A Neighborhood Built by Iron and Stoves
South Troy grew up around heavy industry. The Burden Iron Works Museum, in the old 1881 office building of the Burden Iron Company, tells the story: a mill complex that stretched a mile along the Hudson and employed nearly 2,000 men at its peak. Its water wheel on the Wynants Kill was 62 feet across and could make about 500 horsepower. The museum also notes Troy was once called the stove capital of the world for its cast iron stoves.
That history is still on the map. Empire Stove Works on Second Street and Neemes Foundry on First Street were both added to the National Register in 2024. The J. C. Osgood Firehouse at Third Street and Canal Avenue, built in 1889, is on the Register too, and the old Public School No. 10 on Adams Street was turned into apartments in 1992.
What the Houses Look Like
A 1990s city housing plan described South Troy as mostly two-, three- and some four-family houses, with single-family homes clustered around Lincoln Avenue and south of Burden Avenue. Current census figures still fit that picture. In the central South Troy tract around Madison Street, Lincoln Avenue and Canal Avenue, about 75 percent of homes date to 1939 or earlier and about 69 percent of units are in two-to-four-unit buildings. About three quarters heat mainly with gas.
Along the southern riverfront by Burden Avenue, Polk Street and Mill Street, about 59 percent of homes were built by 1939. Up the hill by Burden Pond and Delaware Avenue the housing is newer: the tract around Burden Pond and Griswold Heights has a median build year of 1965, with most homes from 1950 to 1979. Griswold Heights, a Troy Housing Authority development first built in 1950 and 1963, finished a full renovation in 2025.
Heating and Cooling a Two-Family
In a South Troy two- or three-family, the first question is usually who controls what. Some houses have one boiler for the whole building. Others have a furnace or boiler per floor, sometimes decades apart in age. The upstairs apartment is often the one that overheats in summer and the one farthest from a basement boiler in winter.
We work on each setup as it is: steam and hot water boilers, gas furnaces per unit, electric baseboard, and ductless heat pumps added floor by floor. Owners with tenants can call us for one apartment or the whole building.
South Troy heat or AC down? Call.
Call (838) 884-0024Streets, Parks and Landmarks
We cover Burden Avenue, Polk Street, Mill Street, Madison Street, Lincoln Avenue, Canal Avenue, Monroe Street, Jefferson Street, Vandenburgh Avenue, Campbell Avenue and Delaware Avenue. The city keeps Burden Pond Preserve at Campbell and Vandenburgh avenues, Geer Field on Thompson Street and the Osgood Tot Lot at Third Street and Canal Avenue. At the south edge, Hudson Valley Community College opened its campus in 1961 on the line between Troy and North Greenbush.
South Troy Questions
Should each unit in my two-family have its own heating system?
It depends on who pays for heat and how the building is piped. Separate systems let each tenant control and pay for their own heat. One shared boiler is simpler to maintain. We can look at your building and lay out both options.
The upstairs apartment is always hotter. What can fix that?
Top floors in older multi-family houses pick up heat from below and from the roof. A ductless unit for the top floor, better zoning, or balancing the existing system are the usual fixes.
Is a heat pump realistic in a narrow South Troy house with a tight side yard?
Often, yes. Ductless outdoor units are compact and can mount on a wall bracket or sit in a small rear yard. Placement, noise near a neighbor's window and the electric panel all get checked first.