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Al Smith, standing tall
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You know how you always hear the Corning Tower is the tallest building between New York City and Montreal? Well, before the 42-story tower at the Empire State Plaza opened in 1966, the Alfred E. Smith State Office Building held that honor. At 34 stories and 388 feet, it was not only fabulously tall,…
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Albany: close to everything!
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Where in the United States of America is there a city from which so many summer resorts can be reached so quickly, easily and cheaply as from Albany? Did you ever think of it? Saratoga, Lake George, the Adirondacks, the Catskills, the Helderbergs, Howe’s Cave, Cooperstown, Sharon Springs, Ballston Spa, Round Lake, Kinderhook, the…
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Home of the secret handshake
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Troy’s Masonic Temple, dedicated April 2, 1871. It was on the west side of Third Street, between Broadway and River Street. Given the age of the other buildings there, I’d guess its site is now taken by the Rensselaer Center of Applied Geology building. (Update: guess again. Having looked at the street, I’d guess…
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What a world of solemn thought their monody compels!
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Bells, that is. Those words are Poe’s, these are Arthur Weise’s in 1886, describing Troy’s then world-famous bell industry: The fame of having tens of thousands of church bells ringing round the earth made in her foundries is realized by Troy. In the distant missionary fields in Africa, along the fertile borders of the…
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Bath-on-the-Hudson (on, not in)
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Arthur Weise has one of the few descriptions I’ve found of the former village of Bath-on-the-Hudson: “Bath-on-the-Hudson, the first station on the Troy and Greenbush Railroad, three miles south of the city [of Troy]. It derived its name from several mineral springs, discovered about the close of the last century, near the village. John…
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The other Troy Armory, and the undetected corpse
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If you think of the old State Armory in Troy, you probably think of the one on the RPI campus, which is now known as the Alumni Sports & Recreation Center. It’s a big old brick pile in a fortress style, somewhat less decorative than some other armories of its day. But it had…
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The Cohoes Cataract
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I my self this last Summer, saw a Cataract, three Leagues above Albany, in the Province of New York, upon Schenectada River called the Cohoes, which they count much of there; and yet that is not above 40 or 50 Foot perpendicular. From these Falls also there rises a mighty Cloud, which descends like…
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Who was who, Albany, 1900
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Someday soon I’ll relate the fascinating story of Dr. William Henry Johnson, a free black man who long ran a highly respected barber salon on Maiden Lane in Albany, from which he made contact with all the leading figures of abolition and the Underground Railroad. He led groundbreaking changes in New York State law,…
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