lthough the City of Albany,
New York's Capital City since 1797, is at the district's focus,
the Capital District is really a metropolitan area of three cities,
Albany, Schenectady and Troy, with a large suburban population.
The City of Albany has a population of near 100,000, while the Capital
District has near 800,000 people living in it. The cost of living
is comparatively low, and the quality of available public services
is high. There are fourteen colleges and universities in the Capital
District. They include the State University of New York at Albany,
Rensselaer Polytechnical Institute in Troy; and Union College in
Schenectady.
The Capital District and the surrounding
region of Upstate New York are rich in history and scenic beauty.
The nearby Adirondack and Catskill Mountains of New York and Berkshire
and Green Mountains of New England, along with the rivers and many
lakes and parks in the region, offer a year-round diversity of outdoor
recreational opportunities. Spectator sports are available with a
minor league professional baseball team, and minor league hockey and
basketball teams playing in the district. The district also offers
college hockey, basketball and football. During August, nearby Saratoga
Springs becomes the national center of thoroughbred racing. The performing
arts have a strong presence throughout the year. The performing arts
centers support dramatic productions of all types and musical events
from chamber music and symphonic performances to rock concerts. Worthy
of note are the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, summer home of the
Philadelphia Orchestra and the New York City Ballet, and Tanglewood,
located in the nearby Berkshires, summer home of the Boston Symphony
Orchestra.
Both Albany and Troy rose to economic
power after 1825 when the Erie Canal opened. As the eastern terminus
of the canal, and located at the northern end of the navigable portion
of the Hudson River, the two cities became the focus of transportation
between the frontier west of America and the economic powerhouse of
New York City. As the political capital of the state, Albany's power
grew into an econimic collusus. Troy, across the river, turned into
one of the most important industrial manufacturing centers in the
country, converting raw goods into finished products, then shipping
those products down the river to the world.
Troy, a city of 55,000 people, is more
than 200 years old. Located along the Hudson River in New York,
Troy was a major center for the industrial revolution in the 1800's.
It was the home of the detachable shirt collar, stove manufacturers,
textile mills, stagecoach and carriage builders, breweries, bell
manufacturers, iron and steel centers, and more. Iron plates for
the Civil War ship the "Monitor" were rolled in Troy.
Even Samuel Wilson, better known as Uncle Sam, lived and worked
in Troy during this time.
Most of Troy's buildings stand from
the 18th and 19th centuries; fine homes of former industrial tycoons,
worker and factory housing, and homes of the emerging middle class
are still used and lived in today, many retaining their original
character and features. Wood frame, terra cotta, brownstone, and
brick houses line the streets of the city. Queen Anne, Mansard,
Beaux Arts, Romanesque, Italianate, Greek Revival, Gothic Revival,
and other kinds of buildings can be seen everywhere in Troy. Restoration
is an ongoing event here. In fact, a section of downtown has received
an impressive collection of art galleries and boutique shops.
A Very Brief History of Albany
Henry Hudson discovered Albany while
seeking a shorter route to the far-east in 1609. Soon after, Dutch
merchants settled here to bring furs from the north and ship them
to Europe. Fort Orange, a fur trading post erected in 1624 by the
Dutch West India Company, served as their trading headquarters controlling
the upper "North", or Hudson River. The small, wooden
structure with four bastions was to be the West India Company's
official outpost in the upper Hudson Region. The Company staffed
the "fort" with employees to conduct business, kept a
small detachment of soldiers to protect the outpost and maintain
order, and sponsored a number of farmers to provide food and other
necessities.
The Company realized the great potential
of bartering for furs and many of those living in the area committed
their best energies to securing beaver and other skins from Native
American hunters. By 1639, the Company realized the folly of trying
to maintain its fur trading monopoly and instead sought to tax the
furs exported from Fort Orange. By the 1640s, these new traders
had come together in a community of interest surrounding but mostly
north of the fort. In 1652, a court was created to help structure
activities in the fledgling, multi-purpose settlement called Beverwyck.
In 1664, when the Dutch surrendered
to the British without a battle, King Charles II granted a large
tract of land including Fort Orange to his brother James, the Duke
of York and Albany. Thus, Beverwyck became Albany and New Amsterdam
became New York. By 1676, the English had built a new fort overlooking
the community on upper State Street.
The so-called Dongan Charter of 1686
established Albany as a corporate entity. From that time on, the
city's municipal rights and privileges have made its growth and
development substantially different from that of the settlers and
settlements of the surrounding countryside known as greater Albany
County.
In 1631, seven years after Fort Orange
was founded on the shores of the North River, one of the principal
investors in the West India Company, a Dutch diamond merchant named
Killiaen van Rensselaer, bought a sizable tract of land around the
fort from the Mahicans who had long lived there, and proceeded to
establish a “patroonship,” or private farming community,
which he named Rensselaerswijck. The West India Company, frustrated
as to how best to populate its colony, had recently opened it up
to private entrepreneurs, with the condition that in exchange for
a piece of land each entrepreneur had to ship fifty colonists to
it within four years. Of several such attempts, Van Rensselaer’s
was the only patroonship that was even marginally successful—indeed,
it lasted into the nineteenth century, passing down through generations
of the Van Rensselaer family. The patroon’s idea had been
that Fort Orange and Rensselaerswijck would be mutually supporting:
the fort would provide protection, and the patroonship would supply
the fort with goods.
If Fort Orange and Beverwijck were
founded on the trading of animal skins, Albany, the city into which
those settlements grew, would be centered on another kind of trading:
political favors.
Albany and Troy are spectacular places
to visit and live. Albany is filled with historical sites, theatres,
cultural institutions, great parks and all manner of consumer shopping.
And Troy, just across the river, is a jewel of 19th century architecture
coming back to life under the tender care of concerned residents. |
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