Albany, New York

Albany is the capital of New York. Founded on the heels of Henry Hudson's unsuccessful 1609 bid to find a shortcut passage to East Asia, Albany grew from a Dutch trading post into a major commercial and transportation hub. The city's strategic location on the Hudson River, a wide, deep waterway linking Albany with the Port of New York and the Atlantic Ocean, transformed Albany into a rich industrial city. The 1825 opening of the Erie Canal at the point where the navigable portion of the Hudson ended also made Albany a critical point of departure for American westward expansion. Contemporary Albany is seeking to recapture the prosperity of its faded industrial past with ventures in high-technology research and manufacturing.

Landscape

Albany is one of three cities (and four counties) that, connected by suburban development, make up New York's Capital District. The city of Troy lies about eight miles to the north of Albany, while Schenectady is about fourteen miles to the west. Albany itself is located on the bank of the Hudson River, about 130 miles north of New York City.

Named for the English explorer Henry Hudson—who in 1609 sailed as far as the site of present-day Albany in a failed search for a shortcut to the rich trading routes of East Asia—the Hudson provided a wide, deep waterway navigable by large vessels. Albany's strategic location on the Hudson spurred the city's rapid development during the colonial era.

Albany sits ten miles downstream from the junction of the Hudson and the Mohawk, a tributary of the Hudson originating from the western part of New York. The Mohawk empties into the Hudson in a series of steep falls. The 1825 opening of the 363-mile-long Erie Canal, which linked Albany with Buffalo and enabled vessels to circumnavigate the obstacle of the falls, further encouraged Albany's growth. The area of the city where the canal joined the Hudson was designated as the Lumber District because of the all the timber brought via the canal to Albany, where local workers milled and cut it into wood.

The original settlement of what eventually grew into the city of Albany was situated on several steep ridges that rose sharply up from the bank of the Hudson. Three of these ridges are today the sites of major thoroughfares in Albany: Madison Avenue, Clinton Avenue, and State Street. Originally, the rocky, largely inhospitable ravines located between the ridges were cut by creeks. Today much of that land has been filled in.

Albany consists of a collection of neighborhoods, each with a distinctive character. These neighborhoods include Arbor Hill (one of the city's oldest areas, marked by historic homes and well-tended parks); Beverwyck; Buckingham Lake; Campus, named for its proximity to the State University of New York (SUNY) Albany campus; Center Square; Delaware Avenue; Dunes; Eagle Hill; Helderburg; Hudson/Park (located between Washington Park, Lincoln Park, and the Empire State Plaza); Krank Park; Mansion (home to a number of historic Victorian homes); Melrose Midtown; Mount Hope; New Albany/New Scotland/Whitehall; Normanskill; North Albany/Shaker Park; Park South; Pastures (adjacent to downtown Albany and the waterfront); Pine Hills; South End (the site of historic preserved brick row houses and Lincoln Park); Upper Madison; Upper Washington; Washington Park; Washington Square Neighborhood Association; West Hill (site of Albany's largest nature preserve); and State Street and the Albany Waterfront.

Albany features a typical northeastern US climate, characterized by wet and muddy springs, mild summers, and harsh winters. During the coldest months, the Hudson Valley acts as a funnel, channeling frigid Canadian arctic winds into the city. The same wind and weather patterns make Albany vulnerable to powerful snowstorms, which can bury the city under drifts several feet deep. Albany's proximity to major waterways also produces frequent cloudiness.

People

In 2022, the US Census Bureau estimated Albany's population at around 100,826. White residents make up around 50.6 percent of the population, with African Americans accounting for around 27.9 percent, people of Hispanic or Latino origin around 9.9 percent, and people of Asian background around 7.1 percent. The early twenty-first century has seen an influx into Albany of immigrants from Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Sudan, and southern Africa. The median age of residents is 31.7 years old, a figure that reflects the statistical influence of the large community of students affiliated with SUNY-Albany.

For a significant portion of its history, Albany was one of the United States' most populous urban centers. During the first half of the nineteenth century, it regularly ranked as either the ninth or tenth largest city in the United States. By 1850, driven by the economic boom ushered in by the Erie Canal, the city boasted more than 50,000 residents. The advent of a national rail system marked the end of Albany's population boom; by the turn of the twentieth century, Albany ranked as only the fortieth largest city in the United States, and by 1960, it ranked as the ninety-fourth.

In the latter half of the twentieth century, the city's population experienced a slow but steady decline; from 1905 on, Albany had always boasted a minimum of 100,000 residents, but by the time of the 2000 US Census, the population had dipped below that mark for the first time in nearly a century, before once again topping that mark in 2022. The greater metropolitan area, with a population of 904,617 as of 2022, was ranked sixty-third in the country.

As is the case in many urban centers located in so-called Rust Belt states, where manufacturing jobs were once plentiful but have largely dried up, Albany's citizens continue to grapple with high rates of joblessness and poverty. While gentrification has made parts of Albany an affordable magnet for young professionals, by and large, urban revitalization efforts have not been able to stem the tide of people moving out of the city, where a persistent underclass continues to grow.

Economy

Albany's economy is anchored by the state and local governments. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Capitol Region employed more than 101,900 government workers in December 2023. The heavy government presence sustains a sizeable services sector, including the hospitality industry and legal, insurance, and financial services companies. The health care industry is also a major player in the local economy, driven in part by the needs of the large numbers of students and workers affiliated with the local university.

Albany and its surrounding areas are home to a number of manufacturers. Goods produced include paper products, sporting goods, beer, machine tools, athletic equipment, pharmaceuticals, brake linings, cement, steel products, electrical equipment, dental products, and chemicals. But the city's industrial base no longer provides the volume of jobs and revenues it generated during peak years.

The university presence has helped stimulate the growth of high technology industries in Albany. City officials are hoping that such ventures will create new jobs to replace the ones lost as a result of the demise of the traditional manufacturing economy that dominated Albany's past. To promote Albany's development as a center for high-technology business, the city has created incentives for investors, including low-interest rate loans, property tax abatements, job training assistance, and tax credits to qualified businesses seeking to expand, relocate, or retain operations in the region. The capital has also invested substantial money in city infrastructure, such as the Hudson River Way, which features a pedestrian bridge linking downtown with Corning Park, as well as the Albany Convention Center, a 300,000-square-foot convention center.

Albany's historically important port continues to play a key role in the city's economy. Its deep Hudson River channel can accommodate international oceangoing vessels and represents a critical link with the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean. The port is served by three railroads and dozens of motor freight carriers. Albany International Airport provides additional important support for the city's economy.

Landmarks

Albany's most famous landmark is its Capitol Building, completed in 1899 after thirty-two years of construction and at a cost of more than $25 million. The imposing five-story gray granite building features walls more than sixteen feet thick at its foundation. The influences of the five different architects who worked on its construction at various times are reflected in the building's exterior, which features a blend of Italian Renaissance, Romanesque and French Renaissance styles.

The Capitol Building interior is famous for its lavishly carved stone staircases created by more than five hundred stonecutters and carvers, many of them European-born masters of their craft. The Great Western Staircase, also known as the Million Dollar Staircase, required fourteen years and more than one million dollars to construct. Carved into the sandstone staircases are the likenesses of the faces of seventy-seven prominent Americans, including George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, and Susan B. Anthony. The interior is also celebrated for its Senate Chamber, which features walls covered in 23-karat gold leaf, Italian marble arches, and an elaborately carved golden oak ceiling designed to create perfect acoustics for senate debates.

Another Albany landmark frequently mistaken for the state capitol is the Delaware & Hudson and Albany Evening Journal Complex. Originally built as a railway company headquarters—and today serving as the administrative center of SUNY-Albany—the buildings in the complex were designed in a Gothic style. During the early part of the twentieth century, the D & H Building served as the office hub for the six railroads that served Albany, linking the city with New York, Boston, Buffalo, Cleveland, Chicago, and, through them, the vast territories of the western United States.

Albany's most celebrated religious landmark is Saint Peter's Episcopal Church. Designed in a Gothic Revival style, the church is known for its three gargoyle statues. Each carving weighs three tons and extends eight feet beyond the church walls.

Permanently moored on the Hudson River is another Albany landmark, the USS Slater, a World War II destroyer escort. Charged with protecting American convoys from Nazi U-boats in the North Atlantic and from Japanese naval and kamikaze air attacks in the Pacific, these warships played a pivotal role in the Allied victory. The Slater made the Port of Albany its permanent home in 1997.

The Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller Empire State Plaza is the seat of government operations for New York State. Sprawling over ninety-eight acres of land, the plaza includes eleven buildings built between 1965 and 1978. Today, the Empire State Plaza is a cultural center featuring such attractions as the New York State Museum. The museum is dedicated to the geology, biology, anthropology, and history of New York. It features permanent exhibits on the Adirondack Wilderness, archaeological excavations of Albany, birds of New York, minerals of New York, the history of the native peoples of New York, and the September 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.

Albany features a number of natural landmarks. These include the Albany Riverfront Park at the Corning Preserve, which opened in 2002. The park boasts an amphitheater with performance space and seating for more than one thousand spectators, floating docks, and a bicycle path. Albany's Washington Park is famous for its summer concert series and its annual display of holiday lights each winter season.

History

Albany traces its earliest origins to 1614, when Hendrick Christensen established the first trading post in New York near the contemporary location of the Port of Albany. In 1624, French Walloon settlers established, on the site of the present-day city, a permanent colony they named Fort Orange in honor of the royal House of Orange. Within five years, the Dutch West India Company established a trading post at Fort Orange. In 1652, Pieter Stuyvesant, governor of New Netherland, renamed Fort Orange the village of Beverwyck.

In 1664, following the surrender of the Dutch to the British, King Charles II granted area territory to his brother James, the Duke of York and Albany. Thereafter, Beverwyck became known as Albany. In 1686, the British crown granted a charter recognizing Albany as a city.

During the eighteenth century, Albany thrived as a trading center. Powered by African slave labor, Albany's economy grew rich on the export of American goods, such as furs, lumber, and grain, to the Old World. Albany's wealth and prominence made it a potential target for French aggression during the French and Indian War (1754–63). The French, however, never managed to invade the city, which became a center of military planning for successful English efforts to crush France's colonial ambitions in the New World.

Albany remained under English sovereignty during the American Revolution (1775–83). Many in the city, however, were sympathetic to the revolutionary cause. During the struggle for independence, Albany's strategic location on the Hudson made the city a key supply center for American forces.

New York lawmakers proclaimed Albany the permanent state capital in 1797. Over the course of the nineteenth century, Albany prospered. The 1807 emergence of the steamboat coupled with the 1825 opening of the Erie Canal and the 1831 establishment of the first railways in and out of the city cemented Albany's role as a manufacturing, shipping, and transportation hub. To meet the growing demand for an industrial workforce, the city welcomed large numbers of European workers.

During the twentieth century, Albany's centrality began to fade as railroads and highways eroded the importance of the Hudson River's role as New York's main thoroughfare. In this same era, modern urban planning began to shape Albany into the city as it largely exists today. In 2009, Albany participated in a yearlong commemoration, celebrated throughout the Hudson Valley, of the four-hundredth anniversary of Henry Hudson's historic voyage up the Hudson River, which marked the beginning of four centuries of Albany's evolution.

By Beverly Ballaro

Bibliography

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