEAR THE LIKENESS  OF  SAMUEL  J.  ABBOTT,  INCLUDE  A
 DESCRIPTION OF HIS SERVICE AND SACRIFICE TO THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE, AND
 BE  DESIGNED AND PLACED IN A MANNER AS DETERMINED JOINTLY BY THE COMMIS-
 SIONER OF GENERAL SERVICES AND THE COMMISSION ON  THE  RESTRUCTURING  OF
 THE CAPITOL.
   § 3. This act shall take effect immediately.