• The Great Commoner loved the Ten Eyck

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    Carl Johnson

    “Mr. William Jennings Bryan, whilst here the other night, said some good things about Albany, all of which we indorse. Our adopted city is all right and up-to-date, notwithstanding the census takers did not fully take the census here. Mr. Bryan spoke in general of our beautiful hotels, especially the Ten Eyck. He ought…

  • Beautiful Residential Section of Albany

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    Carl Johnson

    It is, too. Not sure precisely when this postcard was made. I am sure that with a little work and the Big Brotherish miracle of StreetView I could track the location down and find the neighborhood essentially unchanged. But sometimes it’s enough to look at a pretty postcard.

  • Knowlson’s Butter of Cocoa Suppositories

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    Carl Johnson

    In 1886, Arthur Weise proclaimed that Troy was home to about 37 places where drugs and medicines were sold. Among them, he gushed about the establishment of Alexander M. Knowlson at 350 Broadway. “He possesses one of the most attractive drug, medicine and prescription stores in the city. Spacious, well-lighted, tastefully furnished, it presents…

  • Albia seems like it should be in a palindrome

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    Carl Johnson

    View Larger MapAble was I ere I saw Albia? Albia is a neighborhood of Troy that is a vital little urban fragment, the right mix of homes and shops, a neighborhood that seems to get by. Weise’s 1886 “The City of Troy and its Vicinity” has a listing for Albia: “Albia, in the fifth…

  • Yes, Virginia, there was a City Hall

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    Carl Johnson

    Troy seems to be an anomaly these days, a city without a permanent city hall. For years it was in an atrocious ’70s style concrete abomination, now torn down to make way for riverfront redevelopment. For now it’s in a different atrocious ’70s style concrete abomination, with plans to move it back to Monument…

  • An Albany Rockette

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    Carl Johnson

    Miss Helene Dernell of Albany, New York, as photographed by Alfred Eisenstadt for Life magazine. Helene was a Rockette when this was taken in 1942. More on her life in dance here.

  • Frear’s Troy Cash Bazaar

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    Carl Johnson

    William H. Frear, at Cannon Place, has the personal distinction of possessing and conducting a larger retail dry-goods business than any merchant in a city of the United States of the same population as that of Troy. The patronage of “Frear’s Troy Bazaar” is not wholly local, for its fame attracts customers from all…

  • Grab your two-wheeler

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    Carl Johnson

    From Weise’s “The City of Troy and its Vicinity”: “Troy Bicycle Club, organized November 4, 1881, purchased the spacious Coliseum Building, on the south side of Federal Street, between Sixth and Eighth streets, in the early part of 1886, and fitted it for the purposes of the association. The clubhouse, built of brick, has…

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