Albany institutions: where are they now?

In addition to the numerous public and private schools listed in the Albany Chamber of Commerce’s guide to “Education in Albany” in 1922, the guide included a number of institutional schools, private schools, a fairly broad definition of colleges, and many places to learn nursing. Many of these remain; many are forgotten.

Institutional Schools

Lasalle Institute
Lasalle Institute

St. Vincent’s Male Orphan Asylum, 391 Western Avenue. This was an elementary school of 169 run by the Christian Brothers. Their history states that Christian Brothers Academy was opened in 1866 in part to help pay for the asylum. In 1923, the asylum would be renamed The Lasalle Institute.


Formerly Elm Street
The entire block of Elm Street was lost.

St. Vincent’s Female Orphan Asylum, 106 Elm Street. This was an elementary school of 156, run by the Sisters of Charity. It appears likely this stretch of Elm Street was lost to Empire State Plaza parking; it was likely near the Cathedral.


St. Ann's School of Industry
St. Ann’s School of Industry

St. Ann’s School of Industry, West Lawrence Street. While the guide listed this as an elementary school with 25 students under the direction of the Sisters of Good Shepherd, at the corner of West Lawrence and Bradford Streets, it was a bit more than that. Its full name was “St. Ann’s School of Industry and Reformatory of the Good Shepherd,” and the State Division of Probation’s annual report indicated that “destitute girls and fallen and wayward women from 12 to 60 years of age, free from disease and of sound mind, are received from parents or from magistrates.” The building still stands, and The St. Anne Institute still serves the community.


St. Catherine's Center
St. Catherine’s Center

Infant Home School, North Main Avenue; an elementary school under the charge of the Sisters of Charity, this school was part of the A.N. Brady Maternity Hospital. The building that was originally the hospital is now part of St. Catherine’s Center for Children.


Colleges

Sacred Heart Academy
Sacred Heart Academy

Sacred Heart Academy, Kenwood. This was then a college with an enrollment of 111, under the “Religious of the Sacred Heart,” on the Kenwood estate of stove magnate Joel Rathbone. It later became the Kenwood Academy and merged with St. Agnes School to form Doane Stuart.


Saint Rose Hall
Saint Rose Hall

College of St. Rose, 979 Madison Avenue. In 1922, this Sisters of St. Joseph school had an enrollment of 50. Saint Rose Hall, now Moran Hall, was the entire college then.


Private Schools

Albany Academy
Albany Academy

Albany Academy. The Chamber guide didn’t even feel the need to give the address of the Albany Academy, though it did note that its building “is architecturally perfect, the work of Philip Hooker.” In 1922 it had 333 boys and 20 teachers.


Girls Academy
Girls Academy

Albany Academy for Girls. It moved to the building shown in 1893, having left a building at 280 N. Pearl Street where it had been since 1834. It had an enrollment of 132 girls, with 17 teachers, in 1922. This building was at 155 Washington Avenue, about where the SEIU building is now.


Not St. Agnes School
Not St. Agnes School

St. Agnes School, Hawk and Elk Streets. This Episcopal school had 178 girls. Today, it’s a hideous parking lot.


MIlne School, Draper Hall
MIlne School, Draper Hall

Milne High School. “In 1911 the school previously called the Normal High School became the High School Department of the State College for Teachers, and only received its present appropriate name in 1916.” The Milne High School, a training school for the State College for Teachers, had 206 pupils, 7 supervising teachers and 52 student teachers. The State College for Teachers, previously known as the Normal School, eventually became the basis for the State University of New York at Albany. For an institution I’ve never heard of before, Milne High School certainly does have a history. It appears to have originally been housed in the building that would later be called Draper Hall, on what is now the SUNY Downtown campus; Milne Hall was built in 1929.


Professional Schools and Colleges

State College for Teachers
State College for Teachers

New York State College for Teachers was just beginning its growth on its new campus, with 1560 students. The Administration Building (now Draper Hall), the Science Building (Husted) and the Auditorium (Hawley) were the three buildings on the campus. All still stand.


Albany Business College
Albany Business College

Albany Business College, 79-87 North Pearl Street. This was a member of the Bryant and Stratton chain. It had an average of 500 students at any given time. Its building still anchors the corner of Pearl and Columbia.


Not Albany College of Pharmacy
Not Albany College of Pharmacy

Albany College of Pharmacy, 43 Eagle Street. The old building, which ACP rented from the Humane Society, is long gone; it was perhaps on the corner where the DeWitt Clinton stands, or perhaps across Howard Street. In 1922 there were plans for a modern building “on a site affording ample grounds for the development of a botanic garden which will be open to the citizens of Albany.”


Albany Law School
Albany Law School

Albany Law School, 239-245 State Street. There were 305 students in what seems to be an incredibly small building. I can’t resist showing the building that was lost; it was in a former church, probably about on the west end of the site for the Alfred E. Smith State Office Building.


Not Albany Medical College
Not Albany Medical College

Albany Medical College, Eagle Street between Lancaster and Jay Streets. Yeah, that’s not there. But there’s an historical marker!


Dudley Observatory
Not Dudley Observatory
Not Dudley Observatory

Dudley Observatory, in its second location, South Lake Avenue near New Scotland. It was included here although it did not have resident students; “all the work done is of a research nature.” It’s now the site of the Capital District Psychiatric Center.


Bender Laboratory
Bender Laboratory

Bender Hygienic Laboratory, South Lake Avenue. This was a training school for medical graduates seeking experience in pathology. Also gone, also the site of the Capital District Psychiatric Center.


State Education Building
State Education Building

New York State Library School, part of the New York State Library with 35-55 students a year. By this time, the State Library was in the State Education Building. Yeah, that’s still around.


Training Schools for Nurses

Albany Medical Center
Albany Medical Center

Albany Hospital Training School for Nurses, New Scotland Avenue. By 1922, the nursing school, with 82 students, was at the Albany Hospital’s relatively new digs. The original building is still there, if you squint.


Not St. Peter's
Not St. Peter’s

St. Peter’s Hospital, Broadway and North Ferry Street. Forty nurses were trained there in 1922. Yeah, that’s a parking lot today.


Not Albany Homeopathic
Not Albany Homeopathic

Homeopathic Hospital, 161 North Pearl Street. Hoxsie has already written of the need for napkin rings and plain underclothing for these nursing students, 38 in 1922. The building is long since gone, on the site occupied by the O’Brien Federal Building.


St. Catherine's Center
St. Catherine’s Center

Brady Maternity Hospital and Infant Home, North Main Avenue. The hospital provided a three-month course in obstetrics for senior nurses in other registered hospitals. There were 20 students. This is now St. Catherine’s Center for Children; I’m uncertain which of the buildings was the original hospital.

11 thoughts on “Albany institutions: where are they now?

  1. Hello, Thanks for posting this. I was born in Brady hospital on October 1963, but my family moved to Miami Florida in 1967 and Iwas looking to see if it still existed. Your site gave me an insight as to where it would have been.
    Thanks
    Carlos Cortada
    Miami FL

  2. That’s the kind of comment that makes my day. If you look at the photo or a satellite view you can still see the old complex, it’s just not clear to me exactly which of the old buildings was Brady.

    1. Brady hospital was the squared tower at the top of your photo. the infant home and “child nurses” training school was the larger building at the middle to lower portion of your photo. I was born in 1958,and lived there for a few years untill I was adopted at age 9. There used to be photos available online but apparently the Catholic Church has chosen to make them unavailable. I have many memories of my childhood and would love a picture of the building as it was to show my children and grandchildren.

  3. No School #13? Oh, but there was! It was on southeast corner of Broadway and Lawrence Street. Originally built in 1799 as the New York State Arsenal and designed by Philip Hooker, it was repurposed as an elementary school in 1867. I don’t know how long it lasted as a school. Ultimately demolished in the 1960s, it is now a parking lot.

  4. No School #13? Oh, but there was! It was on southeast corner of Broadway and Lawrence Street. Originally built in 1799 as the New York State Arsenal and designed by Philip Hooker, it was repurposed as an elementary school in 1867. I don’t know how long it lasted as a school. Ultimately demolished in the 1960s, it is now a parking lot.

  5. Trying to find information about my birth in December 1952 and adoption in 1956. I am try to find an information regarding Mother and Father .Born in Brady Maternity Hospital and believe a ward of state at St. ANN’S.
    CAN YOU TELL ME WHAT I NEED TO DO?
    MY UNDERSTANDING IS THERE ARE SEALED RECORDS BUT DON’T KNOW WHERE.
    Any help is appreciated!
    I saw that I can do the Amazon smile program for St Ann count me in!
    Christine

  6. Pre-adoption birth certificates are available to those born and adopted in NYS through the NYS Department of Health, Office of Vital Records – PAC Unit.

  7. The former Brady Maternity Hospital building still stands and now houses Catholic Charities of Albany. It’s still at 40 N. Main Ave.
    It was not located on the present grounds of St. Anne’s, as I had once thought.
    In addition to the street number being the same, there are photos of the facade if you search online for them. You can compare them to the current front of the CCA building that’s visible in Google Street View. The front of the building faces north, and not N. Main to the west. In Street View you can see the front from Chestnut Street on the far side of St. Mary’s Park. You can also see it from the driveway into the C.C.A. parking lot.

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