Some academic collections serve a maddeningly singular purpose, but in this case that purpose serves Hoxsie well. Within Columbia University’s Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library resides The Biggert Collection […]

Once upon a time, banks had a single location. When we didn’t get around much, and lived pretty close to where we worked, that really wasn’t much of an issue. […]

In journalism school, we always referred to tales of ink-stained wretches and newspapers gone by told by our professors as “war stories.” But a teacher of French at the Albany […]

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about all the other Albanies that were named for our Albany. One of the most distant places on the planet was named, not […]

Joel Munsell’s “Annals of Albany, Vol. 10” from 1859 includes items of interest from the newspapers of the years gone by, including this delightful bit of commercial doggerel attached to […]

On this day in Albany history: in 1847, “Jakey Jackson, famed as a cleaner of lawyers’ offices, dies.” (Albany Chronicles, Cuyler Reynolds, 1906.)

As this ad from The New Albany in 1891 proclaims, there is no better city on this continent to live in, all things considered, than Albany, and if you intend […]

From the “Albany Tourist’s Handy Guide,” by John D. Whish, 1900: A Day in AlbanyFor the leisurely traveler, a day or more in Albany offers many pleasures. If a general […]

If you live in one of the fine Pine Hills homes built by the Albany Land Improvement and Building Co. somewhere around 1890, when streetcar travel started to make the […]

In 1892, Albany was spreading out, and the Albany Land Improvement and Building Company was enticing Albany’s middle class to live out of the noise and dirt of the city. […]