Category: Albany

The Northern Traveller, from 1844, relates an earlier, uncredited, positively gushing description of the capital city on the Hudson: “The younger race of fashionables and semi-fashionables know Albany, or affect to know it, merely as a big city-looking place, full of taverns and hotels, where they land from the steamboat, on their way to…

In 1938, a builder named Primomo was advertising the “Charm House” in the Times-Union. Built in a newly developed section off New Scotland Avenue, these homes featured six rooms (!), copper piping, insulation, a basement lavatory and air conditioning. What did they mean by “restricted community”? Not sure if that was racial or religious,…

Around the turn of the century (no, the other century), there was some discussion of the City of Albany setting up a municipal insurance scheme. Similar to other public utilities, fire and hazard insurance for businesses and residences would be provided  by the city government. This came at a time when private insurance was…

Wow, has it really been two years since I wrote about Albany’s claim to being the Piano City? I guess it has. This ad is from 1858, when Boardman and Gray had been making pianofortes for more than 20 years. The company is long gone, but the factory still stands at the corner of…

Back in 1844, the Mayor of Albany was Friend Humphrey, a leather merchant whose home in Colonie still exists. The City Council was made up of two aldermen per ward. That much sounds pretty much like government today. But among the city officers were a number of positions that, for better or worse, no…

Here’s our final Hoxsie entry from the endlessly fascinating Biggert Collection of Architectural Vignettes on Commercial Stationery, courtesy of Columbia University. This receipt from 1884 features a lovely rendition of their building at Broadway and Hamilton, and details the sale of a dozen salt rollers (?) to a George W. Clark of Salisbury, Connecticut;…

From an 1863 Albany directory, an ad for the previously mentioned R.M. Van Sickler & Forby. They dealt in the raw materials of fabric manufacture, and sold oil, belting, warps, spool tapes and the other things that Albany’s busy tailors, upholsterers, etc. would need.

I don’t find much about R.M. Van Sickler & Forby, other than that they were succeeded in the business by G.P. Morse. This lovely cut from the Biggert Collection shows not only Van Sickler & Forby but Albany’s legendary Delevan House, one of the premiere hotels of its day, a temperance hotel that ran…