Believe me, the entire Capital District did not always possess a genetic instinct for how to get to Wolf Road. It was a backwater road with a country club up against Central Avenue and farmland out to Albany-Shaker Road. Then the Northway came, and then, in 1966, Colonie Center came.
Here’s a thing you didn’t know: Colonie Center was built by Homart Development Company. Homart was a wholly owned subsidiary of Sears, Roebuck Co. Essentially, Sears built the mall. It was the fifth regional mall built by Homart in the country.
They prided themselves on building their centers with some sort of connection to the community they were in. I’m loathe to scoff at the efforts of others, but see if you can imagine how at the original mall “the country-club atmosphere has been retained with much of the architectural accent upon conveying the urban mood which is inspired by the booming growth of the Great Northeast.”
Interesting that on this map Route 20 was still being called the “Great Western Turnpike,” a name that has somehow been lost over the years.