The story behind the Pine Hills mural – and the plan to restore it
We all have to shop, get our hair cut, and grab a bite for lunch. How and where we do these things is a little part of what makes us “us” – and part of what makes a place “ours.” For my husband and me,...
View ArticleHello, 1940. We’ve been waiting for you.
That twitching sound you hear? That’s history geeks everywhere, barely able to contain their anticipation of the upcoming release of 1940 Census data. U.S. law requires a 72-year wait before personal...
View ArticleUpdated: Volunteers needed for Pine Hills mural restoration
Plans are proceeding apace for sprucing up the mural on the side of the CVS building at Madison and Main, and the Beautify Upper Madison Project has put out a call for “amateur artists” to help repaint...
View ArticleOpening night at the Madison Theatre, May 29, 1929
Albany, get out the birthday hats. Tonight marks 83 years since the Madison Theatre opened its doors near the corner of Madison and Main. Out of all of the theaters built in an era of grand and...
View ArticleWhen Little League baseball came to Albany
A dump transformed into a beloved neighborhood landmark: If it was fiction, the symbolism would be far too obvious. But it was real, and for Albany boys in the 1950s it was the most exciting thing ever...
View ArticleUpdate: Mural repainting. In a word: Wow.
Hats off to all who worked to bring this mural back to life. It’s a beauty. Here’s a roundup of media coverage of the mural restoration. If you know of a source I’ve missed, let me know and I’ll add...
View ArticleA neighborhood at war: The Pine Hills, 1941-1945
Seventy years ago, when the sirens went off up at the Steamer 10 firehouse, you turned off the lights and pulled down the shades. It was the midst of World War Two, and air raid drills were just one of...
View ArticleGregory Maguire writes about Albany’s Pine Hills neighborhood
Before Gregory Maguire became a best-selling author, he was one of the “approximately two million children” – as he writes in the essay that follows – growing up in Albany’s Pine Hills neighborhood in...
View ArticleThe gentle man with the meat cleaver
It was just a little concrete-block building tucked in a side street off Madison Avenue. But for a few decades in the middle of the 20th century, it was the place to get high-quality meat cut just the...
View ArticleA park with a storied past
The thing about – well, about everything – is that you can’t ever forget how complex it all is. I set out thinking I was going to write two paragraphs on the history of Albany’s Ridgefield Park and the...
View ArticlePine Hills maple syrup: Tapping into the neighborhood
Know what you need on this raw and drizzly morning? A tall, steaming stack of hotcakes. And I have just the thing to go with it. I have a story in today’s Times Union on a man who has tapped backyard...
View ArticleThe Vincentian glass school: Albany’s educational experiment
Walk toward the College of Saint Rose’s Hearst Center for Communications and Interactive Media, set back from Madison Avenue, and off to the side you may notice a curious monument. A latticework metal...
View ArticlePine Hills, 1909: Leave room for pudding
In the spirit of historical discovery, and also cookies, I turn to a question that Albany has probably never lost sleep over before: What were the Pine Hills families of 1909 eating for dessert? Thanks...
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