Landmarks of Albany County, New York, Part 28

Author: Parker, Amasa Junius, 1843-1938, ed
Publication date: 1897
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason
Number of Pages: 1374

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First, The repeal of chap. 358, laws of 1847, restoring the office of county superin- tendent, and making it elective by the people.

Second, The election of a superintendent in every Assembly district, except in the city of New York, and the cities which now have, or shall hereafter have, a city superintendent, or board of education, to manage their school affairs.

The superintendent then reviewed the situation as to the problem of free schools which was before the people. On the 26th of March, 1849, the Legislature passed the "Act establishing Free Schools throughout the State." For its provisions in detail the reader must be referred to the statutes. The practical application of this system met with wide- spread and intense opposition from the first, and it soon became ap- parent that a demand for its appeal would have to be met. At the annual election in the fall of 1850, therefore, the people voted upon the question of its repeal, and the majority in favor of repeal was 46,874, in forty-two of the fifty-nine counties of the State; in the re- maining seventeen counties the majority against repeal was +1,912, leaving a majority of 25,088 against repeal. Thus the beneficent free school system was permanently established. The majority in favor of repeal in Albany county was 6, 798.

The number of districts in the State reported in 1850 was 11,397, and

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the number of children taught was 735, 188. The number of districts in 1895 was 11,121.

In 1856 the provision of the law of 1851 appropriating annually $800,000 was repealed and a tax of three-quarters of a mill on the dollar of real and personal property substituted for payment of teach- ers' wages, and the rate bill was continued; the school commissioners to be elected by the Boards of Supervisors.

A law was passed in 1853 providing for union free schools, authoriz- ing the inhabitants of two or more districts to elect trustees and levy a tax on the property in the united districts for the payment of teachers' wages and other expenses.

The general school law was revised in 1864, and in 1867 the rate bill was abolished and a tax of one and a quarter mills on the dollar of val- uation substituted.

In 1860 Albany county had 169 districts. At the present time (1896) the number is 151. Most of these are supplied with comfortable school houses, some of which are commodious and modern in style. The town históries on later pages of this volume contain such reference to the local schools as has been found available.

The first attempt to establish an educational institution of a general character in Albany was made in 1767-8, when Eleazer Wheelock came from Lebanon, Conn., where he had taught an Indian school, and en- deavored to establish one here. The Common Council took an inter- est in the undertaking and voted to raise $7,500 for the erection of the necessary buildings. For some unknown reason the project failed. During 1779 an attempt was made to incorporate Clinton College at Schenectady. The proposed list of incorporators included the names of the following citizens of Albany: Eilardus Westerlo, Philip Schuy- ler, Robert R. Livingston, Abraham Ten Broeck, Abraham Yates, jr., Robert Yates, John Cuyler and Robert Van Rensselaer. This at- tempt failed, but opened the way for the later founding of Union College, in which many prominent citizens of Albany county took an interest. For a time it was undecided whether the institution would be located in Schenectady or in Albany. The first trustees of that college when it was founded in 1795, had among their number the following citizens of Albany: Robert Yates, Abraham Yates, jr., Abra- ham Ten Broeck, Goldsboro Banyar, John V. Henry, George Merchant, Stephen Van Rensselaer and Joseph Yates. The first president of the college, Rev. Dr. Eliphalet Nott, was called from the pastorate of the

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First Presbyterian church of Albany. The citizens of Albany have al- ways shown an active interest in the welfare of the institution.

In 1812 the Legislature passed an act incorporating the Albany Lan- casterian School Society. The trustees were composed of thirteen citizens with Mayor Philip S. Van Rensselaer, president. The mem. bers of the Common Council were also members of the board ex officio. It was the first attempt to establish an institution with partially free school character. Any person contributing $25 to its benefit was en- titled to the tuition of one scholar. Its first and only principal here was William A. Tweed Dale, a Scotchman and disciple of Joseph Lan- caster, of England. Charles R. Webster, whose career as the pioneer Albany printer is sketched in the preceding chapter, was one of the leaders in founding this school. The school was taught in the upper part of the building of the Mechanics' Society, corner of Chapel and Columbia streets. In 1815 the site now occupied by the Medical College was purchased and a school house built thereon at a cost of $24,000, which was opened April 5, 1817, and accommodated 500 pupils. In sup- port of the school the city corporation allowed $500 a year from the ex- cise receipts, and about the same amount came from the school fund, while receipts received from scholars amounted to about $400 a year. This school was continued until 1836, when it was closed by the Common Council, as the attendance had decreased and the pupils could be accom- modated in the common schools. The basis of the Lancasterian system was the teaching of the masses of children with small expense, few teachers and self-help.

In the summer of 1780 the founding of an academy in Albany was earnestly discussed and finally acted upon by the Common Council. In September proposals made by George W. Merchant, of Philadel- phia, to take charge of the institution in rooms which had been fitted up in a private dwelling, were accepted. This was not a permanent ar- rangement, and in 1804, and again in 1806, further efforts were made toward the erection of a suitable academy building, resulting only in failure. Finally in 1812, just as the country was assuming another war, the project was again taken up under the auspices of Philip S. Van Rensselaer, mayor, and on January 18, 1813, the Common Council called a meeting for the 25th in the Capitol. The council appropri- ated the old jail on the south side of State street, just below Eagle, and about $5,000 in other property. The academy was incorporated March 4, 1813, by the Regents of the University, and the trustees held their first meeting March 23, the trustees being as follows:

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Stephen Van Rensselaer, John Lansing, Archibald McIntyre, Smith Thompson, Abraham Van Vechten, John V. Henry, Henry Walton, Rev. William Niel, Rev. John M. Bradford, Rev. John McDonald, Rev. Timothy Clowes, Rev. John McJimp- sey, Rev. Frederic G. Myer, Rev. Samuel Merwin, and the mayor and recorder of Albany, ex officio.

The Common Council also donated the site where the academy now stands, appropriated funds for the building, and grants were made by the Regents. On July 28, 1815, the corner stone of the building was laid and the structure was completed within the next two years at a cost of $90,000. It is of stone and is a handsome edifice. In the mean time the school was kept temporarily in a wooden building on the south- east corner of State and Lodge streets, where the first session opened . September 11, 1815, under the presidency of Benjamin Allen, LL.D. With him were associated Rev. Joseph Shaw, professor of languages; they with Trustees Niell, Beck and Sedgwick welcomed the first class. It numbered about eighty. In August, 1817, Theodore Romeyn Beck, M.D., LL. D., was appointed principal, and held the position until 1848, excepting from 1841 to 1844, when Rev. Andrew Shiland acted. Dr. Beck was born in Schenectady in 1791, and graduated at Union College in 1807. When called to the principalship he was practicing medicine in Albany. It was in this old academy that Joseph Henry, LL.D., pro- fessor of mathematics and natural philosophy from 1826 to 1832, made himself and the institution immortal by the discovery that the electric current could be transmitted long distances and communications made by its agency from one point to another. He arranged a coil contain- ing a mile of wire in the upper rooms of the academy, and there for the first time transmitted through it the signals which constitute the germ of the electric telegraph. In 1836 H. W. Delavan died and left $2,000 to the academy, the income from which has been used for the education of a few poor boys each year. In 1831 William Caldwell gave $100, the income of which was to be devoted each year to the pur- chase of a medal for the student of four years' standing who had made the greatest proficiency in mathematics. The Albany Institute has had rooms in the academy building from the time it was first occupied. The later principals of the academy have been as follows: Rev. Will- iam H. Campbell, 1848-51; George H. Cook, A. M., 1851-53; Rev. William A. Miller, A. M., 1853-56; David Murray, Ph. D, LL.D., 1856-63; James W. Mason, A. M., 1863-68; Rev. Abel Wood, 1869-70; Merrill E. Gates, Ph. D., LL.D., 1870-82; James M. Cassety, Ph. D.,

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to January, 1887; Henry P. Warren, M. A., the present incumbent. For a long time prior to 1858 the records do not show a graduating class. In that year six are recorded as graduates, as follows: William H. Hale, Charles E. Smith, Edward S. Lawson, Thomas M. Gaffney, Thaddeus R. White, and Thomas S. Willes. In the spring of 1872 the academy was made a military school, the students wearing a cadet uni- form and being drilled and governed under the regulations applying to such institutions. The entire record of Albany Academy is one of prosperity. From its walls have gone out more than 7,000 students, while the Faculty has increased from the original two members to four- teen. Several literary societies are connected with the academy, con . tributing to the welfare of the students.

The nucleus of the Albany Female Academy was a school for the higher education of young women which was opened mainly through the efforts of Ebenezer Foot, a prominent lawyer, on May 21, 1814. It first occupied a one story building on Montgomery street, and was called the Union School, but was incorporated under its present title February 16, 1821. The first board of trustees were James Kent, John Chester, Joseph Russell, John V. Henry, Asa H. Center, Gideon Haw- ley, William Fowler, Teunis Van Vechten, and Peter Boyd. In the year of its incorporation a building was erected in rear of the Delavan House, at a cost of $3,000, which would accommodate 120 pupils. The institution prospered, and to provide the necessary larger accommoda- tions the old building on North Pearl street was erected in 1834, at a cost of $30,000, and it was first opened May 12 of that year. The first principal of this academy was Horace Goodrich, who was succeeded by Edwin James. In 1815 Lebbeus Booth took the position and was suc- ceeded in 1824 by Frederick Matthews. In 1826 Alonzo Crittenden was appointed and continued until 1845. Under his long and suc- cessful administration the academy flourished to a remarkable degree. L. Sprague Parsons succeeded Mr. Crittenden, and resigned in 1854 to be succeeded by Eben S. Stearns, who held the position until 1868, when Caroline G. Greeley was appointed for a brief term and was succeeded by Louisa Ostrom; she continued to 1879, since which year, with a short intermission, Lucy A. Plympton has been principal. The academy is now in a prosperous condition, having removed from the old property on North Pearl street to Washington avenue, next to the Harmanus Bleecker Hall, where it occupies two large and well equipped buildings.

LUCY A. PLYMPTON.

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The Albany State Normal School is the oldest of the several now in existence in this State. It was established by the Legislature May 7, 1844, and opened on the 18th of December with twenty-nine pupils, in the old depot building of the Mohawk & Hudson River Railroad, which was procured for the purpose by the city, the first principal being David B. Page, of New Hampshire. In 1848 the school was made a permanent institution, its previous work being in the nature of an experiment. In that year a new building was erected on Lodge street at a cost of $25,000, which was first opened July 31, 1849. Mr. Page, the first principal, died in 1848, and his successors have been as follows: George R. Perkins, 1848; Samuel B. Woolworth, 1852; David H. Cochran, 1856; Oliver Arey, 1864; Joseph Alden, 1867; Edward P. Waterbury, 1882; William J. Milne, Ph. D., LL.D., incumbent. In 1885 the school was removed to its new building on Willett street, fac- ing Washington Park, which was erected at a cost of $140,000. This accommodates 670 students, including 400 normals, 200 in the model department, fifty in kindergarten, and twenty in the object class. This institution has been of incalculable benefit to the educational system of the State.

The Convent and Academy of the Sacred Heart was founded through an application made in 1853 by Rt. Rev. John McCloskey, bishop of Albany, to the Mother House of the Ladies of the Sacred Heart, in Paris, France. It was his desire to establish a school for higher ed- ucation of young Catholic women. His request was granted and sev- eral women left the convent at Manhattanville and settled in Albany to found the new school. A boarding and day school was at first opened in the Westerlo mansion on North Pearl street, but pupils increased so rapidly that more ample accommodations were needed and the extensive grounds of Thomas Hillhouse, on the Troy road, were purchased. The building thereon was fitted up for school purposes and for a time served its purpose.

In 1858 the splendid residence of Joel Rathbone, near Kenwood, was offered for sale. The mansion was nearly new and the grounds very extensive and picturesque. The Ladies of the Sacred Heart, with the bishop's permission, asked the Very Rev. J. J. Conroy and Mr. John Tracey to purchase the premises for them, which was done at a cost of $45,000. The property on the Troy road was sold. The Rathbone residence was used for the school several years, but in 1866 a new building was erected with accommodations for about 200 pupils, with a

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wing for a training academy for those who wished to consecrate their lives to the work. A chapel was also erected in the building between the academy and the novitiate. The entire buildings have cost about $200,000.

St. Agnes school was founded in 1870 through the efforts of Rt. Rev. William Croswell Doane, bishop of Albany, for the education of Christian women. The Corning Foundation for Christian Work was incorporated March 14, 1871, and ground was broken for the building May 8; the corner stone was laid June 19, and the school was opened on Hallowe'en, 1822. The financial basis of this now well known institution was laid by Erastus Corning, sr. The building accommodates 110 students with board and rooms, and the annual attendance is about 200. Its purpose is most beneficent and it has been successful from the beginning.

The Christian Brothers' Academy was founded in 1864 and incorpo- rated by the Regents of the State August 3, 1869. The object of the institution is to train young men for business or college life, at the same time offering moral and religious education to its students. These are chiefly Catholics, but students of other denominations are received.

The school system of the city of Albany is described in the pages devoted to the history of the city.

CHAPTER XVI.

PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS AND BUILDINGS.

The State Capitol .- In 1803 the Common Council of the city of Al- bany sent a request to the Legislature to pass an act authorizing the erection of a State House and Court House, and appointed a committee to prepare a petition and a map. This committee were John Cuyler, Charles D. Cooper, and John Van Ness Yates. Their report was sub- mitted March 7, 1803, and the Legislature authorized the erection of the structure then called the New Capitol, by act passed April 6, 1804. The capital commissioners were John Taylor, Daniel Hale, Philip S. Van Rensselaer, Simeon De Witt, and Nicholas N. Quackenbush. The act required the supervisors of Albany county to raise by tax $12,000. Provision was made for raising an equal sum by lottery, a practice

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then much in vogue for raising money for public improvements, but which was abolished in 1821. The $24,000 thus provided for was added to the proceeds of the sale of the Old Stadt Huys, The building erected cost $110,688.42, including the furnishing of the council cham- ber. Of this sum the city of Albany paid $34,200, the county $3,000, and the State the remainder. The commissioners chose what was known as Pinkster's Hill for the site of the structure, and on April 23, 1806, the corner stone was laid with impressive ceremonies. The building was first occupied by the Senate and Assembly in special ses- sion November 1, 1808. It was an imposing edifice for those times and was visited by many people. The following careful description of the edifice was written by H. G. Spafford, of Gazetteer fame:

It stands at the head of State street, 130 feet above the level of the Hudson. It is a substantial stone building, faced with freestone taken from the brown sandstone quarries on the Hudson below the Highlands. The walls are fifty feet high, consist- ing of two stories and a basement story of ten feet. The east or main front is adorned with a portico of the Ionic order, tetrastile, the entablature supporting an angular pediment in the tympanum of which is to be placed the Arms of the State. The ceiling of the wall is supported by a double row of reeded columns; the floors are vaulted and laid with squares of Italian marble; the building is roofed with a double hip of pyramidal form, upon the center of which is a circular cupola, twenty feet in diameter. On its dome is a statue of Themis, facing eastward-a carved figure of wood, eleven feet in height, holding a sword in her right hand and the bal- ance in her left.

This is a description applicable as the building appeared in 1883, when it was taken down, with the exception of minor additions in the rear, and more or less interior alteration. The city and county officials met in the Capitol until the completion of the City Hall in 1831, when they removed thither.

The New Capitol, upon which work is still in progress, is fully de- scribed in numerous current publications, rendering it unnecessary to give in these pages more than an account of the steps which led to its erection. The subject of a new Capitol building and of removing the State capital to some other city than Albany was agitated to some extent about 1860. On April 24, 1863, on motion of James A. Bell, senator from Jefferson county, the Senate referred the subject to the Trustees of the Capitol and the Committee on Public Buildings. In 1865 the Senate appointed a committee of three to receive propositions from various cities as to what action they would take regarding the removal of the capital from Albany. No satisfactory result was

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reached through this committee. Albany proposed to convey Congress Hall Block, or any other lands in the city suitable for the new Capitol building, and the proposal was promptly accepted. On May 1, 1865, an act was passed by the Legislature authorizing the erection of a new Capitol. Work upon the foundations of the structure was begun July 7, 1869. In the summer of 1871 the superstructure was far enough advanced to receive the corner stone. June 24 was set as the day for that ceremony, which was grand and imposing. An introductory ad- dress was delivered by Hamilton Harris, followed by the reading of documents that were to be placed in the stone by William A. Rice; an address by John T. Hoffman, then governor; and Masonic ceremonies conducted by Most Worshipful John Anton, grand master of the Grand Lodge of the State.

The first Board of Capitol Commissioners was composed of Hamilton Harris, May 3, 1866; John V. L. Pruyn, May 3, 1866; Obadiah B. Latham, May 3, 1866; James S. Thayer, May 19, 1868; William A. Rice, May 19, 1868; James Terwilliger, May 19, 1868; John T. Hud- son, May 19, 1868; Alonzo B. Cornell, May 19, 1868 The second board was thus constituted: Hamilton Harris, April 26, 1871; William C. Kingsley, April 26, 1871; William A. Rice, April 26, 1871; Chaun- cey M. Depew, April 26, 1871; De Los De Wolf, April 26, 1871; Edwin A. Merritt, April 26, 1871. The second Board was superseded by act of Legislature passed in 1875, and the lieutenant-governor, attorney- general, and auditor of the canal department were made commissioners. On July 15, 1875, an advisory board to these commissioners was ap- pointed consisting of F. Law Olmsted, Leopold Eidlitz, and Henry Richardson. This board was superseded in 1876 by the appointment of architects. An act passed March 30, 1883, authorized the governor, with consent of the Senate to appoint an officer to be known as the Commissioner of the New Capitol, and who was to have charge of the completion of the structure in all respects. His term of office is the same as that of the governor, two years. The same act abolished the office of Superintendent of the Capitol. A subsequent law passed the same year designated the governor, lieutenant-governor and speaker of the assembly, ex-officio, trustees of the finished parts of the building, and of other State buildings in Albany, for which they appoint a super- intendent with an annual salary of $5,000. The Capitol building is now nearing completion. Situated in what is to be hereafter known as Capitol Park, on the lofty eminence overlooking the valley of the

F. J. H. MERRILL.

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historic Hudson, it forms one of the grandest State buildings in the country. For a detailed description of the structure the reader is re- ferred to H. P. Phelps's Albany Hand Book.

State Hall .- On February 14, 1797, a bill passed the Legislature au- thorizing the erection of a public building in the city of Albany with the view of making it the seat of State government. A site was chosen on the corner of State and Lodge streets and ground was broken for the foundation early in that year. The building was completed in the spring of 1799. The building is still standing and presents nearly the same appearance that it did nearly a century ago. It is substantially built of brick, four stories high, with the front on State street. In the eastern wall is a tablet with the following inscription :

Erected for State Purposes,

A. D. 1797.

John Jay, Governor. Philip Schuyler, Abraham Ten Broeck, Teunis T. Van Vechten, Daniel Hale,

William Sanders, Archt. Jeremiah Van Rensselaer, Commissioners.

In this building were located the State departments, by which it was occupied until 1842, when they were removed to the new State Hall, and the State Museum was placed in this building. Interior changes were made to fit it for its new purpose. The museum consists of de- partments in botany, zoology, geology, and mineralogy, which embrace nearly all of the natural productions of the State. At a later period the building was used in part for the State Agricultural Society. This so crowded the apartments that the Legislature subsequently made an appropriation for the erection of a building in rear of the old Capitol, and in 1858 the libraries, antiquities and other collections of a literary and art character were removed thereto. In 1865 the Legislature pub- licly recognized the importance of making the State Cabinet of Natural History a museum of scientific and practical geology and comparative zoology. In 1870 a law was passed organizing the State Museum of Natural History, and providing an annual appropriation for its support. Since that time the old hall has been known as Geological Hall.

State House .- What is known as the State House, situated on Eagle street, was finished in 1842, and at once occupied by the various State departments which were removed from the old hall. It is a substantial and handsome structure, and until its really grand proportions were overshadowed by the new City Hall which stands just to the south of it, it was one of the finest buildings in the city. It is built of the white

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stone from the Sing Sing quarries and cost the State $350,000. The building is now occupied by the comptroller, the state engineer and surveyor, the bank department and state geologist. .

The Post-office .- As far as known there were no public postal facili- ties established at Albany until after the Revolution. Prior to that time each person made such arrangements as he could to get his meager mail. But the new government at the close of hostilities promptly established the post-office department, by the appointment in July, 1775, of a postmaster-general, with headquarters in Philadelphia, Benjamin Franklin being the first incumbent of the office. Regulations for the guidance of postmasters, the carrying of mails, duties of post- riders, etc., were rapidly established, and routes between different points opened. The first congressional act relating to mails in Albany was the following :

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Landmarks of Albany County, New York, Part 28

Author: Parker, Amasa Junius, 1843-1938, ed Publication date: 1897 Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason Number of Pages: 1374

Author: Parker, Amasa Junius, 1843-1938, ed
Publication date: 1897
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason
Number of Pages: 1374