Category: Albany

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…

Just a little over 47 years ago, the Tri-Cities got their first full-fledged mall, Colonie Center. It was billed as the “INclosed Double Mall,” “located on the tree-studded site of historic Colonie Country Club.” I don’t recall that any trees were left once they were done building the mall, but maybe I’m wrong about…

A post over at the Nostalgic Syracuse Facebook page reminded me that I have never written about Flah’s Department Store,. This ad from October 31, 1966, celebrated the grand opening of its Colonie Center store the next day (“manana“!). I really have no recollection of the Flah’s location, though I do remember as a…

Hoxsie’s crazy busy this week. Instead of enlightening history, you’re going to have to settle for a pretty picture postcard of Thacher Park’s overlook at the edge of the Helderberg escarpment. Early 1960s? Pretty as a picture, it is.

In 1917, the New York Telephone Company was still getting Albany residents used to some of the benefits of the burgeoning telephone systems. This ad from the Blue Book reminded residents: “In An Emergency Telephone first, there is no quicker way to call help in case of fire, burglary, sickness or any other critical…

An alert reader (thanks, John!) sent along this article from the Feb. 27, 1951 Knickerbocker News, detailing the end of the line for the venerable Goold’s carriage company, which invented the Albany sleigh, created the first railroad cars, and built custom auto bodies. The company had a 138-year run. Carriage Plant Bows to Time…

Back in 1911, auto shows were a very big deal, and Albany had a big one in the Washington Avenue Armory. It ran for a week and had 47 exhibitors, showing 137 cars of 56 different makes. What was being shown? G.W. Wait is showing seven cars from the Elmore plant. The Trojan Garage…

We’re not sure when they stopped publishing “The Blue Book,” the directory of the elite, but it’s probable that when they did, the need for shops like Mrs. Leake’s fell away. It takes a certain level of society to drive the need for tally, dinner, and visiting cards. That society was still going strong…

Since we mentioned Goold’s auto bodies yesterday and opined as to the likelihood they were connected to the old Albany carriage and sleighmaker by the name of Goold, we’d be remiss not to talk about the Albany sleigh. This Forbes article from several years back lays nothing less than the central image of Christmas,…

When The Goold Company advertised in The Blue Book in 1917, presumably their clientele knew where they were located, for this ad doesn’t give a clue. In fact, Goold didn’t leave a lot of clues to their existence lying around. It’s likely, given that many automobile companies started this way, that they were part…