Originally sheltering a telescoping iron storage tank for coal gas, the brick gasholder house is an imposing structure from a significant period in the history of Troy.

For twenty-seven years the company held a monopoly on the manufacture of illuminating gas in the city.

[4] The gasholder house was one part of the complex comprising Troy Gas Light's physical plant.

The main elements of the production facilities were two blocks north of the gasholder house, in a block bounded by Liberty Street, Fifth Avenue, and Washington Street, bounded by the tracks of the New York Central, the former site of the Little Italy Farmers Market.

The retort house, the core of the operations, was where coal was burned to produce a crude form of the gas.

In the 1870s, the company burned gas coal supplied by Freeman Butts of Cleveland, Ohio.

His father, Paul A. Sabbation, was a close friend of Robert Fulton, prepared plans and specifications for The Clermont.

Sabboton supervised, constructed, and owned gas works in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and throughout New York State.

He was also involved in the manufacturing of aniline dye, made from coal tar, and designed a gas governor valve.

The gasholder house was in operation in 1912, and taken out of service during the 1920s when a new central plant was built in Menands, NY.