Albany
Albany names 3 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below. 1 of them is described by more than one encyclopedia.
Albany the capital of the State of New York and
Described by 2 of the 6 encyclopedias.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
the capital of the State of New York and the county-seat of Albany It is situated on the west bank of co. the Hudson river, about 145 miles N. of New York City. It is at the head of the navigation of the Hudson river and is the terminus of the Erie and Champlain barge canals. Six railroads radiate from it to every part of the country. It is the terminus of the Boston and Albany railroad and the division terminus of the New York Central, and the Delaware and main lines of the West Shore, the Hudson railroads. The city has direct steamboat communication by day and night lines with New York and Hudson river points, while the Erie and Champlain canals give water communication with the interior of the State and the west and north. The excellent shipping facilities of the city have made it an important commercial center. It is the second largest express and third largest mail transfer in the United States. Albany is a distributing point for the large oil companies, mail-order houses, machinery companies, and other corporations which do a national business. Albany is an attractive city both in site and as a result of careful city planning, which, in recent years, has trans- There is an formed certain portions. extensive park system with parks conveniently located to meet the needs of the various sections of the city. Among these are Washington Park, 90 acres, and The city main- Lincoln Park, 78 acres. tains free public baths and other recreational features. The water and sewer systems are of the latest approved desig sign. There are excellent hospitals, including three large general hospitals, and a number of special hospitals. Albany is well equipped with public school facilities. There were in 1920, 23 grammar school buildings and a high school building costing $1,000,000. There are housed in these buildings over 12,000 people. In addition to the public schools there are many well-equipped private and parochial schools. In the city are 12 libraries, not including the State Library, which contains over 525,000 books. There are 75 churches, some of them of great architectural merit. Among the most notable public buildings are the State Capitol, City Hall, Union Station, State College for Teachers, county court house, the State Hall, State Education Building, and the State Library and State Museum. In addition to these there are many handsome business buildings. The industries of the city are varied. It has the oldest and largest baling press factory in the world, as well as the largest factory devoted to the manufacture of car-heating apparatus. It has also the largest toy factory in the United States. Other industries are the manufacture of billiard balls, patent stove specialties, writing paper, underwear, locomotives, gas ranges, beds, dies, cart wheels, chemicals, lumber, printing products, shirts, etc. The assessed valuation of real estate of the city is about $100,000,000, with a personal valuation of about $10,000,000. There are four banks of discount, two trust companies, and seven savings banks, in the latter a deposit of nearly $100,000,000. The first permanent site of Albany was made in 1614 by a company of Dutch traders who established a station at Castle Island under the name of Fort Nassau. The station was removed later to the mainland. In 1623 eighteen Walloon families sent by the Dutch West India Company settled on the present site of the city. In the same year Fort Orange was erected near the site of the present Steamboat Square. The settlement suffered severely from Indian attacks but continued to grow steadily. It received its name in 1664 from the Duke of York and Albany, afterward James II. It obtained a city charter in 1686 and became the capital of the State in 1797. Albany was selected for the convention of the First Provisional Congress which formed "a plan for a proposed union of several colonies." Pop. (1890) 94,923; (1900) 94,154; (1910) 100,253; (1920) 113,344.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
the capital city of the state of New York . It was settled by the Dutch in the year 1617. The first settlers were Huguenots from Belgium. At the transfer to the English in 1664 it was named for the Duke of Albany, who afterwards became James II . In 1797 it became the permanent capital of the state. In 1900 the population was 94,151. The state capitol, built of Maine granite at a cost of $25,000,000, is one of the most expensive buildings of the kind in the Union. The city owes its commercial prosperity to a commanding position. It is at the head of deep water navigation in the Hudson, and is the eastern terminus of the Erie Canal . It is also at the intersection of important north and south with east and west railway lines. In 1614, the year after the first Dutch traders had established their operations on Manhattan Island, they built a trading house, which they called Fort Nassau, on Castle Island, in the Hudson River , a little below the site of the present city of Albany. Three years later this small fort was carried away by a flood and the island abandoned. In 1623 a more important fortification, named Fort Orange, was erected on the site afterwards covered by the business part of Albany. That year, about eighteen families settled themselves at Fort Orange, under Adriaen Joris, who "staid with them all winter," after sending his ship home to Holland in charge of his son. As soon as the colonists had built themselves "some huts of bark" around the fort, the Mahikanders or River Indians (Mohegans), the Mohawks, the Oneidas, the Onondagas, the Cayugas, and the Senecas, with the Mahawawa or Ottawawa Indians, "came and made covenants of friendship...and desired that they might come and have a constant free trade with them, which was concluded upon."-J. R. Brodhead, History of the State of New York.
Albany a city of Georgia
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a city of Georgia, the coun- It is on the ty-seat of Dougherty co. Central of Georgia, the Atlantic Coast Line, the Seaboard Air Line, the Georgia Southwestern and Gulf, the Georgia Northern, and the Albany and Northern ra railroads. It is also on the Flint river, which is navigable at that point. It is both an agricultural and an industrial community. The chief interests are cotton, cottonseed oil, bricks, fertilizers, and lumber. The city has an excellent street system and water supply furnished by artesian wells. There is a public library, Federal building, and a monument to Confederate soldiers. Pop. (1910) 8,190; (1920) 11,555.
Albany a city of Alabama
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a city of Alabama, formerly known as New Decatur. It is about 80 miles N. of Birmingham. It is on the Tennessee river and on the Louisville and Nashville railroad. The town has grown rapidly in recent years and is now an important industrial center. There are extensive iron manufactures. It has also manufactories of cottonseed oil, lumber, railroad repair shops, and tanneries. Pop. (1910) 6,119; (1920) 7,652.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's in 1921 counted 113,344 people and a rising city of baling presses, billiard balls and "the largest toy factory in the United States"; Albany's population peaked near 135,000 around 1950 and has since fallen back to under 100,000, with that manufacturing base largely gone. The commercial advantages both accounts stress have faded too: the Erie and Champlain barge canals carry recreational traffic rather than freight, and passenger trains now stop across the river in Rensselaer rather than at the Union Station Collier's lists among the notable buildings. The biggest physical change came in the 1960s and 1970s, when whole neighborhoods were cleared for the Empire State Plaza, the vast state office complex pushed through by Governor Nelson Rockefeller. Government, medicine and higher education, including the State College for Teachers that grew into the University at Albany, now employ the city rather than industry.
Written for this edition, 2026.