Again from The Albany Hand-Book of 1881, of which we can never get enough:
Academy Park, consists of one and eighty-two one-hundredths acres, bounded by Elk and Eagle sts., Washington ave., and Park place, and just now is in a dilapidated condition. As soon as the old Capitol is removed, and Capitol Park laid out anew, Academy Park will also be improved. A little distance west of this spot used to be a ravine running north and south, where, tradition says, tories, in the time of the revolution, were stripped of their coats, hats and shoes, and a bandage put over their eyes, in which condition they were executed and buried on the spot. It was in Academy park that the building of the Army Relief Bazaar was erected in 1864.
The old Capitol was around until 1883, although the new Capitol was far from finished. Academy Park, of course, is today still one of Albany’s most delightful little public spaces.