Nowadays, if you want to put on a special event, a lecture or a dance, your choices are limited to the local hotels or perhaps a school auditorium. Back in 1905, the city of Albany was lousy with public gathering places, as evidenced by this list of buildings and halls. Every fraternal order and trade association had its own meeting place with an assembly room. While not every one on this list was open for public speechifying or lantern slide shows of adventures in the Congo, most of them were. Throughout histories of the city, we find endless references to education and entertainment at places like Jermain Hall, Tweddle Hall (which I simply must write about soon), and Centennial Hall. Odd that out of all these buildings, Public Bath No. 2 would be one of the longest survivors.