Once was the time when buildings like Albany’s National Savings Bank building held more business than all of downtown holds today. (More than any of your suburban office parks, either.) So let’s take a look at all the businesses that were housed in one of Albany’s landmark buildings, 90 State Street, in 1939.
The first floor was entirely taken up by the National Savings Bank of the City of Albany.
On the second floor was Buckingham Investing Company, Colonie Estates, and Cregan Inc, all real estate firms, and Paine Webber & Co. investment bankers. It’s probable that the third floor was reserved for offices of National Savings, as the directory skips the third floor.
On the fourth floor were several men listed as “special agents” for a slew of insurance companies, all operating out of office 404. 410 held the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. 417 was home to the Wander Delivery Service, parcel delivery, as well as Joseph Wander real estate, and I think Wander is a delightful name for either venture. 420 was home to Halter, Sullivan and Einhorn, lawyers. 424 was home of the Travelers Insurance Company. 434 held Goodwin, Griswold & Co., investments.
Up on the fifth floor, 503 was home to lawyers named Champagne, D’Anza, Lasdon, and Scully. 505 was National Oil Properties. 507 held a combination of insurance agents and lawyers. 509 was the Periodical Publishers Service Bureau. 510, another lawyer and the Prentice-Hall tax service. In 511 was the Miller Hosiery Shop, well higher than most retail space. 513 was shared by 3 lawyers and an office equipment supplier. 520 was the Woman’s Benefit Association. 522 was another amalgam of disparate interests, bringing together Lucius P. Collins, railway supplies, with the Hendrik Hudson Distilleries, James M. Hughes and Kenelm R. Thacher investments, and Sheldon E. Vail & Co. bonds. 536? More insurance.
Image by carljohnson via Flickr
Climbing another flight to the sixth floor, you would find another five suites of lawyers and insurance agents, as well as the Hooper-Holmes Bureau mercantile agency, Edward B. Smith investments, the Electrical Research Products Inc. sound equipment company, the Bonat Method beauty supplies, the National Recovery Administration, the Household Finance Corp. Just for flavor, there was a husband-and-wife chiropractic team, and a chiropodist, a profession I only know from a somewhat obscure Michael Palin/Maggie Smith movie.
Up on seven, we would have found the New York Fire Insurance Rating Organization, the Ross-Wood investment company, another pair of lawyers, another insurance agent, a pair of osteophysicians, a merchandise order check printer named Blitzblau, and the Sonotone hearing aid company.
On eight, the Apollonian Inc., “The Physical Culture.” A magazine, perhaps? Josef’s Beauty Salon and Mary Moran’s beauty shop, well above the street. And dentists, lots of dentists. Eight dentists, and a conveniently located dental laboratory company. And an insurance company or two.
On nine? More lawyers and insurance agents. Lots of them. An office equipment company, and what appears to be lawyers for the Frankfort Distillers. And a lone coal dealer, who, if he felt the need, could climb the stairs one flight to . . .
. . . the tenth floor, home of the Coal Merchants Mutual Insurance Company of NY. And the New York State Retail Solid Fuel Merchants’ Association. Yes, that coal dealer could certainly feel at home on the 10th floor, were it not for the dozen or so insurance companies represented there, and all the lawyers. Just to break things up, 10 was also the home of the Capital District Typothetae, a printers trade association.
Climb it up to 11, and you’d find the Sage Land & Improvement Co. (which may have been part of developing the Sage estate in Menands, home estate of a princess and surrealist). There was the Christian Science Reading Room. There was a dental laboratory, the Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company, and the Edward A. King advertising agency. There were a number of food brokers, including the Seymour Packing Co., the Borden Sales Co., Doggie Dinner Inc., C.M. Snow, and the Penick and Ford molasses and syrup company. And yes, there were lawyers and insurance agents.
On the 12th floor, the numerous insurance agents and lawyers were kind enough to leave a little bit of space for the Aluminum Company of America (you know it as Alcoa), and for Irene Dembo polishing cloths.
The 13th floor was the 14th floor, and I wish I could say we’d left such superstition behind but I worked in a building that was new in 2001 and also didn’t have the nerve to have a 13th floor. But if anything bad happened on the 13th/14th floor of the National Savings Bank building, it would have happened to lawyers, because other than a dental supplier and the Ross Federal theatrical service, the floor was lousy with lawyers.
On 15, the offices of the Electrolux vacuum cleaner company. And, perhaps not too surprisingly, offices of the New York State Bar Association, and its Bulletin. And at least five more lawyers.
Imagine what a bustling place the National Savings Bank building was in its heyday.
