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Temporary State Commission on the Capital City
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Since last week we had a good look at what went on during the construction of the Empire State Plaza, we thought we’d take a look at some of the planning leading up to that, which fell under the purview of the Temporary State Commission on the Capital City. The Commission, chaired by Lt.…
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“It has not yet been done.”
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The Albany Hand-book of 1884 noted that General Washington visited Albany on August 4, 1783 (not his only visit to the area), when he said that, “While I contemplate with inexpressible pleasure the future tranquility and glory of our common country, I cannot but take particular interest in the anticipation of the increase in…
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From Crane Street to Burma
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While we’re having a little local video festival this week, take a gander at this scene from “Objective, Burma!” If you’re the impatient type, you can jump ahead to about 1:10, where Lt. Jacobs (played by Nichols, NY native and Cornell graduate William Prince) explains the place he’d rather be than Burma: Cannonball Island,…
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The Making of the Mall
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All credit for finding this gem goes to Julie O’Connor over at the Albany… The Way It Was page on Facebook, and all thanks go to whoever found it and posted it to YouTube. Not entirely sure what year it was from, but it appears to have been the work of Helen C. Welsh,…
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The State of the Parks, 1884
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The Albany Hand-book of 1884 has this less than flattering description of the city’s parks: Albany has one spacious and beautiful park (see Washington Park); but most of the others are simply better than no parks. Academy Park. – Consists of about two acres, bounded by Elk and Eagle sts., Washington ave. and Park…
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When West Albany Was Where the Beeves Were
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In 1881, the stockyards at West Albany were among the largest in the country, as noted in these paragraphs from “The Albany Hand-book”: Cattle Market. – The stock yards at West Albany are reached in 45 minutes from Broadway by the State st. horse cars, which leave on the half hour; or in ten…
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No Shinney Playing, You Kids!
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In 1881 (and really, perhaps today, because I haven’t checked the city code lately), ball playing and “shinney” playing in the public streets were punishable by a fine of $1 for every person thus offending. Shinney was a form of street hockey, really, and it’s hard to imagine how that would have worked on…
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Albany Auction Houses
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The Albany Hand-book of 1881 reported that not only was State Street then a crowded market, but it was home to all sorts of auctions. “The principal auction houses are on State st., and many sales are conducted in the middle of that accommodating thoroughfare, the city ordinances providing that bulky articles may be…
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River travel before steam: wind, white-ash breeze, and kedging
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In “The History of the Seventeen Towns of Rensselaer County,” Arthur Weise described river travel before the age of steam. In periods of calm winds, the tides of the river could be, a little bit, the traveller’s friend, but then sometimes they had to resort to kedging: “Anyone taking passage in a sloop…
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The Western Gateway Bridge, again
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I don’t think I’ve ever seen this view before (another one from the Boston Public Library collection), but it’s a fantastic picture of the Western Gateway Bridge. Sure, my unreasonable love for this bridge may be because it was the first bridge I really knew, and because I was pushed across it in a…