• The Old Mohawk School

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    Carl Johnson

    Here’s a pretty picture of another old school, Scotia’s original Mohawk School, on Mohawk Avenue. It was built in 1870, and served as the school until 1917 when the “new” school was built on Ten Broeck Avenue, deeper in the village. The building then served as the Colonial Ice Cream factory, until it was…

  • Albany institutions: where are they now?

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    Carl Johnson

    In addition to the numerous public and private schools listed in the Albany Chamber of Commerce’s guide to “Education in Albany” in 1922, the guide included a number of institutional schools, private schools, a fairly broad definition of colleges, and many places to learn nursing. Many of these remain; many are forgotten. Institutional Schools…

  • Albany Parochial Schools, 1922

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    Carl Johnson

    Our exhaustive review of the buildings that housed Albany’s schools in 1922 only included the public schools. Parochial schools (as far as I can see, all Catholic) abounded throughout the city. The Cathedral Academy, 105 Elm Street. This Sisters of St. Joseph school had an enrollment of 175 in 1922; it would appear the…

  • Schools of Albany, 1922: Where are they now?

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    Carl Johnson

    By 1922, the “new” Albany High School on Lake Avenue, which had only opened in September 1913 at a cost of a million dollars, was already “taxed beyond its capacity so that ‘double sessions’ are necessary,” according to the Chamber of Commerce’s helpful report on “Education in Albany.” At that time, four new elementary…

  • This is why we can’t have nice high schools

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    Carl Johnson

    Click on this picture from the Library of Congress’s Detroit Publishing collection and, for just a few minutes, soak in the elegance of this magnificent structure that was the first Albany High School. So beautiful. Sadly, gone for almost a century now.

  • Finally, an Albany High School

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    Carl Johnson

    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…

  • The first academies in Albany

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    Carl Johnson

    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…

  • Early schooling in Albany

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    Carl Johnson

    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…

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