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