Category: Albany Bicentennial Tablets

Well, that’s it. A project that I expected to complete within a few months ended up dragging out over the course of just about three years. In that time, I’ve written about little else here on Hoxsie – it’s been Albany in 1886 for quite some time. When information was sparse, when the stories…

Here is the last of the several bicentennial tablets that were not recorded by the official Bicentennial Committee in 1886. Placed on the grounds of the new east Capitol Park not many years after the building it celebrates was demolished in 1883, our final tablet somehow survived all these years. No. 47, “Old Capitol”…

We’re glad that the Bi-centennial Committee saw fit to recognize several Jewish congregations, having given considerable attention to various individual Christian churches, but we’re sorry to say that the marker failed to note that Albany was, for a critical time, the home of one of the most important figures in American Judaism, Rabbi Isaac…

Another tablet not listed in the official publication of the Albany Bi-Centennial Committee, and another one we’re not sure survives. In 1914, the Albany Argus said this had been placed on the east wall of the Albany Academy – it doesn’t appear to be there today. If anyone knows of its whereabouts, we’d be happy…

In 1914, The Albany Argus noted a number of bicentennial markers that for some reason were not included in the Albany Bi-centennial Committee’s official list published in 1886. This one, though is unfamiliar to us – the Argus reported it was on the south wall of the Albany Academy. Thanks to intrepid correspondent Paula…

The official book on the Albany Bicentennial – Anthony Bleecker Banks’s “Albany Bi-centennial: historical memoirs” – provides a very detailed recitation of the events that celebrated the bicentennial of the city’s charter in 1886, including all the speeches and a description of the fireworks, as well as the textual account of the many historical…

One reason (among many) that this project now takes so long and so much time passes between posts is that here in the later markers, there’s just so little to say – we keep digging, thinking we’ll find some relevant little tidbit or finally discover the meaning behind a naming, but more often than…

Bicentennial Tablet No. 41 was a simple commemoration of Clinton Avenue – and an unhelpful one at that, as it didn’t even bother to indicate which Clinton the avenue was named for: Bronze tablet, 7×16 inches, corner North Pearl street. Inscription: “Clinton Avenue, formerly Patroon Street—North of this Street was the ‘Old Colonie.’” This was…

We have another minor commemorative tablet placed during Albany’s celebration of the bicentennial of its charter, in 1886 – this one for Franklin Street, which was a bit more of a complete street then than it is now. Although the building this marker was placed on is still there, which is pretty remarkable, the…

The 39th in our series of Albany Bicentennial tablets was one that simply provided the name and former name of Norton Street: Tablet No. 39—Norton StreetBronze tablet, 7×16 inches, north side of Beaver block. Inscription“ Norton Street, formerly Store Lane.” Despite the Bicentennial Committee’s intent to place this on the Beaver Block, The Argus…