The 1884 Albany Hand-book (“A Stranger’s Guide and Resident’s Manual”) provided this description of Albany’s most notable street:
“State Street owes its great width to the fact that in the early history of the city most of the public buildings were in the middle of that street. It is a noble avenue, and when cleared of its Market (which see) will form a fitting approach to the Capitol.”
We haven’t turned up an image of State Street when the market was still there, but nearly every image after that shows that the median of this wide street immediately became illegal parking; those trucks and cars stopped in the middle today got the idea from horses and buggies.
The Market itself was described as “a prominent, but not wholly unobjectionable feature of Albany.
“Here farmers, butchers, etc., in the morning, draw their wagons up in line on both sides of the horse railroad tracks, and without license, fee or restriction of any kind, vend their wares. Sometimes the wagons extend round into Eagle street. There is, of course, not the slightest protection from the weather, and the business is carried on in the most primitive method imaginable. The only thing to be said in its favor is, that here consumer and producer meet without the intervention of middlemen or the payment of any license, and the consequently Albany is victualed cheaper than any other city in the country.
“But this could just as well be done in some less conspicuous place, and the removal of the market is only a matter of time.”
It was, in fact, moved over to what is now a vast expanse of parking over in the Hudson/Hamilton/Green area.
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