Author: Carl Johnson

We mentioned yesterday that in the annals of early crime in Albany, one James Hamilton was hanged for the murder of Major Benjamin Birdsall. Before his hanging, Hamilton gave the account of his life to one Calvin Pepper, “who penned the same from the lips of Hamilton.” The Sheriff and Police Justices certified “that…

1902’s “History of the Police Service of Albany” includes a chapter titled “Homicides of Two Centuries.” “Were one to fully describe all of the crimes committed in the City of Albany and vicinity, it would take many books the size of this one, so the best that can be done is to mention some…

“The History of the Police Service of Albany” from back in 1902 noted that at one time, there was a Capital Police District that covered the area. This was long before there was a State Police force. In 1865 the Legislature passed an act creating a capital police district that included the City of…

You’d think a city as old as Albany would have an equally old police force,  but what we think of as police is relatively modern. A 1902 “History of the Police Service of Albany” noted that early records of crime and its enforcement were sketchy at best, such that “much of the early history,…

In 1897, Albany was the scene of a famous kidnapping, the abduction of five-year-old John Conway. He was the son of Michael Conway, 99 Colonie Street, a night dispatcher at the West Albany yards. The “History of the Police Service of Albany: From 1609 to 1902” tells it this way: It was eight o’clock…

A building I never saw and miss dearly all the same: The Albany Savings Bank, North Pearl Street. This graceful beauty was built in 1907 by Henry Ives Cobb, artist and architect from Chicago and later Washington, D.C. The caption here is importantly wrong, as the Albany Savings Bank and the Albany City Savings…

From “Albany Chronicles,” in 1815: Common Council, in view of past experiences, finds it necessary to pass an ordinance to double watch the streets during Christmas and New Year’s celebration, enforcing the law prohibiting firing of guns days or nights of Dec. 24th, 25th and 26th or from Dec. 31st to Jan. 2d.

Yesterday we had a look at the lovely home of Albert Van Voast Bensen, a prominent local figure in banking, insurance, and paste. Listen, there was a time when you could make a pretty penny in paste, and The Diamond Paste Company of Albany was a prominent supplier. Located at 66 Hamilton Street (now…

Hoxsie’s taking it easy for the holidays, and mostly presenting you with pretty pictures. Here’s another from the Ryerson & Burnham Archives of the Art Institute of Chicago, a view from between 1880 (when this was built) and 1890 of the Albert V. Bensen Residence that stands at 439 State Street in Albany, across…