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Betty Stein Nathan

Slingerlands, NY

1944-2024

Interviewed on location at narrator’s Pine Hollow residence, April 25, 2024, by Eric Bryant w/ Bill Ketzer & Tim Beebe present.

Elizabeth J. Nathan (nee Stein) was the youngest daughter of Samuel Stein (original name Szmul Icchok Rubinsztejn) and Lucille Mock, the original occupants of a historic Mid-Century home in the preternatural preserve now known as Pine Hollow Arboretum.  She attended BCHS (Class of ’63) and graduated from Mt. Ida College in Massachusetts.  After college she married Albany native William Nathan, raised two children (Joseph & Janet) and built the family’s long-term business, Nathan Office Interiors.

Betty’s paternal grandparents emigrated to Manhattan from Poland in 1904, when the country was still under Russian rule.  Her father was only an infant when the family arrived in New York Bay, and his Jewish heritage is hard to navigate past the 19^th century.  Her mother’s French and German ancestry, however, can be traced back to the early Renaissance period of European history.

Sam and Lucille married in 1937, having met during the Depression.  Soon after, Sam moved his family to Albany to take a management position with Capital City Container Corporation, where he eventually became vice president. The Steins relocated to Slingerlands in 1943, into a home designed and built for them by noted Modernist architect Henry Blatner.  Blatner was lauded for his award-winning design of Clarksville Elementary School, which was highlighted in trade publications nationwide for its innovative application of bilateral lighting, which ultimately drove changes in how schools were constructed.  He designed layouts for all three homes in Pine Hollow and his work also included Albany Academy for Girls (1958) and many portions of AMC’s Medical College (1971).

Jewish families were only starting to explore suburban living in the 1940s-50s, so few Jews made Bethlehem home during that era.  Albany liquor retailer Mortimer Schwartz served as an early forerunner, purchasing the acreage that is now Pine Hollow from Abram and Louise LeGallez in 1939.  Schwartz was an avid golfer and knew the Stein, Blatner and Alton Mendleson families socially, through country clubs, business and other ventures. It follows that each of these families came to own homes in Pine Hollow, creating what was ostensibly the first Jewish neighborhood in Bethlehem.

As you’ll see in her interview, Betty takes great pride in her home’s history and found lifelong peace and comfort in its magnitude as an oasis inside a bustling suburb.  Efforts are currently underway to establish the enclave as a National Historic District, which delights her entire family.

Betty was bravely battling serious illness when she agreed to be interviewed for BOHP, and entered into eternal peace last autumn. Her husband Bill joined her at the end of the year. Our staff would like to thank the entire family for their generosity and willingness to open their home to BOHP during such a challenging time in their lives.

Family Photos