In the very back pages of the endlessly fascinating “Albany Hand-Book” for 1881 (“A Strangers’ Guide and Residents’ Manual”) is an appendix chronicling local events for 1880.
So let’s see what was going on at the Capitol that year, when it was under the supervision of its second architect, Leopold Eidlitz, and had only been under construction for 13 years (with a brief 19 to go):
March 30: Charles Hagar, a laborer at the capitol, fell and was instantly killed.
July 27: Charles Dunn, bricklayer at the capitol, fell, and was killed.
July 28: A fire in the tressel-work of the Capitol caused some excitement, but little damage.
August 5: Thomas Strawbridge, water carrier at the Capitol, fell 90 feet, and was killed.