Troy, New York was an industrial behemouth in the 19th century. It was where the Erie Canal began and was the location of important industrial railroads, once the railroads were taken seriously. During the 19th century, early Dutch farms gave way to impressive Victorian mansions inhabited by wealthy industrialists. As the the Industrial Revolution matured, workers, many of them immigrants, organized labor unions. Management resisted, sometimes violently. It was in this turbulent later half of the 19th century that the Magill House was built