• Hampton Manor

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    Carl Johnson

    By the 1920s, Albany had pretty much filled out to its current extent; the wide open lands of Pine Hills had been built up in the 1890s, and the trolleys made it possible for people to live outside the city and still get to work. The sudden growth of the personal automobile also led…

  • Vacation

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    Carl Johnson

    In 1917, George wanted to let Miss Blanche Barker of Turin, N.Y., know that he’d be spending his vacation in Albany Sunday. Hoxsie’s taking a little vacation, too. Back in a few days.

  • Sayles Hall

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    Carl Johnson

    We’ve looked at some of the other buildings of the old State Normal School in Albany, now known as the downtown campus of SUNY Albany, but haven’t tripped upon Sayles Hall before. And so here it is. It was dedicated in 1941 as a men’s dormitory. It went back and forth between housing men…

  • William Young’s Troy buildings

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    Carl Johnson

    It tickles Hoxsie’s cockles that so many beautiful, important, historic buildings in Troy are seeing renovation and reuse. Not least of these is the building constructed by William H. Young, bookseller and stationer, which has stood somewhat neglected on First Street next to the Rice Building for too long. Young’s printing and bookselling business…

  • General Grant’s funeral procession

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    Carl Johnson

    We all know (we do all know this, right?) that General Ulysses S. Grant finished his military memoirs in a small cottage at Mount McGregor just before dying there on July 23, 1885, a bit more than twenty years after Appomattox. The cottage, loaned him by Joseph Drexel of New York, was subsequently presented…

  • Elmer Weatherwax, distributor of novelties

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    Carl Johnson

    So in 1958, my grandfather’s short-lived drive-in restaurant in Aqueduct apparently featured a jukebox, as just about any respectable diner of the day would have have done. He apparently rented a Seeburg from Elmer H. Weatherwax, wholesale distributor of novelties, coin operated amusement equipment, Thorens audio equipment, and plush toys (indicated on the back…

  • Nehi!

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    Carl Johnson

    I ran across this 1958 receipt for Nehi beverages from my grandfather’s short-lived drive-in restaurant at Aqueduct, and it made me wonder where Nehi had gone. Nehi was once a well-known soda brand, which in 1955 became Royal Crown.Growing up, Royal Crown was always something of the consolation prize when what you really wanted…

  • Thacher Park Pool

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    Carl Johnson

    Since All Over Albany just featured the discussion on the future of Thacher Park, here’s a quick glimpse of the past: its once-great swimming pool. My guess on this postcard would be sometime in the 1950s or perhaps even ’60s.

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