When talking about Albany’s leading architects, it never seems like Albert W. Fuller gets his due, and yet he had a huge influence on the look of Albany through the years, and had commissions and influence across a wider geographic range than many of the  others. Fuller was born in 1854 in Clinton, New…

In the middle part of the 19th century, Albany took on a new look that was largely the work of father and son architects by the name of Ogden and their partners. Edward Ogden, born in England in 1826, came to Albany at the age of 13. He apprenticed as an architect with fellow…

There could hardly be an architect who had more of an impact on the look of Albany as it grew into a substantial city in the early 19th century than Philip Hooker. He was widely respected, influential in politics and society Hooker’s classical stylings let the city start to rise above its simple Dutch…

Babbitt & Co. was once one of Albany’s greatest clothiers. When they took out this ad in 1913, the business was 13 years old and their store was located at 451-453 Broadway, just about at the intersection with Maiden Lane. By 1927 they had moved up to 67 North Pearl. Neither of their buildings…

The Flint Granite Company had its office and works at the Albany Rural Cemetery. As noted in this 1902 ad, it succeeded the James Gazeley company which was established in 1861. Arden A. Flint came from Barre, Vermont, the granite memorial capital, and took over Gazeley’s business around 1898. It also consolidated the businesses…

Municipal Journal & Public Works, 1911: Albany, N.Y. – The work of constructing the new recreation pier at the foot of State street, Albany, began June 19. Thus far this summer the contractor has had but two days in which the water was low enough to permit the work to be done. The piles…

One doesn’t imagine that the advertising manager for the 1902 “History of the Police Service of Albany” explicitly intended these two advertisements to end up directly adjacent to each other. (He probably didn’t intend the typo in “Brothers,” either.) Four Brothers Independent Oil appears to have been a regional supplier that began in Albany.…