The Dominican Retreat & Conference Center will be presenting “Sundaes on Sunday” on August 14, which includes free ice cream sundaes, contemporary & traditional Christian music with the Dominican Retreat Center Choir, and a tour of the center.
The event will take place from 1:00pm-4:00pm; concerts by the choir will take place at 1:00pm and 2:30pm. The Dominican Retreat & Conference Center is located at 1945 Union Street (Troy – Schenectady Rd.) in Niskayuna. The event is free and open to the public. Further information is available by calling 518-393-4169 or at www.dlcny.org.
Some historic notes: the Dominican center is a neat little place, which has an historic windmill on its grounds. The windmill was once part of the Clark Witbeck estate, and was used to pump water into the house. The windmill still exists on the property, but the mansion was torn down in 1972. The windmill is now used as private lodging for individual retreats.
Clark Witbeck was a Schenectady businessman, founder of the Clark Witbeck Company, which sold wholesale hardware. There’s a building in Schenectady named after him, which even contains a faded (and partially painted over) building advertisement. Here’s what it looked like originally. The building was once the Daily Gazette press building, and now houses the Edison Tech Center.
I don’t remember doing it, but I even once took a picture of Witbeck’s mausoleum in Vale Cemetery!
Life at Goal 