Our first stop was at the Visitor’s Center. There weren’t many people there and we were able to spend some time talking to the volunteer at the desk about things to see and do. She gave us some literature on Cohoes and the mills, as well as a walking tour map for downtown Albany. We can leave the car here and walk to the Capitol.
The oldest Dutch building, built in 1736, is the Quackenbush House that is now a restaurant next to the Visitor’s Center. The Visitor’s Center is part of the former Quackenbush Pumping Station and housed the offices of the Albany Water Commission from 1890 to 1986. But the first stop we made on the walking tour was the First Church (Reformed) built in 1798. It still has the oldest pulpit in America which was bought from the Church of Amsterdam in 1656 for 25 beaver skins. Theodore Roosevelt attended church here when he was Governor of New York. Part of the addition outside the sanctuary is a beautiful Tiffany window.
From there we walked about 4 blocks up the hill of State Street to the State Capitol. State Street is six lanes wide with a large median. Our walking tour brochure said this is a survivor from the days of the walled city when churches (including First Church), a market and public buildings stood in the middle of this street. The Dutch West India Company built Fort Orange in 1624 at the foot of the hill. The British built Fort Frederick in 1675 at the crest of the State Street hill. I just love all these centuries of history in this part of our country.
The New York State Capitol doesn’t look like any we’ve seen so far. It looks like a French chateau on a hill. Construction of the State Capitol was started in 1865 and completed 30 years later and is only one of ten without a dome, or so our tour guide told us. I can only think of the 4 tall ones (Florida, Nebraska, North Dakota, and Louisiana), New Mexico, and Oregon. I’ll have to figure out what the other 3 are. It cost $25 million and when it was completed it was the most expensive building in the United States. Part of the cost can be seen in the Senate Chambers where 24 karat gold leaf covers part of the walls. Another feature in the Senate Chambers are the perfect acoustics. Conversations are audible across the room, so the very large fireplaces have been used for private conversations. Thankfully, they have never been used for a fire.
The stairways are very interesting. Stonecarvers from Italy did amazing things on them. They are all different designs and have many faces carved in the stone.
After the tour we went to the State Museum that is on the other end of the Empire State Plaza. A word about the Plaza. Governor Nelson Rockefeller “had a dream” in the early 1960s to rejuvenate downtown Albany.
Almost 100 acres with several hundred homes were cleared. It is now a Plaza 6 blocks long and 3 blocks wide, with lots of modern art sculptures, a performing arts center called “The Egg,” skyscraper office buildings, pools and fountains. There is also a concourse under the Plaza with restaurants, a bank, and the tourist office. It looks very out of place to me in juxtaposition to the wonderful old architecture that surrounds it, but it is a bold public space.
One of the features of the State Museum is a carousel built in North Tonawanda by Herschell-Spillman.
They give free rides.
As we walked back down State Street, we went into St. Peter’s Episcopal Church. The original church was built in 1715 in the middle of State Street. The current church was built in 1860 and designed by the architect of Trinity Church in New York City. It is listed on the National Registry of Historic Places as a classic example of Gothic architecture.
On our way to the car we stopped in the Bayou Café and had a drink sitting on the sidewalk watching the traffic.
To get home we drove up the east side of the Hudson River on Route 4. A good tourist day.
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