• Albany Bicentennial Tablet No. 11 – Fort Frederick

    Albany Bicentennial Tablet No. 11 – Fort Frederick

    Continuing our series on the stories behind the 1886 bicentennial tablets commemorating important places in Albany, we have our first marker laid in a sidewalk, telling us of the nearby location of Fort Frederick. Tablet No. 11 – Fort Frederick Located head of State street, in sidewalk, near the curb on lower edge of Capitol…

  • Albany Bicentennial Tablet No. 9 – First Presbyterian Church

    Albany Bicentennial Tablet No. 9 – First Presbyterian Church

    As we’re tracking the histories associated with the tablets that were installed in 1886 to commemorate the bicentennial of Albany’s charter as a city, we’ve been lucky so far in that nearly all of the tablets we’ve written about have survived. The first lost tablet marked the site of the first Lutheran Church. Now…

  • Albany Bicentennial Tablet No. 8 – Old St. Mary’s Church

    Albany Bicentennial Tablet No. 8 – Old St. Mary’s Church

    Continuing with the eighth in our series covering the tablets that were placed around the city of Albany (and a little beyond) in honor of the bicentennial of the city’s charter, in 1886. This one commemorated the first Catholic church in the city, which came pretty late in the city’s development. Tablet No. 8—Old…

  • Albany Bicentennial Tablet No. 7 — First English Church

    Albany Bicentennial Tablet No. 7 — First English Church

    Continuing our series on the bronze markers that were placed by the Albany Bicentennial Committee in 1886 – the words below were approved to commemorate the first English church in Albany: Tablet No. 7—First English Church Located in the walk, near the curb, north-west corner of Chapel and State streets. Bronze tablet, 11×23 inches,…

  • Albany Bicentennial Tablet No. 6 – First Lutheran Church

    Albany Bicentennial Tablet No. 6 – First Lutheran Church

    We were doing so well up till now. The first five of the (arbitrarily numbered) plaques put up in celebration of the bicentennial of Albany’s charter in 1886 have all survived in some way. But here we hit our first missing plaque, with the one that marked the site of the first Lutheran church…

  • Bones, Fire and a Weathercock

    Bones, Fire and a Weathercock

    Last time we wrote about the Albany Bicentennial Tablet commemorating the first church in Albany, and we noted that in addition to the two successive church structures that sat in the middle of State Street at Broadway, there had been a burial ground around (and perhaps within) the church. At the time we said…

  • Albany Bicentennial Tablet No. 5 – The Old Dutch Church

    Albany Bicentennial Tablet No. 5 – The Old Dutch Church

    Continuing our series on the bronze markers that were placed by the Albany Bicentennial Committee in 1886 – the words below were approved to commemorate the first building constructed for use as a church in Albany: Tablet No. 5—The Old Dutch Church. Located in the Government building adjoining No. 3, to which it corresponds…

  • Albany Bicentennial Tablet No. 4 — The First Patroon

    Albany Bicentennial Tablet No. 4 — The First Patroon

    Continuing our series on the bronze markers that were placed by the Albany Bicentennial Committee in 1886 – the words below were approved to commemorate the first Patroon: Tablet No. 4—The “First Patroon” A bronze tablet, 16×22 inches placed in the City Hall, and thereon inscribed:“Killian Van Rensselaer, the Progenitor of the Van Rensselaer…

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