Albany is the capital of the U.S. state of New York and the seat of Albany County. Albany is located on the west bank of the Hudson River approximately 10 miles (16 km) south of its confluence with the Mohawk River and approximately 135 miles (220 km) north of New York City.
George Randolph Hearst III is the Publisher and CEO of the Times Union newspaper in Albany, New York, and a director of the Hearst Corporation.
Rensselaer Lake is an artificial lake in Albany, New York, United States named for Major-General Stephen Van Rensselaer, last patroon of Rensselaerswyck. The lake was Albany's first municipally-owned source of water. It is part of a 57-acre (23 ha) park and the state's Albany Pine Bush Preserve. The lake and park have been under the purview of the Albany Water Authority since 2003.
The 2009 special election for the 20th congressional district of New York was held on March 31, 2009, to fill the vacancy created in January 2009 when the district's representative, Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand, was appointed US senator from New York, replacing Hillary Clinton, who had been appointed Secretary of State in the Obama administration. The two major-party candidates were Democrat Scott Murphy, a private businessman, and Republican Jim Tedisco, the minority leader of the New York State Assembly. A third-party candidate, Libertarian Eric Sundwall, was initially included in the race, but later removed from the ballot.
Matthew Scott Murphy is an American entrepreneur and a former U.S. Representative for New York's 20th congressional district, having served a portion of one term from April 2009 until January 2011. He is a member of the Democratic Party and during his term was a member of the Blue Dog Coalition in Congress. He was defeated in his attempt to attain election to a full term on November 2, 2010. Prior to re-districting in 2013 after the 2010 census, the 20th district centered on much of the eastern portion of New York's Capital District.
The Mansion Historic District, sometimes referred to as Mansion Hill, is located south of Empire State Plaza in Albany, New York, United States. It takes its name from the nearby New York State Executive Mansion, which overlooks it. It is a 45-acre (18 ha), 16-block area with almost 500 buildings. Many of them are rowhouses and townhouses built in the middle and late 19th century that remain mostly intact today.
Van Rensselaer Island was an island in the Hudson River opposite the city of Albany, New York. The island was also known as de Laet's Island, Kalebacker's Island, Boston Island and B&A Island, the last two names in reference to the Boston and Albany Railroad. The island stretched from Mill Creek north to the Livingston Avenue Bridge. Van Rensselaer Island is now connected to the City of Rensselaer, and is no longer an island.
The National Bottle Museum is located on Milton Avenue in downtown Ballston Spa, New York, United States. Established in 1978, it has a collection of around 2,000 antique bottles, most made prior to industrialization of the process in 1903. It has moved from its original location, a historic house which it restored, after a legal dispute with its founding organization.
Culture in New York's Capital District, also known as the Albany metropolitan area, stretches back to the 17th century. The area has seen prominent historical events, interesting artistic creations, and unique contributions to the culture of the United States. The largest city in the area, Albany, consistently ranks high on lists of top cities/metro areas for culture, such as being 23rd in the book Cities Ranked & Rated. The Albany-Schenectady-Troy metro area ranked 12th among large metro areas, and Glens Falls ranked 12th among the small metro areas, in Sperling's Best Places, and Expansion Management gave the Albany-Schenectady-Troy area five Stars, its highest ranking, for quality of life features.
McKownville is a hamlet in the town of Guilderland, Albany County, New York. It lies along the eastern border of the town with the city of Albany. McKownville is a heavily developed suburb of Albany and is home to many strip malls, shopping centers, and a portion of the University at Albany, SUNY and is bisected by US Route 20. McKownville is named for John McKown and family, early settlers from the late 18th century.
The W. Averell Harriman State Office Building Campus is an office park in western Albany, New York, United States that houses sixteen New York State Government office buildings. The land totals roughly 330 acres (130 ha) and over 3 million square feet of office space, and about 7,000 state employees work there. The campus was built during the 1950s and 1960s in a suburban, car-oriented style bordered by an outer ring road that cuts the campus off from the surrounding neighborhoods. The campus is flanked by Washington Avenue to the north, Western Avenue to the south, University at Albany to the west, and New York State Route 85 to the east. With its own steam generation power plant for cooling and heating the campus is mostly self-sufficient.
Wellington Row is a row of buildings along the south side of State Street in Albany, New York. It spans from 132 to 140 State Street and includes the Wellington Hotel, its namesake, the former Elks Lodge No. 49, former Berkshire Hotel, and a couple of row houses south of the Wellington Hotel. The Wellington Hotel included a second building called the Wellington Annex on Howard Street with an attached garage that both faced towards the back of Wellington Row. The row was placed on the Preservation League of New York State's Seven to Save list for the year 2000. The entire row is part of the Downtown Albany Historic District.
Patroon Creek is a stream in Albany County, New York, United States and is a tributary of the Hudson River which flows south to New York Harbor and the Atlantic Ocean. The creek's source is Rensselaer Lake in the western section of the city of Albany and flows along the northern border of said city with the town of Colonie to its mouth at the Hudson River. The creek received its name from the patroon of Rensselaerswyck.
The Woodlawn Preserve is a patch of the Albany Pine Bush in the Woodlawn neighborhood of the city of Schenectady, New York. It is the only remaining example of this rare ecosystem in that area, a combination of swamp, wetlands, water bodies, and dune vegetation, and one of the most biologically diverse parcels in Schenectady County.
The Albany Convention Center (ACC) was a proposed convention center to be located in downtown Albany, New York. The complex was initially proposed by Albany Mayor Gerald Jennings in 1994. In 2004, the Albany Convention Center Authority (ACCA) was established by the New York Legislature as a New York State public-benefit corporation to develop plans for the ACC. Supported by Governor George Pataki, the project was awarded a $75 million grant in 2006. The anticipated price tag of the project was approximately $220 million, and a site between Broadway, Hudson Avenue, and the South Mall Arterial was selected.
Downtown Schenectady is the central business district for the city of Schenectady, New York. It originated in the 1820s with the moving of the commercial and industrial interests east from the original 17th and 18th century settlement, spurred on by the development of the Erie Canal. Home to the headquarters and major manufacturing plants of two large corporations, General Electric and American Locomotive Company, Downtown Schenectady catered to tens of thousands of workers in its heyday. Typical of the post-industrial Northeastern United States and Upstate New York in particular, Downtown Schenectady saw a decline in manufacturing and population starting in the 1970s. Recent construction and renovation has caused the downtown area to become an entertainment mecca for New York's Capital District anchored by Proctor's Theatre.
The architecture of Albany, New York, embraces a variety of architectural styles ranging from the early 18th century to the present. The city's roots date from the early 17th century and few buildings survive from that era or from the 18th and early 19th century. The completion of the Erie Canal in 1825 triggered a building boom, which continued until the Great Depression and the suburbanization of the area afterward. This accounts for much of the construction in the city's urban core along the Hudson River. Since then most construction has been largely residential, as the city spread out to its current boundaries, although there have been some large government building complexes in the modernist style, such as Empire State Plaza, which includes the Erastus Corning Tower, the tallest building in New York outside of New York City.
North Albany is a neighborhood in the city of Albany, New York. North Albany was settled in the mid-17th century by the Patroon of Rensselaerswyck and his tenants and later became a hamlet in the town of Watervliet. Due to the Erie Canal being constructed in 1825, North Albany saw immense growth, with the Albany Lumber District and an influx of Irish immigrants lending the area the name of Limerick. Home to many historic warehouses and row houses, North Albany continues to be an important industrial neighborhood. Recent efforts have begun to gentrify the neighborhood by adapting heavy industry/warehouse use to artistic and entertainment venues, such as a German beer garden, an amusement park, live music venues, and arts and crafts marketplaces.
Pine Hills is a neighborhood in Albany, New York, generally defined as the area from Manning Boulevard to the west, Woodlawn Avenue to the south, Lake Avenue to the east, and Washington Avenue to the north. The neighborhood consists mainly of freestanding multi-unit, duplex, and semi-detached houses and is home to Albany High School, the LaSalle school, the College of St. Rose, and the Alumni Quad of the University at Albany. Though mostly residential due to historical reasons from its founding, Pine Hills is home to two neighborhood commercial districts ; Middle Madison, from Partridge to Quail streets was designated first, and then a latter designated district, Upper Madison, from Main Avenue to North Allen Street. The area of Pine Hills east of Main Avenue and north of Myrtle Avenue is commonly referred to as the student ghetto due to its predominant population of college-age students. The area of Pine Hills west of Main Avenue features many large Queen Anne, Folk Victorian, and Colonial Revival homes. Upper Madison, where it meets Western Avenue near St. Rose is the center of a commercial area, complete with a movie theater, grocery store, fast food strip mall, retail, restaurants, a library, community playhouse, police station, pharmacy, and elementary school.
