Albany History*

Albany (founded in 1609) was originally known as Fort Orange and was renamed "Albany" in 1664 to honor the Duke of York and Albany. It is the capital (1797) of the state of New York, U.S., and seat (1683) of Albany county. It lies along the Hudson River, 143 miles (230 km) north of New York City. Albany is the heart of a metropolitan area that includes Troy and Schenectady. It is a port of entry, the northern terminus of the deepwater Hudson River Channel, and a natural transshipment point between ocean-going vessels and the New York State Barge Canal routes west to the Great Lakes. Its Dutch heritage is reflected in many street names and in the annual (May) Tulip Festival held in Washington Park. In 1689 one of the first intercontinental conventions was held in Albany to discuss a system of mutual defense. The city was one of the first in the U.S. to establish a commercial airport (1919). It is also a site of the first railroad in America that ran between Albany and Schenectady, a distance of 11 miles.


Capital District Trivia**

• Albany is the oldest continuing settlement in the United States. The city still serves under its original charter, which dates back to July 22, 1686.
  
  
• Since 1831, two Egyptian mummies have lain in state for public display at the Albany Institute of History and Art.
  
  
• The first all-electric house was built in 1903 in Schenectady's GE Plot.
  
  
• The turret for the battleship Monitor was built in Schenectady by Clute Bros.
  
  
• The first suspension bridge was designed by Squire Whipple of Schenectady.
  
  
• Saratoga Race Track is the oldest thoroughbred race track in the nation.
  
  
• Washington Park was originally the site of the State Street Burial Ground. When the park was commissioned, over 40,000 bodies were exhumed and transferred to Albany Rural Cemetery in the 1840's.
  
  
• The Washington Park site was originally surveyed and planned by Frederick Law Olmsted, designer of New York City's Central Park. The final park design in Albany was, inspired by Olmsted ideas and philosophies, completed by two of his proteges.
  
  
• The Watervliet Arsenal Museum is located in the cast iron storehouse built in 1859 prior to the Civil War by Major Mordecai.
  
  
• George Augustus (Lord Howe) killed in 1758 in an attack on Ticonderoga during the French and Indian War, is buried beneath the front vestibule of St. Peter's Episcopal Church.
  
  
• The Rain-bo-room at the former Kenmore Hotel on North Pearl Street (now the offices of the Hospital Association of New York State), was a favorite haunt for notorious gangster Legs Diamond. According to some sources, Legs was shot and killed during one of his stays at the hotel.
  
  
• President Lincoln lay in state at the New York State Capitol building as his funeral train passed through Albany.
  
  
• Potato chips were invented and first served at Moon's Lake House in Saratoga Springs.
  
  
• Pie a la mode was first served at the Cambridge Hotel in Washington County.
  
  
• Detachable collars were first invented in Troy, NY.
  
  
• The first television broadcast to a private home took place in Schenectady in 1928 followed by the first public television broadcast in 1930.
  
  
• The first college radio station broadcast took place in Schenectady in 1921.
  
  
• The first Shaker community in America was settled in 1776 near the Albany County Airport. The original meeting house, cemetery, orchard and a neighboring farm still stand. The burial site of Ann Lee, founder of the Shaker Movement and first Shaker Settlement, is in the Shaker Cemetery located adjacent to the Heritage Park.
  
  
• Schenectady was known to have the longest covered bridge in the Western Hemisphere.
  
  
• Union College was the first non-denominational college in the nation. By virtue of the fact that it was the first college chartered after the American Revolution, it is considered the first American college.
  
  
• Paper clips were invented in Schenectady by Clarence Collette.
  
  
• Schenectadian Vincent Shaeffer created artificial rain by being the first to "seed clouds."
  

* Source: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
** Source: www.albany.org