Albany, New York Albany, New York Albany horizon from Rensselaer; middle-class housing in the Helderberg neighborhood; Palace Theatre; Empire State Plaza from the Cultural Education Center; North Pearl Street at Columbia Street; and the State Quad at SUNY Albany.
The seal's edge reads "THE SEAL OF THE CITY OF ALBANY" with "ASSIDUITY" in a banner above the bottom.
Official name: City of Albany State New York Government Albany City Hall Map shows the town/city of Albany on the west bank of the Hudson, surrounded by the suburbs of Colonie, Guilderland, and Bethlehem.
Location in Albany County and the state of New York.
Wikimedia Commons: Albany, New York state of New York and the seat of Albany County.
Roughly 150 miles (240 km) north of New York City, Albany advanced on the west bank of the Hudson River, about 10 miles (16 km) south of its confluence with the Mohawk River.
The populace of the City of Albany was 97,856 as stated to the 2010 census.
Albany constitutes the economic and cultural core of the Capital District of New York State, which comprises the Albany-Schenectady-Troy, NY Metropolitan Statistical Area, including the close-by cities and suburbs of Troy, Schenectady, and Saratoga Springs.
Morgan and Chase, Merrill Lynch, General Electric, Verizon, Goldman Sachs, International Paper, and Key Bank. In the 21st century, the Capital District has emerged as a primary anchor of Tech Valley, the moniker describing the technologically-focused region of easterly New York State.
In 1664 the English took over the Dutch settlements, renaming the town/city as Albany, with respect to the then Duke of Albany, the future James II of England and James VII of Scotland.
It became the capital of New York State in 1797, following the United States gaining independence in the American Revolutionary War.
Albany is one of the earliest surviving settlements of the initial British thirteen colonies, and the longest continuously chartered town/city in the United States.
Beginning in 1810, Albany was one of the ten most crowded cities in the United States, a distinct ion it held until the 1860 census.
Albany is one of the first metros/cities in the world to have installed enhance water mains, sewage lines, natural gas lines and electricity, transit framework and utilities that thriving and supported substantial new trade to the town/city and encircling area amid the 19th century. In the 20th century, the town/city opened one of the first commercial airports in the world, the precursor of today's Albany International Airport.
During the 1920s a powerful political machine controlled by the Democratic Party arose in the state capital, connected to politics in New York City as well.
While Albany experienced a diminish in its populace due to urban sprawl and suburbanization, many of its historic neighborhoods were saved from destruction through the policies of Mayor Erastus Corning 2nd, the longest-serving mayor of any town/city in the United States.
In the early 21st century, Albany has experienced expansion in the high-technology industry, with great strides in the nanotechnology sector. Albany has been a center of college studies for over a century, with much of the remainder of its economy dependent on state government and community care services.
Albany won the All-America City Award in both 1991 and 2009. Main article: History of Albany, New York The Dongan Charter legally established Albany as a town/city in 1686; it is the earliest United States town/city charter still in effect. Albany is one of the earliest surviving European settlements from the initial thirteen colonies and the longest continuously chartered town/city in the United States. The Hudson River region was originally inhabited by Algonquian-speaking Mohican (Mahican), who called it Pempotowwuthut-Muhhcanneuw, meaning "the fireplace of the Mohican nation." Based to the west along the Mohawk River, the Iroquoian-speaking Mohawk referred to it as Sche-negh-ta-da, or "through the pine woods," referring to the path they took there. The Mohawk were one of the Five Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy, or Haudenosaunee, and became strong trading partners with the Dutch and English.
Permanent European claims began when Englishman Henry Hudson, seeking for the Dutch East India Company on the Half Moon (Dutch: Halve Maen), reached the region in 1609, claiming it for the United Netherlands. In 1614, Hendrick Christiaensen assembled Fort Nassau, a fur-trading post and the first documented European structure in present-day Albany.
When New Netherland was captured by the English in 1664, they changed the name Beverwijck to Albany, with respect to the Duke of Albany (later James II of England and James VII of Scotland). Duke of Albany was a Scottish title given since 1398, generally to a younger son of the King of Scots. The name is ultimately derived from Alba, the Gaelic name for Scotland. The Dutch briefly regained Albany in August 1673 and retitled the town/city Willemstadt; the English took permanent possession with the Treaty of Westminster (1674). On November 1, 1683, the Province of New York was split into counties, with Albany County being the largest.
At that time the county encompassed all of present New York State north of Dutchess and Ulster Counties in addition to present-day Bennington County, Vermont, theoretically stretching west to the Pacific Ocean; the town/city of Albany became the county seat. Albany was formally chartered as a municipality by provincial Governor Thomas Dongan on July 22, 1686.
The Dongan Charter was virtually identical in content to the charter awarded to the town/city of New York three months earlier. Dongan created Albany as a strip of territory 1 mile (1.6 km) wide and 16 miles (26 km) long. Over the years Albany would lose much of the territory to the west and annex territory to the north and south.
In 1754, delegates of seven British North American colonies met in the Stadt Huys, Albany's town/city hall, for the Albany Congress; Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania presented the Albany Plan of Union there, which was the first formal proposal to unite the colonies. Although it was never adopted by Parliament, it was an meaningful precursor to the United States Constitution. The same year, the French and Indian War, the fourth in a series of wars dating back to 1689, began; it ended in 1763 with French defeat, resolving a situation that had been a constant threat to Albany and held back its growth. In 1775, with the colonies in the midst of the Revolutionary War, the Stadt Huys became home to the Albany Committee of Correspondence (the political arm of the small-town revolutionary movement), which took over operation of Albany's government and eventually period its power to control all of Albany County.
Migrants from Vermont and Connecticut began flowing in, noting the advantages of living on the Hudson and trading at Albany, while being only a several days' sail from New York City. Albany reported a populace of 3,498 in the first nationwide census in 1790, an increase of almost 700% since its chartering. In 1797, the state capital of New York was moved permanently to Albany.
From statehood to this date, the Legislature had incessantly moved the state capital between Albany, Kingston, Hurley, Poughkeepsie, and the town/city of New York. Albany is the tenth-oldest state capital in the United States, but only the second-oldest state capital that is a city, after Santa Fe, New Mexico. A yellowed map of the town/city showing streets, the Hudson River, and municipal boundaries; Albany is shaded to distinguish from neighboring towns.
Albany has been a center of transit for much of its history.
In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Albany saw evolution of the turnpike and by 1815, Albany was the turnpike center of the state.
Simeon De Witt advanced a grid block fitness in 1794, and retitled streets for birds and mammals that had honored British royalty. This grid was intersected by the primary arterials coming out of Albany, which cut through the town/city at unexpected angles. The assembly of the turnpike athwart the state, in conjunction with canal and barns systems, made Albany the core of transit for pioneers going to Buffalo and the Michigan Territory in the early- and mid-19th century. A white steam ship is seen near the shore of the Hudson River in front of the downtown region of Albany; the New York State Capitol can be seen in the background.
The steamer Albany departs for New York City; at the height of steam travel in 1884, more than 1.5 million passengers took the trip. In 1807, Robert Fulton initiated a steamboat line from New York to Albany, the first prosperous enterprise of its kind. By 1810, with 10,763 citizens , Albany was the 10th-largest urban place in the nation. The town and village were known as "the Colonie" to the north of Albany was took in in 1815. In 1825 the Erie Canal was completed, forming a continuous water route from the Great Lakes to New York City.
Unlike the current Barge Canal, which ends at close-by Waterford, the initial Erie Canal ended at Albany; Lock 1 was north of Colonie Street. The Canal emptied into a 32-acre (13 ha) man-made lagoon called the Albany Basin, which was Albany's chief port from 1825 until the Port of Albany-Rensselaer opened in 1932. In 1829, while working as a professor at the Albany Academy, Joseph Henry, widely regarded as "the foremost American scientist of the 19th century", assembled the first electric motor.
He went on to be the first Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. In the 1830 and 1840 censuses, Albany was ranked as the 9th-largest urban place in the nation, then back to 10th in 1850. This was the last time the town/city was one of the top ten biggest urban places in the nation. The Delaware and Hudson Railway was headquartered in Albany at what is now the SUNY System Administration Building. In 1853, Erastus Corning, a noted industrialist and Albany's mayor from 1834 to 1837, merged ten barns s stretching from Albany to Buffalo into the New York Central Railroad (NYCRR), headquartered in Albany until Cornelius Vanderbilt moved it to New York City in 1867. One of the ten companies that formed the NYCRR was the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad, which was the first barns in the state and the first prosperous steam barns running regularly scheduled service in the country. Beverwyck Brewery, originally known as Quinn and Nolan (Nolan being mayor of Albany 1878 1883), was the last remaining brewer from that time when it closed in 1972.
The city's locale at the east end of the Erie Canal gave it unparalleled access to both raw products and a captive customer base in the west. Albany was known for its publishing homes, and to some extent, still is.
Albany was second only to Boston in the number of books produced for most of the 19th century. Iron foundries in both the north and south ends of the town/city brought thousands of immigrants to the city.
Albany's other primary exports amid the 18th and 19th centuries were furs, wheat, meat, and lumber; by 1865, there were almost 4,000 saw mills in the Albany region and the Albany Lumber District was the biggest lumber market in the nation. The town/city was also home to a number of banks.
The Bank of Albany (1792 1861) was the second chartered bank in New York. The town/city was the initial home of the Albank (founded in 1820 as the Albany Savings Bank), Key - Bank (founded in 1825 as the Commercial Bank of Albany), and Norstar Bank (founded as the State Bank of Albany in 1803). American Express was established in Albany in 1850 as an express mail business. In 1871, the northwestern portion of Albany west from Magazine Street was took in to the neighboring town of Guilderland after the town of Watervliet refused annexation of said territory. In return for this loss, portions of Bethlehem and Watervliet were added to Albany.
Albany opened one of the first commercial airports in the world, and the first municipal airport in the United States, in 1908.
The Albany Municipal Airport jointly owned by the town/city and county was moved to its current locale in Colonie in 1928.
It was known from then on as Albany County Airport until a massive upgrade and modernization universal between 1996 and 1998, when it was rechristened Albany International Airport. By 1916 Albany's northern and southern borders reached their undivided courses; Westerlo Island, to the south, became the second-to-last annexation, which occurred in 1926. Erastus Corning 2nd, arguably Albany's most notable mayor (and great-grandson of the former mayor of the same name), was propel in 1941. Although he was one of the longest-serving mayors of any town/city in United States history (1942 until his death in 1983), one historian describes Corning's tenure as "long on years, short on accomplishments." Grondahl cited Corning's preference for maintaining the status quo as a factor that held back potential progress amid his tenure. While Corning brought stability to the office of mayor, it is said even those who admire him greatly cannot come up with a sizeable list of "major concrete Corning achievements." Corning is given credit for saving albeit somewhat unintentionally much of Albany's historic architecture. It lost more than 20 percent of its populace during the Corning years, as citizens moved to newer housing in the suburbs, followed by most of the downtown businesses moving there as well. While metros/cities athwart the nation grappled with similar issues, the enigma were magnified in Albany: interference from the Democratic political machine hindered progress considerably. Governor Nelson Rockefeller (1959 1973) (R) tried to stimulate the town/city with grandiose, monumental architecture and large, government-sponsored building projects; he drove assembly of the Empire State Plaza, SUNY Albany's uptown campus, and much of the W.
Averell Harriman State Office Building Campus. Albany County Republican Chairman Joseph C.
Frangella once quipped, "Governor Rockefeller was the best mayor Albany ever had." Corning, though opposed to the project, was responsible for negotiating the payment plan for the Empire State Plaza.
What Corning had saved from destruction, Whalen refurbished for continued and new uses. The Mayor's Office of Special Events was created in an accomplishment to increase the number of celebrations and creative affairs in the city, including a year-long Dongan Charter tricentennial celebration in 1986. Whalen is credited for an "unparalleled cycle of commercial investment and development" in Albany due to his "aggressive company development programs". During the 1990s, the State Legislature allowed the $234 million "Albany Plan", "a building and renovation universal [that] was the most ambitious building universal to affect the region since the Rockefeller era." Under the Albany Plan, renovation and new building projects were initiated around the downtown area.
Many state workers were relocated from the Harriman State Office Campus to downtown, helping its retail businesses and vitality. During the first decade of the 21st century, progress was made on a long-discussed and controversial Albany Convention Center.
As of August 2010, the Albany Convention Center Authority (authorized by the state legislature) had already purchased 75% of the territory needed to build the downtown project. Albany is about 150 miles (240 km) north of New York City on the Hudson River. It has a total region of 21.8 square miles (56 km2), of which 21.4 square miles (55 km2) is territory and 0.4 square miles (1.0 km2) (1.8%) is water. The town/city is bordered on the north by the town of Colonie (along with the village of Menands), on the west by the town of Guilderland, and on the south by the town of Bethlehem. The Hudson River represents the city's easterly border.
The lowest point is sea level at the Hudson River (the average water altitude is 2 feet (0.61 m)), which is still technically an estuary at Albany and is affected by the Atlantic tide. The interior of Albany consists of rolling hills which were once part of the Albany Pine Bush, an region of pitch pine and scrub oak, and has arid, sandy soil that is a remnant of the ancient Lake Albany.
Albany is in the humid continental climate zone (Koppen climate classification: Dfa), and has cold, snowy winters, and hot, wet summers; the town/city experiences four distinct seasons.
Albany is in plant hardiness zone 6a near downtown and along the shore of the Hudson and 5b at its end. Albany receives 39.4 inches (1,000 mm) of precipitation per year, with 138 days of at least 0.01 in (0.25 mm) of rain each year.
However, Albany is close enough to the Atlantic coast to receive heavy snow from Nor'easters and the town/city occasionally receives Alberta clippers. Winters can be very cold with fluctuating conditions; temperatures drop to 0 F ( 18 C) or below on nine evenings per annum. Summers in Albany can contain stretches of excessive heat and humidity, with temperatures of 90 F (32 C) or hotter on nine days per year. Record temperature extremes range from 28 F ( 33 C), on January 19, 1971, to 104 F (40 C) on July 4, 1911. Climate data for Albany International Airport, New York (1981 2010 normals, extremes 1874 present) New York has an effective statewide crime rate of 385/100,000 citizens as of 2009. Albany's violent crime rate is nearly on a par with Rochester (1028 violent crimes/100,000 populace vs 968/100,000 in Rochester) and much lower than Buffalo at 1514/100,000.
By comparison, New York City's violent crime rate was 639/100,000 in 2013. Main article: Neighborhoods of Albany, New York Downtown Albany is the city's earliest neighborhood, centered on State Street, one of Albany's earliest streets and its initial main street.
North is Sheridan Hollow, Arbor Hill, and North Albany; to the south is the super-neighborhood of the South End, which consists of a multitude of lesser neighborhoods including the Mansion District, the Pastures, Kenwood, Groesbeckville, Delaware Avenue, and Krank Park. These neighborhoods tend to have more minorities and lower-income inhabitants than the western, more suburbanized sections of the city. Collectively referred to as mid-town, these neighborhoods are often compared to New York City's Greenwich Village for their eclectic mix of residentiary and commercial uses, including bars, evening clubs, restaurants, and unique stores.
Albany's gay culture is vibrant in this area. Nearby Park South, a nine-block region surrounding New Scotland Avenue is undergoing an urban renewal as existing housing units are removed or renovated and new office, commercial, and apartment buildings are added. New assembly includes expansion of Albany Medical Center, one of the biggest employers in Albany.
Nearby is University Heights, a united ground consisting of Albany Medical Center Hospital, Albany Medical College, Albany Law School, Albany College of Pharmacy, and the Sage College of Albany. These neighborhoods, such as Melrose, Western Pine Hills, New Albany, Eagle Hill, Westland Park, Campus, and Buckingham Pond more closely resemble neighboring areas of the suburban suburbs than they do the downtown parts of the city. Further west is the W.
Averell Harriman State Office Campus and the University at Albany's chief campus. Albany has more than 60 enhance parks and recreation areas. Washington Park was organized as the Middle Public Square in 1806.
Other parks in Albany include Lincoln Park, Buckingham Park, the Corning Preserve, and the Pine Bush.
Buckingham Lake Park is between Manning Boulevard and Route 85 in the Buckingham Pond neighborhood; it contains a pond with fountains, a footpath, a playground, and picnic tables. The Albany Riverfront Park at the Corning Preserve has an 800-seat amphitheatre that hosts affairs in non-winter months, most prominently the Alive at 5 summer concert series.
Other enhance parks include Westland Hill Park, Hoffman Park, Beverwyck Park, and Liberty Park, today a small circular grassy patch in downtown on Hudson Avenue, which is Albany's earliest park. Ridgefield Park is home to the clay courts of the Albany Tennis Club, one of the earliest tennis clubs in the United States. The municipal golf course, New Course at Albany, was constructed in 1929 as the Albany Municipal Golf Course, later retitled the Capital Hills at Albany, and remodeled in 1991. The New York State Capitol Main article: Architecture of Albany, New York See also: List of tallest buildings in Albany, New York An aerial view of Albany showing tall buildings at center, a river running from the 11:00 to 3:00 positions of the photo, surrounded by greener housing zones.
System Administration Building of the State University of New York The Empire State Plaza, a compilation of state agency office buildings, dominates almost any view of Albany.
The most recognizable aspect of the complex is the Erastus Corning Tower, the tallest building in New York outside of New York City. Juxtaposed at the north end of the Plaza is the 19th-century New York State Capitol, the seat of the New York State Legislature and the home of the Governor's office. 1736; Schuyler Mansion, a Georgian-style mansion, was assembled in 1765; and the earliest building in Albany is the 1728 Van Ostrande-Radliff House at 48 Hudson Avenue. Albany's housing varies greatly, with mostly row homes in the older sections of town, closer to the river.
Albany City Hall, designed by Henry Hobson Richardson, was opened in 1883.
The New York State Capitol was opened in 1899 (after 32 years of construction) at a cost of $25 million, making it the most expensive government building at the time. Albany's Union Station, a primary Beaux-Arts design, was under assembly at the same time; it opened in 1900.
In 1912, the Beaux-Arts styled New York State Department of Education Building opened on Washington Avenue near the Capitol.
Averell Harriman State Office Building Campus (1950s and 1960s) and on the uptown ground of the University at Albany (1962 1971).
Averell Harriman to offer more parking and easier access for state employees. The uptown SUNY ground was assembled in the 1960s under Governor Rockefeller on the site of the city-owned Albany Country Club.
Straying from the prominent open ground layout, SUNY Albany has a centralized building layout with administrative and classroom buildings at center surrounded by four student housing towers.
Downtown has seen a revival in recent decades, often considered to have begun with Norstar Bank's renovation of the former Union Station as its corporate command posts in 1986. The Times Union Center (TU Center) was originally slated for suburban Colonie, but was instead assembled downtown and opened in 1990. Other evolution in downtown includes the assembly of the State Dormitory Authority command posts at 515 Broadway (1998); the State Department of Environmental Conservation building, with its iconic green dome, at 625 Broadway (2001); the State Comptroller command posts on State Street (2001); the Hudson River Way (2002), a pedestrian bridge connecting Broadway to the Corning Preserve; and 677 Broadway (2005), "the first privately owned downtown office building in a generation". Albany propel its first Irish Catholic mayor (Michael Nolan) two years before Boston did. Polish and Italian immigrants began arriving in Albany in the wave of immigration in the latter part of the 19th century.
Demographically speaking, the populace of Albany and the Capital District mirrors the characteristics of the United States consumer populace as a whole better than any other primary municipality in the country.
According to a 2004 study conducted by the Acxiom Corporation, Albany and its environs are the top-ranked standard test market for new company and retail products.
Albany's geographic situation roughly equidistant between New York City to the south and Montreal to the north, as well as approximately 4.5 hours east of Buffalo, and 2.5 hours west of Boston makes it a convenient stop for nationally touring artists and acts.
The Palace Theatre and The Egg furnish mid-sized forums for music, theater, and spoken word performances, with the Capital Repertory Theatre filling the small-sized niche. The TU Center serves as the city's biggest musical venue for nationally and internationally prominent bands, and hosts trade shows, sporting affairs, and other large-scale improve gatherings. While some praise the cultural contributions of Albany and the greater Capital District, the rest suggest the town/city has a "cultural identity crisis" due to its massive geography and the need for a car (and driving time) to experience most of what the region has to offer, a necessity not seen in larger urbane areas like New York and Boston. Last call in Albany is 4:00 am eveningly per New York law that sets that time as last call throughout the state by default, though counties may set an earlier time individual municipalities may not.
Even though more than half of the state's counties have an earlier method time, Albany County, as with all counties in the Capital District, has retained the 4:00 am last call time. The annual Albany gay pride parade is held each June.
The Tulip Festival, one of Albany's biggest festivals, is set in Washington Park and jubilates the city's Dutch heritage.
This traditional Albany event marks the beginning of spring as thousands of tulips bloom in the park in early May. Attendance to the festival in 2010 was approximately 80,000. Alive at 5 is a free, weekly concert series held downtown amid the summer on Thursdays. With 10 concerts in 2010 total attendance was roughly 100,000. The Price Chopper Fabulous Fourth and Fireworks Festival at the Empire State Plaza jubilates Independence Day with musical performances and the region's biggest fireworks display. Freihofer's Run for Women is a 5-kilometer run through the town/city that draws more than 4,000 participants from athwart the country; it is an annual event that began in 1978.The Albany Chefs' Food & Wine Festival: Wine & Dine for the Arts is an annual Festival that hosts more than 3500 citizens over 3 days.
The Festival showcases more than 70 Regional Chefs & Restaurants, 250 Global Wines & Spirits, a NYS Craft Beer Pavilion, 4 competitions (The Signature Chef Invitational, Rising Star Chef, Barista Albany and Battle of the Bartenders) and one Grand Gala Reception, Dinner & Auction featuring 10 f Albany's Iconic Chefs.
The Albany Chefs' Food & Wine Festival donates all net proceeds to deserving Albany Arts Organizations and is held the Thursday-Saturday preceding Martin Luther King Weekend.
Smaller affairs include the African American Family Day Arts Festival each August at the Empire State Plaza; the Latin Fest, held each August at the Corning Preserve; the Albany Jazz Festival, an annual end-of-summer event held at the Corning Preserve; Lark Fest, a music and art festival held each fall; and the Capital Pride Parade and Festival, a primary gay pride event, held each June. The once-popular First Night, celebrating the New Year holiday each December 31, was replaced by the Albany Winterfest in 2006 due to declining interest; Winterfest occurs each year on December 30. Main article: National Register of Historic Places listings in Albany, New York Ten Broeck Mansion is home to the Albany County Historical Association. Because of Albany's historical and political significance, the town/city has various exhibitions, historical buildings, and historic districts.
Albany is home to the New York State Museum, the New York State Library and the New York State Archives; all three facilities are in the Cultural Education Center at the south end of Empire State Plaza and are no-charge to the public. The USS Slater (DE-766), a decommissioned World War II destroyer escort that was restored in 1998, is a exhibition ship docked in the Hudson River at Quay Street.
It is the only ship of its kind still afloat. The Albany Heritage Area Visitors Center, at the corner of Clinton Avenue and Broadway at Quackenbush Square, hosts a exhibition, gift shop, and the Henry Hudson Planetarium. In early 2012, the Irish American Heritage Museum opened in downtown Albany.
The Albany Institute of History and Art, on Washington Avenue near the Center Square Neighborhood and State Capitol, is "dedicated to collecting, preserving, interpreting and promoting interest in the history, art, culture of Albany and the Upper Hudson Valley region." The exhibition's most notable permanent exhibits include an extensive compilation of paintings by the Hudson River School and an exhibit on Ancient Egypt featuring the Institute's "Albany Mummies." Albany is home to 57 listings on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) and five National Historic Landmarks. The Ten Broeck Mansion, a 1797 Federal-style mansion (later renovated in the Greek-Revival style) assembled for Abraham Ten Broeck (mayor of Albany 1779 1783 and 1796 1798) is a historic home exhibition and the command posts of the Albany County Historical Association; it was added to the NRHP in 1971. Later known as "Arbor Hill", it gave the current neighborhood its name. One of the city's more notable claims to fame is Ironweed (1983), the 1984 Pulitzer Prize-winning book by Albany native William Kennedy.
Ironweed was the third in a series of books by Kennedy known as the "Albany Cycle". The elusive author Trevanian also interval up in Albany and wrote The Crazyladies of Pearl Street (2005), about a North Albany neighborhood along Pearl Street.
The book is considered a semi-autobiographical memoir. Gregory Maguire, author of Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (inspiration for the Broadway hit Wicked), interval up in North Albany and graduated from SUNY Albany in 1976. See also: List of universities and universities in New York's Capital District and List of school districts in New York's Capital District Albany High School is the central high school of the City School District of Albany. The City School District of Albany (CSDA) operates the city's enhance school system, which consists of 17 schools and learning centers; in addition, there are 7 charter schools. In the 2015-16 school year, over 9,000 students were enrolled in the enhance school system. The precinct had an average class size of 18, an 81-percent graduation rate, and a 5-percent dropout rate. The district's 2010 11 budget is $202.8 million. Although considered by the state to be one of the lowest-achieving high schools in New York, Albany High was listed as the nation's 976th best high school in a 2010 Newsweek/Washington Post report. Albany also has a number of private schools, including the coed Bishop Maginn High School and Albany Free School; the all-boys Albany Academy; and the all-girls Academy of the Holy Names and Albany Academy for Girls. State Quad is one of the four iconic dormitory towers at SUNY Albany's Uptown Campus. Albany has a prominent history in college studies and was ranked third in a Forbes survey called "The Best Places with the Best Education" in 2005; it ranked top on Forbes' "IQ Campuses" list as part of its 150 Cheap Places to Live series in 2006. The Albany Medical College (private), today part of Albany Medical Center, was established in 1838.
Albany Law School (private) is the earliest law school in New York and the fourth-oldest in the country; it was opened in 1851.
The Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (private) is the second-oldest pharmacy school in New York and the fifteenth-oldest in the United States.
The New York State Normal School, one of the earliest teachers universities in the United States, opened in 1905; it was later known as the State Teachers College.
It eventually evolved into the University at Albany, also known as SUNY Albany (public), which inherited the Normal School's initial downtown ground on Western Avenue.
SUNY Albany is a unit of the State University of New York and one of only four college centers in the system. Other universities and universities in Albany include Empire State College, The College of Saint Rose, Excelsior College, Maria College, Mildred Elley, and Sage College of Albany.
Nearby Hudson Valley Community College (HVCC) fills the improve college niche in the Albany-Troy area. The effect of the campuses on the city's populace is substantial: Combining the student bodies of all the aforementioned campuses (except HVCC) results in 63,149 students, or almost 70 percent of the 2008 estimate of Albany's permanent population. Albany's economy, along with that of the Capital District in general, is heavily dependent on government, community care, education, and more recently, technology.
In March 2010, the Albany region had the lowest unemployment rate of any primary urbane region in New York, at 7.8%, compared to 9.4% in New York as a whole. Albany's estimated daytime populace is more than 162,000.
Since the 2000s, the economy of Albany and the encircling Capital District has been redirected toward a high technology focus.
Tech Valley is a marketing name for the easterly part of New York State, encompassing Albany, the Capital District, and the Hudson Valley. Originated in 1998 to promote the greater Albany region as a high-tech competitor to regions such as Silicon Valley and Boston, it has since grown to represent the counties in the Capital District and extending to 19 counties from IBM's Westchester County plants in the south to the Canada US border in the north.
The area's high technology ecosystem is supported by technologically concentrated academic establishments including Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the State University of New York Polytechnic Institute. Tech Valley encompasses 19 counties straddling both sides of the Adirondack Northway and the New York Thruway, and with heavy state taxpayer subsidy, has experienced momentous growth in the computer hardware side of the high-technology industry, with great strides in the nanotechnology sector, digital electronics design, and water- and electricity-dependent integrated microchip circuit manufacturing. See also: Government of New York (state) and List of mayors of Albany, New York Albany City Hall, an 1883 Richardsonian Romanesque structure, is the seat of Albany's government.
Albany has a mayor-council form of government, which functions under the Dongan Charter, adopted in 1686 when Albany was incorporated as a city.
This gives Albany the distinct ion of having the earliest active town/city charter in the United States and "arguably the longest-running instrument of municipal government in the Western Hemisphere." The mayor, who is propel every four years, heads the executive branch of town/city government. The current mayor, Kathy Sheehan, was first propel in 2013.
While Albany has its own town/city government, it has also been the seat of Albany County since the county's formation in 1683 and the capital of New York since 1797.
Albany City Hall sits on Eagle Street, opposite the State Capitol, and the Albany County Office Building is on State Street. The state government has offices scattered throughout the city.
Albany is in the 20th Congressional district, represented by Paul Tonko (D) in the United States House of Representatives.
On the state level, the town/city is in the 44th precinct in the New York Senate, represented by Neil Breslin (D).
In the New York Assembly, the portion of the town/city is in the 109th district, represented by Patricia Fahy (D) and the easterly portion is in the 108th district, represented by John T.
As the seat of Albany County, the town/city is the locale of the county's courts including Family Court, County Court, Surrogate Court, Supreme Court, and Court of Appeals. Albany is the site of a United States precinct court for the Northern District of New York courthouse. Albany's politics have been dominated by the Democratic Party since the 1920s; Daniel (Uncle Dan) O'Connell established a political machine in the town/city with the election of William Stormont Hackett as mayor in 1922. Prior to that, William (Billy) Barnes had set up a Republican machine in the 1890s.
Barnes' success is attributed to the fact that he owned two newspapers in Albany and that he was the grandson of Thurlow Weed, the influential journal publisher and political boss. O'Connell's organization overcame Barnes' in 1922 and railwaywell into the 1980s (even after his death), as the machine put forth candidates for whom the electorate dutifully voted.
Gerald Jennings' upset in the 1993 Democratic mayoral major over Harold Joyce, who had the Democratic Party's formal endorsement and had only recently been its county chairman, is often cited as the end of the O'Connell era in Albany. Albany continues to be dominated by the Democratic party as enrollment in the town/city was 38,862 in 2009 compared to Republican enrollment of 3,487. This gives Democrats a 10 1 favor in the general election.
The First Church in Albany (Reformed) is the earliest congregation in Upstate New York. Like most metros/cities of comparable age and size, Albany has well-established Orthodox Christian, Roman Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish communities.
Albany is home to the earliest Christian congregation in Upstate New York and the Mother Churches of two Christian dioceses.
Established in 1642, the congregation of the First Church in Albany (Reformed), also known as the North Dutch Church (lon North Pearl Street), is the second-oldest Reformed Church in America. The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception (Eagle Street and Madison Avenue, assembled 1852) is the cathedral of the Roman Catholic diocese, led by Bishop Edward Scharfenberger, and the Cathedral of All Saints (South Swan Street and Elk Street, assembled 1888) is the cathedral of the Episcopal diocese, led by Bishop William Love. The town/city is home to eleven Catholic churches and six Episcopal churches. A momentous Jewish existence has existed in Albany since as early as 1658, and today includes many Jewish churchs; there are two Conservative, a Chabad-Lubavitch, an Orthodox, and two Reform Jewish churchs. Albany is also home to one of the several Karaite Jewish churchs outside Israel. The town/city has a membership of between 12,000 and 13,000. Demographic statistics in the United States depend heavily on the United States Enumeration Bureau, which cannot ask about theological affiliation as part of its decennial census. It does compile some nationwide and statewide theological statistics, but these are not representative of a town/city the size of Albany.
The Times Union is Albany's major daily journal and the only one based close to the city; its command posts moved from inside town/city limits to suburban Colonie in the 1960s after a dispute with Mayor Corning over territory needed for expansion. Its circulation totals about 73,000 on weekdays and 143,000 on Sundays. Serving Albany to a lesser degree are The Daily Gazette, based in Schenectady, and The Record, of Troy. Metroland is the alternative newsweekly in the area, publishing each Thursday, while The Business Review is a company weekly presented each Friday. The Legislative Gazette, another weekly newspaper, focuses exclusively on issues related to the Legislature and the state government. The pioneering influence of General Electric in Schenectady directly contributed to the region emerging as the place of birth of station-based tv with WRGB; the station was also the first partner of NBC. In 1947, the region was home to the first autonomously owned and directed commercial FM airways broadcast in the United States: W47 - A. WGY was the second commercial airways broadcast in New York and the twelfth in the nation. The Capital District is home to ABC partner WTEN 10, CBS partner WRGB 6 (also operating CW partner WCWN 45), Fox partner WXXA 23, NBC partner WNYT 13 (also operating My - Network - TV partner WNYA 51), and PBS member station WMHT 17.
Charter Communications hosts Spectrum News Capital Region, the area's only small-town 24-hour news channel. The region has various airways broadcasts.
See also: Streets of Albany, New York The Northway (Interstate 87 north of the New York State Thruway) joins Albany by car to Canada at Champlain; Autoroute 15 continues into Quebec, linking Albany to Montreal.
Interstate 90 joins Albany to both Buffalo and Boston, via the New York State Thruway and the Massachusetts Turnpike in the order given, both of which use I-90 (the NYS Thruway partially, the Massachusetts Turnpike fully).
Albany is literally at the crossroad of I-87 and I-90, creating a junction between Buffalo and Boston, and Montreal and New York.
Interstate 787 links Albany to Watervliet, Colonie, and Menands; by way of Route 7, I-787 joins to the Northway, offering Saratoga County inhabitants a rather direct, albeit congested route to and from Albany amid rush hour. In 2009, the station saw more than 720,000 passengers, making it Amtrak's second-busiest in New York, behind New York's Penn Station. Amtrak provides service south to New York City; north to Montreal, and Rutland (Vermont); west to Niagara Falls, Toronto and Chicago; and east to Boston.
Albany's nearest airport is Albany International Airport in Colonie.
Six primary airlines service Albany: Cape Air, Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines, Jet - Blue Airlines, United Air Lines, and US Airways; Million Air is the small-town fixed-base operator. In 2010, Albany had the highest average airfare in New York, though the per-mile cost on its busiest routes was second-lowest in the state. The Capital District Transportation Authority (CDTA) provides bus service throughout Albany and the encircling area, including Schenectady, Troy, and Saratoga Springs. The town/city was once served by an urban streetcar service maintained by the United Traction Company.
As in many American cities, after the advent of the automobile, light rail services declined in Albany and were replaced by bus and taxi services. Greyhound Lines, Trailways, Peter Pan, Short Line, Vermont Translines, and Yankee Trails buses all serve a downtown terminal.
Brown Coach provides commuter service. Low-cost curbside bus service from the SUNY Albany ground and the Rensselaer station is also provided by Megabus, with direct service to New York City.
Albany, long an meaningful Hudson River port, today serves domestic and global ships and barges through the Port of Albany-Rensselaer, on both sides of the river.
The port has the biggest mobile harbor crane in the state of New York. The New York State Barge Canal, the ultimate successor of the Erie Canal, is in use today, largely by tourist and private boats. Albany has no primary league experienced sports teams, and minor league squads have low support. The only minor league team active are the Albany Devils ice hockey team, which moved to the town/city for the 2010 2011 season.
They play in the American Hockey League and are affiliated with the New Jersey Devils of the National Hockey League. The Devils replaced the Albany River Rats, who played in the Capital Region from 1990 to 2010, when they relocated to Charlotte, North Carolina.
The Albany Firebirds played in the Arena Football League from 1990 to 2000, while a second team, originally known as the Albany Conquest and later the Firebirds, played in af2, the AFL's developmental league, from 2002 to 2009.
Prior to the Valley - Cats' arrival, the Albany-Colonie Diamond Dogs (1995 2002) played at Heritage Park in Colonie; due to financial pressures, and facing impending competition from the Valley - Cats, the charter folded in 2002. The small-town basketball team is the Albany Legends (International Basketball League), who play in the Washington Avenue Armory. The Albany Patroons were two basketball squads that played at the Armory.
Albany has five official sister town/city agreements and two other twin-city relationships.
The town/city of Nijmegen, Netherlands connected with Albany following World War II.
With the help of the Catholic college in Albany, the Catholic University of Nijmegen (Radboud University Nijmegen) rebuilt its partly finished library, with over 50,000 books being donated to the Dutch university.
To show its gratitude for post-war assistance, the town/city sent Albany 50,000 tulip bulbs in 1948; this act led to the establishment of the annual Tulip Festival. Most of the other connections were made in the 1980s amid Mayor Whalen's term in office as part of his cultural expansion program. The official sister metros/cities are: List of metros/cities in New York List of citizens associated with Albany County, New York National Register of Historic Places listings in Albany, New York Neighborhoods of Albany, New York The State University of New York at Albany (its official name) is also known locally as the University at Albany, SUNY Albany, UAlbany (especially when talking about athletics), and simply SUNY.
The Dongan Charter incorporated Albany three months after New York City's charter was ratified.
This name would later be adopted by the town/city of Schenectady, to the west. James Stuart (1633 1701), brother and successor of Charles II, was both the Duke of York and Duke of Albany before being crowned James II of England and James VII of Scotland in 1685.
A rough grid pattern was established in 1764, aligning the streets with Clinton Avenue, which marked the northern border of Albany at the time.
While downtown went to seed and plans for large-scale assembly and improvements came to a virtual standstill in Albany without federal cash, pockets of the city's historic housing stock escaped the wrecking ball." The Empire State Plaza was originally known as the South Mall; the South Mall Arterial is the only remnant of that naming scheme.
Official records for Albany kept January 1874 to May 1938 at downtown and at Albany Int'l since June 1938.
In 2009, Bank of America (which now owns Fleet - Bank, the bank that eventually bought Norstar) merged its operations in an office building on State Street, leaving the former train station vacant. Mayor Corning made great accomplishments to save the building, which had been owned by his great-grandfather's barns a hundred years before.
Albany was once home to 12 charter schools until the method of New Covenant Charter School in 2010. It was announced in July 2010 that the Harriet Gibbons High School, an alternative high school for at-risk ninth graders, would close after a negative report from the State Department of Education demanded the elimination of ineffective programs. Christian Brothers Academy was positioned in various Albany locations throughout the 19th century and then moved to the University Heights neighborhood in 1937.
United States Enumeration Bureau, in World Almanac and Book of Facts 2012, p.
- Albany, 12 Corporate Woods Boulevard, 4th Floor, Albany, 1221 - 12344 | Search Albany Businesses at Albany.com".
All America City Awards: AAC Winners by State and City; 2010 [Retrieved September 6, 2010].
"Proceedings of the Conference for Good City Government and the Annual ...".
"Albany Guide Book".
Albany, New York: Erastus H.
Cuyler Reynolds, Albany Chronicles, 1906, pg.
James Wesley Bradley, Before Albany: An Archaeology of Native-Dutch Relations in the Capital Region 1660-1664 Archived December 23, 2014, at the Wayback Machine., Albany: University of the State of New York, 2007, pp.
"History of the State of New York".
Encyclop dia Britannica Eleventh Edition (Albany, Dukes of).
"Albany Chronicles".
Thorne, Kathryn Ford, Compiler & Long, John H., Editor: New York Atlas of Historical County Boundaries; The Newbury Library; 1993.
"Gazetteer of the State of New York".
New York State Museum.
"Albany Chronicles".
New York State Museum.
How a City Worked: Occupations in Colonial Albany [Retrieved January 10, 2009].
New York State Museum.
United States Congress.
"Landmarks of Rensselaer county, New York".
Albany.
Population of the 46 Urban Places: 1810; June 15, 1998 [Retrieved July 14, 2010].
City of Albany Department of Urban Redevelopment.
City of Albany (Map).
New York State Historical Association.
New York: A Guide to the Empire State.
New York City: Oxford University Press; 1940.
Joseph Henry [Retrieved September 18, 2010].
Population of the 90 Urban Places: 1830; June 15, 1998 [Retrieved July 14, 2010].
Population of the 100 Urban Places: 1840; June 15, 1998 [Retrieved July 14, 2010].
Population of the 100 Urban Places: 1850; June 15, 1998 [Retrieved July 14, 2010].
Population of the 100 Largest Cities and Other Urban Places in the United States: 1790 to 1990; June 15, 1998 [Retrieved July 14, 2010].
Pennsylvania RR Chronology; 2005 [Retrieved June 2, 2010]; p.
June 17, 2010 [Retrieved June 17, 2010].
New York State Department of Transportation.
History of Railroads in New York State [Retrieved June 4, 2010].
The Albany Lumber Trade: Its History and Extent.
United States Congress.
New York State Museum.
The Bank of Albany; January 6, 2008 [Retrieved July 19, 2010].
"Albany Chronicles".
Laws of the State of New York, Passed at the Ninety-Third Session of the Legislature, Begun January Fourth, and Ended April Twenty-Sixth, 1870, in the City of Albany.
State of New York/Weed, Parsons and Company; 1870 [Retrieved September 11, 2010].
Laws of the State of New York, Passed at the Ninety-Fourth Session of the Legislature, Begun January Third, and Ended April Twenty-first 1871, in the City of Albany.
State of New York/The Argus Company; 1871 [Retrieved September 11, 2010].
Albany International Airport.
Albany Airport History [archived December 22, 2008; Retrieved June 2, 2010].
United States Enumeration Bureau.
State & County Quick - Facts: Albany (city); January 2, 2008 [Retrieved July 17, 2010].
New York: Albany Quadrangle (15-Minute Series) (Map).
New York State Museum.
New York State Museum.
New York State Museum.
New York City: Cambridge University Press; 2006.
United States Department of Agriculture.
"Station Name: NY ALBANY AP".
"FBI releases crime rates for New York State".
City of Albany.
Albany's Neighborhoods [Retrieved July 6, 2010].
City of Albany.
Albany's Neighborhood Associations [Retrieved July 6, 2010].
Albany Times Union.
"Albany, New York, United States" (Map).
City of Albany, New York.
New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.
"Albany Riverfront Park at the Corning Preserve".
City of Albany, New York.
Albany County Convention & Visitors Bureau.
City of Albany Recreation Office.
The Patroon's Garden and Liberty Park, Albany, New York.
Waterford: New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.
Scheltema, Gajus and Westerhuijs, Heleen (eds.),Exploring Historic Dutch New York.
Museum of the City of New York/Dover Publications, New York 2011 National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Quackenbush House; February 4, 1972 [Retrieved May 22, 2010].
Building Big: New York State Capitol; 2001 [Retrieved June 19, 2010].
Albany: Buildings of the City [Retrieved June 9, 2010].
United States Enumeration Bureau. 1980 [Retrieved September 6, 2010].
"Albany's Karen improve jubilates New Year".
"New York - Race and Hispanic Origin for Selected Cities and Other Places: Earliest Enumeration to 1990".
Uniform Crime Reports: Table 6 Crime in the United States by Metropolitan Statistical Area, 2008 [archived August 23, 2010; Retrieved September 8, 2010].
Uniform Crime Reports: Table 16 Crime in the United States by Metropolitan Statistical Area, 2008 [archived August 18, 2010; Retrieved September 8, 2010].
June 3, 2004 [archived March 12, 2007; Retrieved June 6, 2010].
New York State Office of General Services.
Albany New York Nightlife; January 4, 2011 [Retrieved January 4, 2011].
City of Albany Office of Special Events & Volunteer Services.
City of Albany, New York.
City of Albany Office of Special Events & Volunteer Services.
City of Albany Office of Special Events & Volunteer Services.
Capital Pride Events Go On; June 10, 2010 [Retrieved June 22, 2010]; p.
New Event to Premiere as Albany's First Night Fades Away.
City of Albany Office of Special Events & Volunteer Services.
Albany County Historical Association.
"Directions, parking and visitor knowledge for the Cultural Education Center, Albany, NY".
Albany County Convention & Visitors Bureau.
Albany Heritage Area Visitors Center [Retrieved July 12, 2010].
National Park Service, United States Department of the Interior.
National Register of Historic Places: Weekly List Actions; June 18, 2010 [Retrieved June 19, 2010].
New York State Museum.
New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.
Albany Book Festival Showcases Power of Storytelling; April 11, 2010 [Retrieved July 25, 2010].
University at Albany, State University of New York.
Albany City School District.
State of New York Education Department Office of Information and Reporting Services.
The New York State District Report Card: Accountability and Overview Report 2008 09 ; 2010 [Retrieved June 1, 2010].
State of New York Education Department Office of Information and Reporting Services.
The New York State District Report Card: Comprehensive Information Report 2008 09 ; 2010 [Retrieved June 1, 2010].
Albany City School District.
City voters approve $202.8 million spending plan for 2010 11; May 20, 2010 [Retrieved June 1, 2010].[dead link] June 17, 2010 [Retrieved June 17, 2010].
Albany County Private Schools [Retrieved June 7, 2010].
Colleges in Albany, New York [Retrieved June 8, 2010].
"Metropolitan Area Employment and Unemployment (Monthly) News Release" (Press release).
City of Albany.
City Charter [Retrieved May 25, 2010].
City of Albany.
City of Albany.
City of Albany.
City of Albany, New York.
Welcome to City Hall [Retrieved May 26, 2010].
County of Albany, New York.
United States Congress.
United States Congress.
Albany County, New York.
Albany County Telephone Directory; May 4, 2010 [archived September 15, 2010; Retrieved May 30, 2010]; p.
United States District Court Northern District of New York.
New York State Museum.
The First Church in Albany; May 1, 2009 [Retrieved June 19, 2010].
Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany.
Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany: A Brief History [Retrieved May 25, 2009].
Episcopal Diocese of Albany.
The Diocese of Albany: A Brief History of the Episcopal Diocese of Albany [Retrieved May 25, 2009].
Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany.
Parishes: Albany County [Retrieved June 19, 2010].
Episcopal Diocese of Albany.
Find a Church: Albany [Retrieved June 19, 2010].
Albany (re-published from Encyclopedia Judaica) [Retrieved June 26, 2010].
Synagogues in Albany; 2010 [Retrieved June 22, 2010].
United States Enumeration Bureau.
United States Enumeration Bureau.
Albany County, New York Denominational Groups, 2000; 2000 [Retrieved June 22, 2010].
New York Times.
The Media Business; Albany Afternoon Paper Closing After 145 Years; April 15, 1988 [Retrieved April 23, 2010].
American City Business Journals, Inc.
Weekly Albany, NY Legislative Gazette Newspaper.
Local Television Market Universe Estimates: Comparisons of 2008 09 and 2009 10 Market Ranks ; 2009 [Retrieved June 17, 2010]; p.
July 1, 2009 [Retrieved June 1, 2010].
News 10 [Retrieved June 17, 2010].
News 6: WRGB [Retrieved June 17, 2010].
Fox 23 News [Retrieved June 17, 2010].
News Channel 13 [Retrieved June 17, 2010].
TWEAN News Channel of Albany, LLC.
YNN: Your News Now [Retrieved June 17, 2010].
Port of Albany 'still thriving'; November 20, 2008 [Retrieved July 18, 2010]; p.
Amtrak Fact Sheet, Fiscal Year 2009 State of New York [Retrieved June 2, 2010].
Albany International Airport.
Albany had highest average air fare in state, DOT study finds.
Greyhound Terminal Locations (New York) [Retrieved July 17, 2010].
New York State Canal Corporation.
Sister Cities International.
Sister City US Listings [Retrieved April 25, 2010].
History of the State of New York.
New York City: Harper & Brothers, Publishers; 1874.
Historical and Statistical Gazetteer of New York State.
Mayor Erastus Corning: Albany Icon, Albany Enigma.
Albany: State University of New York Press; 2007.
Bi-centennial History of Albany: History of the County of Albany, N.Y.
New York City: W.
Bi-centennial History of Albany: History of the County of Albany, N.Y.
New York City: W.
Albany, Capital City on the Hudson: An Illustrated History.
Albany Chronicles: A History of the City Arranged Chronologically, From the Earliest Settlement to the Present Time.
Albany Architecture: A Guide to the City.
The Charter of the City of Albany; and the Laws and Ordinances Ordained and Established by the Mayor, Aldermen and Commonalty of the Said City, in Common Council Convened.
Albany: Capital City on the Hudson.
Collections on the History of Albany: from its Discovery to the Present Time (Volume 1).
New York: Museum of the City of New York / Dover Publications; 2011.
The History of the City of Albany, New York, from the Discovery of the Great River in 1524 by Verrazzano to the Present Time.
Albany, New York Albany - NY.gov - City of Albany Homepage Albany, New York at DMOZ Local Albany News City of Albany Albany, New York
Categories:
Albany, New York - County seats in New York - Cities in Albany County, New York - Cities in New York - Populated places on the Hudson River - Populated places established in 1614 - 1614 establishments in the Dutch Empire - 1614 establishments in North America
|