USA > New York > Albany County > Albany > The history of the city of Albany, New York : from the discovery of the great river in 1524, by Verrazzano, to the present time > Part 36
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magnificent memorial of the love and liberality of the Roman Catholics of the diocese of Albany.
The state library in 1854 was removed to the fire- proof building on the west side of the capitol, fronting on State Street, erected conformably to the act of the legislature passed June 18, 1851. It was a two-story brick structure (the front and rear walls having faces of brown freestone) one hundred and fourteen feet long and forty-five wide. The large lower room contained the law library ; the upper, the general library. In the first report of the trustees of the library, made the twenty-second of June, 1819, the statement appears that the sum of $2,617.20 had been expended for the pur- chase of six hundred volumes and nine maps. In the first catalogue, made in 1820, are printed the titles of seven hundred and fifty-eight volumes, three atlases, eleven maps and one engraving. By an act, passed the fourth of May, 1844, the regents of the University of the state of New York were made the trustees of the state library. In 1855 the general library contained thirty thousand and eleven volumes, and the law library thirteen thousand six hundred and twenty-three. At the present time there are about eighty-eight thousand two hundred and fifty volumes in the general library, and thirty-five thousand seven hundred and fifty in the law library. In the months of September and October, 1883, previous to the demolition of the library-building, the books and collections in the two library rooms were removed to the new capitol, the law library into the golden corridor, and the general library into the room that was to be used by the court of appeals. When completed, the libraries will hereafter occupy rooms in the third story of the capitol, on the east side. John Cook, Calvin Pepper, James Mahar, William Cassidy,
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and John L. Tillinghast were successively librarians of the state library previous to its removal into the library- building in 1844. From that time to the present, the librarians have been John L. Tillinghast, appointed by the regents June 1, 1844 ; Alfred B. Street, March 1, 1848, who, from April 22, 1862, to June 8, 1868, was librarian only of the law library ; he was succeeded June 8, 1868, by Stephen B. Griswold, the present librarian of the law library. Henry A. Homes, who had been assist- ant librarian from September 11, 1851, on the twenty- second of April, 1862, became the librarian of the gen- eral library, which office he still retains. George R. Howell, the assistant librarian in the general library, was appointed to the office on the fifteenth of February, 1872.
The meeting in the capitol of the American as- sociation for the advancement of science, that began on the twentieth of August, 1856, was attended by a large number of its distinguished members and by many other eminent men. On the twenty-seventh of August the state-geological hall was dedicated; Louis J. R. Agassiz and other members of the American association delivered addresses. On the following day the commemorative exercises of the inauguration of the Dudley Observa- tory, erected in 1853 and 1854 on a plat of high ground about three-fourths of a mile northeast of the capitol, took place beneath a large awning in Academy Square. Edward Everett of Boston delivered the dedicatory ad- dress. Mrs. Blandina Dudley, as a tribute to the memory of her husband, Charles E. Dudley, gave first a contribu- tion of twelve thousand dollars for the erection of the observatory building. To honor this tribute the trus- tees gave the institution the name of the Dudley Observa tory. This contribution and her subsequent gifts to the
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institution were in all one hundred and five thousand dollars. The donations of other contributors aggregate about one hundred thousand dollars. Besides the astronomical observatory, there are two other buildings, the meteorological and the physical observatories. The first is built of brick and freestone, the ground plan representing a cross, eighty-four by seventy-two feet. The astronomical instruments and other apparatus are elaborate and valuable.
The attractive architecture of St. Joseph's Roman Catholic church, on the corner of Ten Broeck and Sec- ond streets, makes the building one of the most ad- mired in the city. Five years were given to its erec- tion. The edifice represents the Benedictine architecture of the thirteenth century. The building was dedicated on the thirteenth of May, 1860.
The reception of Abraham Lincoln, en route to Wash- ington, on the afternoon of the eighteenth of February, 1861, was made memorable by the extraordinary dis- play of the patriotism of the people of Albany. A great freshet had caused a flood, and the president-elect, his wife, and the accompanying delegations were taken in the Hudson River train the next morning on the Sara- toga railroad to Green Island where the cars crossed the bridge to Troy and thence proceeded to New York.
The notable loyalty of the citizens during the war of the rebellion was expressed in innumerable ways. For the preservation of the union of the states and the main- tenance of the power of the federal government, Albany not only generously contributed a large number of brave officers and valiant soldiers to honor her fealty with the loss of their lives, but with unstinted generosity she made appropriations of great sums of money to increase the number of the defenders of the nation's flag.
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The humanity of her patriotic people had its manifesta- tion in countless visitations and ministrations to the sick and wounded soldiers in the hospitals within her gates. The flags presented to her departing battalions were the emblems of her devotion, and the monuments and in- scriptions over the numerous graves of her heroes the memorials of her unforgotten sacrifices. The exciting days of the wearing of the red, white and blue cockade, the enthusiasm evoked by the departing regiments for the seat of war, the peculiar attractions of the Army Relief Bazaar erected in the Academy park, the return of the veterans after the occupation of Richmond, these and kindred incidents will ever make the period of the rebellion an interesting local epoch of historical events and personal reminiscences.
About two miles north west of the capitol and beyond the limits of the city is West Albany, where the New York Central Railroad Company has its large engine- house, shops and cattle-yards. The company first pur- chased two hundred and fifty acres of land in 1854 for the site of these buildings, and subsequently added an- other hundred acres to them.
Prospect Hill and Bleecker reservoirs and the Tivoli lakes, in which are collected a part of the water distributed through mains and used by the people of Albany, lie near West Albany. These storage and distributing reservoirs were built by the water commissioners appointed by the act of the ninth of April, 1850, to provide for a supply of water in the city of Albany. Subsequently, the supply of water being insufficient, the commissioners determined to pump water from the Hudson into the Bleecker reser- voir. Pumping works were therefore erected in 1875, on the northwest corner of Montgomery and Quackenbush Streets. In 1878, an engine was placed at Bleecker reser-
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voir to force water from it to the new reservoir, built on Prospect hill, to supply water to the people living on the highest elevations in the city.
The lumber-district is that part of the city lying be- tween the Erie canal and the Hudson River extending about one mile and a quarter northward from Lawrence Street and the canal basin. Thirty-two parallel canals admit canal-boats laden with lumber to the intermediate yards. In the latter are collected large quantities of pine, spruce and hemlock lumber from Canada, Northern New York, Michigan and other western states. Schooners, sloops, and barges, loaded at the extensive wharf on the river-front of the district, transport most of it to New York and other cities. The sales in 1883 are said to have
exceeded $10,000,000. The cars of a street railway run through the lumber-district to its northern limits.
Among the most important of the many industries of Albany is the manufacture of stoves. About four thousand men are employed in the foundries. The stoves of the celebrated manufacturers of Albany are sold in every state and territory of this country and not a few in foreign countries. In 1883 the sales of their stoves exceeded $3,000,000.
The government of the city is administered by a mayor elected biennially on the second Tuesday in April. By the act passed the twenty-third of April, 1883, nine. teen members constitute the board of aldermen, one from each ward and two from the city at large, who are also elected biennially on the second Tuesday in April. The fire department possesses eight steam fire engines. Alarms are sounded by the large bell in the tower of the city-hall and by a number of church bells and engine- house gongs connected with the signal boxes of the fire alarm telegraph.
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The history of the public schools of Albany evidently begins on the seventeenth of April, 1830, when the legis- lature passed the act which provided that the members of a board of school-commissioners and also of a board of school-inspectors should be annually elected by the peo- ple; a commissioner and an inspector in each ward. The board of commissioners were empowered to appoint three trustees for each school-district, the city having nine districts. The first public school-building was erected in 1832 in State Street, and was known as district-school No. 2. By the new law of the eighth of April, 1844, the mayor, the recorder and the resident regents of the university were directed to appoint a board of nine school-commissioners, three to serve three years, three two years, and three one year, and at the end of the terms to appoint their successors. The office of inspec- tors and trustees was abolished by this law. Although the legislature in 1851 passed the law establishing free schools throughout the state, the city schools were not benefited by it until the following year. In 1855 the board of school-commissioners was changed to the board of education of the city of Albany. On the seventh of April, 1866, the legislature passed the act to create a board of public instruction in the city and to establish free schools therein. Under this law the public schools of the city are now conducted. During the school-year of 1883-1884 two hundred and forty-one teachers, twenty-two men and two hundred and nineteen women, were employed to instruct the thirteen thousand six hundred and eighteen children attending the schools in the twenty-four school-buildings in the city. Of this number of scholars, six hundred and nineteen were pu- pils in the high-school. Charles W. Cole, the present superintendent of the public schools of the city, has held
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the office since 1878. The educational benefits of the common school system have been greatly multiplied by the efforts of the efficient superintendents of the city- schools.
One of the most attractive and enjoyable parts of the city is Washington Park, about three-fourths of a mile west of the capitol. By an enactment of the legislature on the fifth of May, 1869, the land known as the burial- ground property, the penitentiary grounds and the alms- house farm were set apart and devoted to the purposes of a public park to be named "the Washington Park of the city of Albany." The title of the property was vested in a board of trustees, who were authorized to have the grounds laid out and improved for the uses of a public park. In July, 1870, the work was begun. In 1875 the bridge across the lake and the houses on its banks were erected. The basin of the lake is sixteen hundred feet long with an average width of one hundred and forty feet. The park embraces about eighty-one acres of land, decorated with large umbrageous trees, pretty parterres of beautiful flowers, extensive lawns, numerous walks and long drives. Henry L. King, deceased, bequeathed twenty thousand dollars to erect a handsome fountain on a suitable site in the park.
The establishment, erection, maintenance and man- agement of a cathedral church in the city of Albany in accordance with the doctrine, discipline and worship of the Protestant Episcopal church in the United States was authorized by the act passed the twenty-seventh of March, 1873, to incorporate the cathedral of All Saints. The building of a cathedral church of an imposing ap- pearance and of Gothic architecture was begun in the spring of 1884, on the east side of Swan Street between Elk and Lafayette streets, the corner-stone of which was
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laid on Tuesday afternoon, the third of June, by the Right Rev. William Croswell Doane, the bishop of the diocese of Albany. The plan of the proposed cathedral was designed by Robert W. Gibson, architect, of Albany.
In the summer of 1878 the noted hotel, Congress Hall, immediately north of the old capitol-building, was de- molished. In 1815, Leverett Cruttenden opened it as a boarding-house. Its name, Congress Hall, originated with William Landon, who, in June, 1831, advertised the hotel under this designation, announcing that he had " taken the establishment formerly known as the Park Place House, and kept for many years by L. Cruttenden.
* * It is situated on the Park, a few rods from the Capitol and new City Hall, about equidistant between them." In 1847 and 1849, Landon & Mitchell were the proprietors of the house. They were succeeded by James L. Mitchell. In 1866, Adam Blake succeeded the latter ; the former having leased the property from the state then owning it. Adam Blake conducted it until the time of its demolition, when he began the erection of the Kenmore hotel, on the southwest corner of North Pearl and Columbia streets, which was opened for the reception of guests in November, 1878.
The grand proportions of the capitol, massive and unique, which first attract the eye of every beholder viewing the city, are those of a building, which, when completed, will be one of the most imposing, commodious and costly structures in the United States. The incep- tion of its construction had its origin in "an act au- thorizing the erection of a new capitol," passed by the legislature, the first of May, 1865. As enacted, "when- ever, within three years from the passage of this bill, the city of Albany, or the citizens thereof, shall deposit with the commissioners of the land office of this state a good
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and sufficient deed conveying to the people of the state of New York, in fee simple and unencumbered, all that certain piece or parcel of land generally known as Con- gress Hall block, in the said city of Albany, and bounded as follows : northerly by Washington Avenue, easterly by Park Place, southerly by Congress Street and west- erly by Hawk Street, and furnish the proper evidence that the common council of said city of Albany has closed and discontinued that part of Park Place south of Washington Avenue, and that part of Congress (late Spring) Street, east of Hawk Street, which said common council are hereby authorized to do, and thereupon the streets so closed shall become the property of the state, and be included in, and form a part of the capitol grounds; the governor shall nominate, and by and with the con- sent of the senate, appoint a board of three commission- ers, to be known as 'the new capitol commissioners,' for the purpose of erecting a new capitol.
"The said board of commissioners shall immediately proceed, in such manner as they may deem best, to pro- cure, at the expense of the city of Albany, or the citizens thereof, the requisite plans for a new capitol, and the necessary accommodations and arrangements connected therewith; and upon the approval of such plan or plans by the commissioners of the land office, shall as soon as, and not before an appropriation shall be made by law, proceed with the work in accordance with the plans and specifications approved as herein provided.
"The new capitol shall be located in the city of Al- bany, upon the site of the present capitol and such grounds adjacent thereto as shall be secured for that purpose and conveyed to the state as provided in the first section of this act."
The appropriation of one hundred and ninety thou
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sand dollars by the common council obtained the desired property, a deed of which conveying it to the state was given to the commissioners of the land office in 1866. Thereupon the legislature, on the twenty-second of April, 1867, passed the "act appropriating moneys for the building of a new capitol," by which two hundred and fifty thousand dollars were designated for the purpose. But as enacted, no part of the amount was to be expended until a plan of the building was adopted and approved by the commissioners and by the governor, nor was the structure "to cost more than four millions of dollars when completed." The first plan of the capitol was paid for by the city, the sum of six thousand dollars being the cost of it.
The work of laying the foundation was begun on the seventh of July, 1869. On the twenty-fourth of June, 1871, the corner-stone was laid by the chief officers of the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons, the cere- mony being witnessed by a large concourse of people. On Tuesday morning, the seventh of January, 1879, the two houses of the state legislature met for the first time in the new capitol; the members of the assembly in their chamber, and the senators in the room that had been designed for the court of appeals. On the evening of that day, the citizens of Albany gave an opening re- ception in the new building, which was attended by many thousands of invited guests. On the tenth of March, 1881, the senate first occupied its chamber. The unfinished building has a frontage of two hundred and ninety-two feet and a depth of three hundred and seventy- seven. The height of the walls measures one hundred and eight feet from the water-table. The granite used in the construction of the outer walls is from quarries at Hallowell, Maine. The interior of the building is full of
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Guards, Capt. Kearney ; Second company Van Rensselaer Guards, Capt. Berry ; Troy Artillery, Capt. Howe ; Troy Citizens Corps, Capt. Pierce ; and Troy City Guards, Capt. Wickes.
1840. August 22. Draw of bridge at foot of State Street fell crowded with people, and twenty persons drowned.
1841. March 10. Act to divide the city into ten wards passed.
March 27. Act to incorporate the Albany Gas Light Company passed. Subscription-books opened May 25.
September 9. Board of Trade organized.
Castleton and West Stockbridge Railroad Company incorporated, May 5, 1834. Company changed May 5, 1836, to Albany and West Stockbridge Railroad Company. Road leased to the Western (Massachusetts) Railroad Company, November 18, 1841. Locomotives came to Greenbush, on the road, December 19, 1841. Opening of the Western Railroad celebrated, Decem- ber 28. The Western and the Boston and Worcester railroad consolidated in the Boston and Albany railroad December 1, 1867.
1842. Steamboat-landing dock leased to Isaac Newton for three years, at $1,000 a year.
1844. February 22. Albany Washington Rifle Company organized. Re-organized March 4, 1881.
First meeting to consider the project of a public cemetery December 31, 1840. Rural Cemetery Association incorporated, April 20, 1841. Grounds consecrated, October 7, 1844. First interment in them, May, 1845.
State Normal School opened December 18, in the building No. 119 State Street, erected by the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad Company. School removed to new building, on northwest corner of Howard and Lodge Streets, July 30, 1849.
1845. February 1. Time of ringing the morning bell changed from 8 o'clock to sunrise. Subsequently changed to 7 o'clock.
Building of the Albany County penitentiary begun in the summer of 1845. South wing completed in April, 1846.
November 10. Streets first lighted by gas.
The fire-department in 1845 had eleven engine companies, two hook and ladder companies, one hose and one axe company, and eleven fire engines.
1848. May 15. Board of Trade began business in the rotunda of the Exchange building.
November 1. Albany City Hospital, corner of Dove and Lydius streets, dedicated. Incorporated April 14, 1849.
1849. June. Cholera cases reported 41; deaths 22. July, 343 cases and 125 deaths. August, 345 cases and 150 deaths. September, 37 cases and 23 deaths.
1850. April 25. The Albany, Bennington and Rutland Railroad Com- pany organized.
June 25. The O'Reilly telegraph line connected the city with New York.
1851. February 20. Act to incorporate the Albany and Northern Rail- road Company passed. Authorized to construct a railroad from Albany to Eagle Bridge, in Washington County, to connect with the Washington and Rutland Railroad.
April 17. Act to incorporate the University of Albany passed. Trustees
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empowered to create a department of medicine, a department of law, and such other departments as they might deem expedient. Department of medicine constituted in April, 1873, by making the Albany Medical College one of the departments. Department of law organized April 21, 1851. First course of law lectures began December 17, 1851, in the Exchange building. Law school east side of State Street, west of Swan Street. Dud- ley Observatory connected as a department in April, 1873. Department of pharmacy constituted June 21, 1881. First course of pharmacy lectures be- gan October 3, 1881, in the Medical College building. Albany College of Pharmacy incorporated, August 27, 1881. Lecture rooms and laboratories in Albany Medical College.
October 3. The Hudson River railroad opened to Greenbush. Opening of the road celebrated October 8.
1852. July 5. Green Street theatre opened.
1853. April 1. Bank of the Capitol began business. Failed, May 18, 1861.
April 2. Act to authorize the consolidation of certain railroad com- panies passed. It was enacted that " the Albany and Schenectady, Schenectady and Troy, Utica and Schenectady, Syracuse and Utica, Roch- ester and Syracuse, the Buffalo and Lockport, the Mohawk Valley, and the Syracuse and Utica direct, Buffalo and Rochester, Rochester, Lockport and Niagara Falls railroad companies, or any two or more of them" were authorized at any time "to consolidate such companies into a single cor- poration." The directors of the consolidated railroads, thereafter known as the New York Central, elected July 7, 1853, Erastus Corning, president, and J. V. L. Pruyn, secretary and treasurer.
June 30. First locomotive passed over the Albany Northern railroad. First train from Rutland arrived at Albany, November 5.
1854. March 2. Act to incorporate the New Jersey Steamboat company passed. Isaac Newton elected president of the company. Daniel Drew in 1859; H. B. Norton, 1868 ; Daniel Drew, 1871 ; H. B. Norton, 1876 ; W. H. Drew, 1877 ; W. W. Everett, 1878. Present People's Line of night-boats plying between Albany and New York : the St. John, the Dean Richmond and the Drew.
April 17. Act to incorporate the Albany Dime Savings Bank passed. In 1855 the bank was at No. 51 State Street, up-stairs.
Act to incorporate the Sixpenny Savings Bank passed. In 1856, the bank was on the corner of State and James streets. Thomas Schuyler, president.
July 4. Washington Continentals organized.
In July and August the reported cases of cholera did not exceed 270 and the deaths 104.
August 8. Albany City Hospital, southeast corner of Eagle and Howard streets, opened in the building formerly the jail.
December 31. Charter of Bank of Albany expired. Resumed business, January 1, 1855. Bank failed May 11, 1861.
1857. July 22. Bank of the Interior began business. Capital $600,000. Failed May 21, 1861.
1858. New York State Arsenal, northwest corner of Eagle and Hudson streets, erected. Old arsenal, corner of Broadway and Lawrence Street,
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pleasurable surprises. Its spacious halls, long corridors, wide stairways, carved-wood work, stone-sculptures, tes- sellated floors, allegorical pictures and other decorations, are attractive and artistic. On the fourth floor is the bureau of military statistics, where are preserved the eight hundred and four battle-worn flags of the various regiments of the state that served in the late civil war. Twenty-eight captured confederate flags are among the attractive collections of the department. The archi- tecture of the capitol is multifarious and ornate. More than fourteen millions of dollars have been expended in the erection, furnishing, and ornamentation of this im- posing structure. When compared with the old capitol, demolished in the summer of 1883, its size and accom modations sensibly impress one with the evidences of the advanced culture and the augmented wealth of the people of the Empire State.
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