Postcard Week: Pierce Hall, Albany

Pierce Hall Girls’ Dormitory, NY State College for Teachers

This undated postcard depicts Pierce Hall, “Girls’ Dormitory, N.Y. State College for Teachers, Albany, N.Y.” The obverse describes Albany but says not a thing about Pierce Hall, which opened in 1935 as a women’s residence hall and still stands today as part of the SUNY Albany downtown campus. SUNY Albany itself grew out of what was variously called the State Normal School or the State College for Teachers. This lovely structure is named for Anna E. Pierce, an 1884 graduate of the Normal School and the college’s first Dean of Women.

Sometimes I wonder how different Albany would be if Stanford University were located here, as it was perhaps intended to be, or if SUNY Albany had developed around its downtown campus instead of on an isolated parcel on the far end of town.

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