Albany’s Five State Buildings
The Gazetteer and Business Directory of Albany and Schenectady counties for 1870-71 reported that there were five State buildings in Albany at that time: The Capitol, State Hall, State Library, […]
Month: March 2015
Albany’s Horse-Drawn Trolleys
1893’s Street Railway Journal said that Albany was “one of the first cities in the United States to rise to the dignity of passenger transport by means of a street […]
American Express, Wells Fargo, and Albany
Did you ever get hit with something you feel like you really should have known, something that should just be common knowledge, and yet you had no idea? So here’s […]
It’s NOT 40 Miles from Schenectady to Troy
Among the greatest songs of Gustave Kerker (No. 14 on the Honor Roll of Popular Songwriters, according to Billboard magazine, back in 1949) was a tune he wrote, with lyrics […]
The State Agricultural Society
OR, WHERE TO SEND YOUR CORN STARCH Earlier this week we talked about how the original State Museum was in a space crunch from the first. It couldn’t have helped […]
Kids These Days
Are there any boys nowadays? We have sometimes been inclined to doubt it. Real, child-like, fun-loving boys, we mean; such as some we used to know in our early days; […]
The State Museum and the Geological Hall
Invariably, it seems that any discussion of the current New York State Museum engenders moans and wails from those who miss the “old” museum in the State Education Building, now […]
The Country Gentleman
We’ve talked about some of the other popular newspapers from when Albany was awash in newspapers, but we’ve rarely mentioned The Country Gentleman. At one time, The Country Gentleman was […]
The Alms-house
This Hopkins map from 1876 features the Albany County Alms-house (center left), which stood out in the wilds past Snipe Street. You’ll recognize the curving road (then a plank road) […]
The petition for a new Albany High School
As we’ve noted before, this beauty of a high school, Albany’s first built for that purpose, was designed by architect Edward Ogden and opened in 1876. By 1909, however, it […]