Category: Albany

As noted previously, in its earliest days Albany wasn’t exactly overrun with schools, and most of the first schools required tuition or patronage of some sort. In 1796, the Common Council passed an ordinance authorizing free schools, and then promptly did nothing about creating any. Joel Munsell’s Annals of Albany indicates that there were…

In April, 1779, a number of Albany inhabitants petitioned for the creation of a seminary under the protection, direction and care of the aldermen, who agreed and recruited George Merchant of Philadelphia to be the first principal. The academy opened November 16, 1779, in a house known as Vanderheyden Palace, near the southwest corner…

That last post was dry toast even by Hoxsie’s standards, so here’s something a little less factual and figural. The earliest settlers of Albany did without a system of education until 1650, when the congregation of the First Church built a school house and chose Andrass Jansen as the teacher, who instructed the children…

The Albany Chamber of Commerce’s 1923 booklet on education in Albany laid out an impressive and highly confusing set of facts and figures to relate the importance of education in the city, to show that “as a business, education here surpasses, both in investment and in the amount of its payroll, that of any…

In 1923, the Albany Chamber of Commerce put out a booklet promoting “Education in Albany: An Opportunity and a Business.” “What educational opportunity will be possible for my children?” the booklet asked. “This is the most important question a man asks who is seeking a home. Albany answers this question with a completeness hardly…

At some point, J.B. Lyon’s massive printing operation  (“the largest complete printing plant between New York and Chicago”) left its downtown location at Beaver and Daniel (among others) for the open spaces of North Broadway; I’m not sure when this happened, but by 1940, this was what their plant looked like. In all their…

Everyone’s been all a-twitter because the Times Union got a new press. (In fairness, it is likely to be the last offset web press ever installed in the area. Ever.) Well, the local newspaper didn’t always rule the roost when it came to printing production; far from it. Here’s a view of the J.B.…

The Albany Institute of History and Art collection includes this fabulous 1909 letter, on the letterhead of Cairo’s Eden Palace Hotel (with electric light and a lift!). The letter is from Samuel W. Brown, a noted businessman in the coffee, spice and mustard trade (Bacon, Stickney was his company) who was also on the…

Hey, remember that time when Albany was going to set standard time for the entire country? And the Dudley Observatory was going to figure out what time it really was? And then they were going to telegraph it to the railroads, and drop “time balls” in cities all over the country? Well, it almost…

Couldn’t resist sharing one more ad extolling the virtues of Albany Grease. That it had long since been manufactured in New York City by the time this ad appeared in 1921 seemed to bother no one, so we can assume it wasn’t geography that made it such great grease. “Good to the last drop.”…