The Battle In Lincoln Park

 Above:  View inside the Beaverkill ravine in Lincoln Park, site of the 1626 ambush

In the late summer of 1626, a party of armed men set out from the Fort Orange.  Led by the Dutch outpost's superintendent, Daniel Van Kriekenbeek (there are numerous spellings of the name) the men (two of whome were not Dutch, but Portuguese) were accompanying a group of Mahicans in a planned attack on the Mohawks.

Van Kriekenbeek's decision to join the Mahicans in their ongoing conflict with the Mohawks was a departure from the previous neutrality the Dutch settlement had maintained with both and it would nearly end the good relations between Fort Orange and the Iroquois Confederacy to the west.

The Old Halenbeek Burial Ground

Downtown Albany was once dotted with public, private, and church graveyards.  The earliest churchyard surrounded the First Dutch Church at what is now Broadway and State Street, a Lutheran graveyard stood on South Pearl Street just below State Street, small burying grounds for soldiers from Fort Frederick and for African-Americans were located just outside the stockade not far from today's City Hall.  Later, municipal burial grounds were established on Eagle Street (just south of modern East Capitol Park) and then at State Street (now the northeastern corner of Washington Park). 

There were also small family burial grounds on farms, estates, and privately owned or leased lots.  One such lot - complete with a private vault - was built by merchant David Vanderheyden around 1766 at what is now the northwest corner of Washington Avenue and Swan Street. 

The Civil War Poetry of Alfred B. Street

Albany poet Alfred Billings Street was, in his day, best known for his sentimental nature poems and his published accounts of excursions into the Adirondack wilderness.  He also delivered verses for many civic occasions (such as the consecration of the Albany Rural Cemetery)

During the Civil War, however, the focus of poems turned to patriotic Union themes.  He would publish nineteen such works beginning with "Smite!" (reprinted below) at the beginning of the war and ending with "Abraham Lincoln Dead." 

Several of these poems would celebrate local heroes, including Colonel Lewis Benedict.  Another was read for the opening of the Army Relief Bazaar.  These poems, mostly printed in local newspapers, were later included in a two-volume collection of his poems published in 1866.

                 Smite!

Foes on our banner are bashing;

   Freedom that banner upholds,

Calling her sons to her aid,

City and mountain and glade!

   Rally then under its folds!

   Stars, ye bear hope in your light!

  Pearl, thou art emblem of right!

Wrath in the crimson is flashing:

                 Smite!

                Smite!

See!  the dim forms of our fathers,

   Frowning, bend low to our sight;

Voices are heard on the gale:

"Sons, if ye cowardly fail,

   Hide in the caverns of night!

   No!  ye will on in your might!

As the storm over us gathers,

               Smite!"

               Smite!

Here hang the hopes of the nation!

   Choice have we only to fight!

Sorrows shall nerve us anew!

Know but in battle's red dew

    Peace spreads her blossom of white;

   Smite then for our freedom and right! --

Smite! 't'is our only salvation!

             SMITE!

   

(Detail of Albany's Soldiers & Sailors Monument)

The Willett Stone

This boulder at the corner of Willett and State Streets honors the namesake of the former, General Marinus Willett.

The plaque features a profile of Willett and the following inscription:

In Grateful Memory of General Marinus Willett
1740 - 1836
For His Gallant and Patriotic Services In
Defense of Albany And The People of
The Mohawk Valley Against Tory And Indian
Foes During The Years of The War For
Independence, This Stone, Brought From The
Scenes of Conflict And Typical of His Rugged Character,
Has Been Placed Here Under The Auspices of The
Sons of The Revolution
In The State of New York

By The Philip Livingston Chapter
A.D. 1907

This memorial was originally located a few yards deeper in the park, but was moved to its present location several years ago as it was struck several times by cars missing a sharp turn.

It's interesting to note that the Willett Street might not have been named for the General in the first place. It was originally Willet Street and probably followed the pattern of naming the north-south streets in this area after birds - Eagle, Swan, Dove, Lark, Willet, and Snipe (the last of these no longer exists). At some point, the extra "t" was added and the association with General Willett began, making it a logical place for his memorial.

Update On The Reburial of the Schuyler Flatts Slaves

This afternoon, an informational meeting was held at the Albany Public Library to discuss the reburial of skeletons discovered near the Schuyler Flatts. The remains are of fourteen people who were undoubtedly slaves owned by the Schuyler family from the early 18^th to early 19^th centuries. The speaker was Paul Stewart of the Underground Railroad History Project; representatives from the New York State Museum, St. Agnes' Roman Catholic Cemetery, and Albany Rural Cemetery were present, along with the Town of Colonie's historian.

Some background information on the discovery of the skeletons and proposals for reburial were discussed.

In the past, the need for a suitable burial container had been mentioned as a concern; some sort of casket that would preserve the remains in the event of a future exhumation (presumably for scientific or educational purposes). However, this is no longer considered an issue and, in my opinion, there should not be any future exhumation of these skeletons. Their next resting place should be their final resting place and they should be allowed to lie in peace there. I would assume that reasonable samples from the bones could and would be retained by the NYS Museum for additional research as technology in that field advances.

A suitable burial container is still an issue, though. The discussion included modern-style burial vaults, simple wooden boxes in a manner similar to the original white pine coffins, cardboard boxes which have been used in previous reburials of historic remains, or merely wrapping the bodies in muslin winding sheets and laying them to rest in the earth. The issue of burying the remains separately or in a mass grave was also mentioned. All of these options are, of course, dependent on cost and available funds.

On the subject of funding, while the expenses have not yet been determined, I would suggest that donations could be solicited from individuals, businesses, and organizations with an interest in assisting with the cost of reburial and the placement of a suitable memorial or marker.

Several locations for reburial were mentioned. One early proposal put forward not long after the bones were discovered was to rebury them at the same privately owned site where they were discovered, along with an appropriate marker. There are at least two more undisturbed burials there and it is believed there may be others. However, there would be little protection for the remains if, in the future, construction or development affects the property. The parcel would have to be rezoned as a cemetery to be protected under the New York State Cemetery Laws and this, no doubt, would involve quite a bit of legal paperwork. Also, St. Agnes' Roman Catholic Cemetery – which is located just south of the original grave site and adjacent to the Albany Rural Cemetery – has offered to donate a suitable plot in a section called Founder's Hill, not far from the remains which were transferred to St. Agnes' from the Catholic lot in the State Street Burying Grounds during the mass removal of graves in 1868.

Another proposed site was the Church Grounds of Albany Rural Cemetery. It is my opinion, based on the history of the Church Grounds and the information presented at this meeting, that this is the most appropriate place for the reburial of the Schuyler Flatts skeletons.

First, there is strong precedent for such a reburial. In the past, when historic graves have been uncovered by construction or development, they have often been re-interred at the Church Grounds or other suitable areas of the Rural Cemetery. These reburials include the graves exhumed from the Alms House site along New Scotland Avenue, children from the Albany Orphanage, and Pearl (the name give to a woman whose grave was discovered along South Pearl Street, formerly the site of an early Lutheran burial ground). Also, the Rural Cemetery is closest to the place that these people knew as home, though not by choice, and where they were laid to rest without the expectation of future generations disturbing their graves.

Second, as the religious beliefs of these Schuyler slaves are unknown to modern scholars and historians, it would be appropriate to bury them in a secular cemetery – such as the Rural Cemetery – which has allowed for the burial of people of any race or religion. Also, the Church Grounds includes the African Methodist Episcopal burials moved from the State Street Burying Grounds. While this church did not exist during the lives of the Schuyler Flatts slaves, it is not impossible (thought completely unprovable) some of the individuals could possibly be direct descendents or other kin.

Today's meeting was, of course, very preliminary. There will be future meetings to further address the subject and to form a committee to handle the arrangements. A town hall meeting will also be held to get further input from the public. It is hoped that a reburial – with a fitting ceremony – can be held sometime in the warmer months.

The Church Grounds Project

A number of posts here in recent months have featured gravestones found in the Church Grounds section. The more I explore and research this section, the more I am impressed by its historic significance and I have decided to create a blog focusing on the Church Ground burials.

Many of the Church Grounds stones are broken or badly eroded so I know going into this project that I will not be able to transcribe every one, but I want to document as many as I can before time completely erases them.

The new blog can be found at:

The Albany Church Grounds

The Oldest Building (Formerly)

Plaque on State Street near the corner with South Pearl Street. Like most of Albany's colonial relics, the house referenced by this bronze marker is long since gone and Albany's oldest surviving building is a few blocks away on Hudson Avenue.

Walk east along the front of this building towards 74 State and you'll find a set of windows with a very interesting (though dimly lit) exhibit of photos tracing the history this corner from the original Dutch house where General Philip Schuyler was born to the succession of modern buildings that replaced it.

Bicentennial Plaque No. 4 - The Progenitor

The fourth of the surviving Bicentennial tablets is mounted on the wall of City Hall (to the right of the main entrance). It commemorates Killiaen Van Rensselaer, a diamond and pearl merchant who never actually set foot on his holdings in the New World, but was an instrumental figure in Albany history nonetheless.

Killiaen Van Rensselaer on Wikipedia
The Bicentennial Tablets
Bicentennial Plaque No. 1 - Fort Orange

Haunted Halloween

As I wrote in last year's Halloween blog post - A Handful of Hauntings - I've always been frustrated by the lack of good local ghost stories. Surely Albany - with over four centuries of recorded history - should have better tales than oft-repeated urban legends like the Graceland Cemetery hitch-hiker.

And the ghost stories I do encounter are vague at best. Some downtown buildings like 100 State Street and the former DeWitt-Clinton Hotel are reportedly haunted, but details are maddeningly scarce.

Still, there are a few worth sharing this Halloween.

Saint Mary's Church, Albany's oldest Catholic Church, is a familiar site downtown...thanks especially to its wonderful angel weather-vane. Founded in 1797, the church is said to be haunted by a headless ghost with rattling chains. Tradition says the church was built on the site of a Dutch barn where Saint Isaac Jogues, a 17th-century Jesuit missionary, escaped from his Mohawk captors. Because Jogues was later killed and beheaded by the Mohawks, some believe this decapitated spirit is Father Jogues. I don't doubt there is a ghost, but I do have doubts about its identity.

The Red Lantern Ghost is said to haunt the intersection of New Scotland Avenue and McCormack Road. The story goes that people living in this area in an era before cars and traffic lights would see a mysterious red light moving along the road on certain nights. It was supposedly the phantom lantern of a man who would frequently travel this route at night until drowning in the Normanskill just a few blocks south. Who this man was and why he made nocturnal trips isn't explained.

The spirit of John Whipple, murdered at Cherry Hill and still haunting the historic house, is one of the better known local ghost stories. Less well known is the story of his murderer's ghost. Jesse Strang was hanged for the 1827 killing and his execution drew thousands of spectators to Gallows Hill. The site of this last public hanging was near Hudson Avenue and Eagle Street, an area now covered by the Empire State Plaza. It's said that for decades after his death, Jesse Strang's ghost haunted Gallows Hill. Workers building the Plaza were supposedly the last to see Jesse Strang. Clad in a shroud, he stared in confusion at the sprawling marble and glass complex being built over Gallows Hill.

Another execution site reportedly haunted by a hanged man is Lafayette Park at Hawk and Elk Streets. Years ago, Saint Agnes School stood near here and its halls were haunted by a man who swore he was innocent and vowed to haunt the site of his death until his name was cleared. Who he was and what he was condemned for is unknown, but this area is said to have been the site of a gallows. Saint Agnes School is long gone, but the ghost supposedly remains.

Just south of Albany, along River Road, is the estate of a family named Prentiss (or, as I've also seen it listed, Prentice). The family had its own private vault on the grounds (the existence of this vault is confirmed in a memoir of late 19th-century life in Albany) and there are stories of ghostly figures in burial clothes seen moving about at night and even conversing with each other.

The Albany Rural Cemetery is also haunted. I've yet to see the ghostly couple that supposedly drifts along its roads, clad in old-fashioned nightclothes. And the only dogs I've encountered are real canines being walked by their owners...never the mysterious black dog mentioned on various ghost sites. Still, I've had my share of paranormal encounters there...but that's a tale for another time!

Happy Halloween!

 And still more Albany ghost stores.

Press Conference Regarding Vacant Buildings

Via Historic Albany Foundation on Facebook:

Tomorrow-Monday Sept 12th at 2 PM-- a press conference with County Legislator Chris Higgins and others about a proposed Window and Roof Repair for Vacant Buildings. Be there! at 125 Jefferson Street, corner of So. Swan, site of the most recent building emergency.

The building emergency referenced is the roof collapse at the former fire station detailed in the previous post here.

Another Building Collapse - Swan Street Fire House

This morning, the Times Union has a report of a partial building collapse at the corner of Swan and Jefferson Streets. The building in question is a former Albany firehouse overlooking the New York State Museum and Empire State Plaza.

The yellow brick firehouse has been vacant for many years and, according to the TU, is privately owned. According to an official at the scene, it is the buildings roof which has collapsed. Not doubt the recent heavy rains - first from the remnants of Hurricane Irene and additional rains over the past few days - contributed to the damage. I'm no structural engineer, but the brick walls seem largely intact at this point. I could see debris in the otherwise empty interior.

The simple yellow brick facade dates to 1938 and was part of a Works Progress Administration project to modernize several existing firehouses. However, the building itself apparently predates the WPA and may have been built shortly after the 1867 reorganization of the Albany fire department. The location was chosen in part because the site sits atop a slope making it easier for horses to draw the fire trucks downhill.

The Americanus Engine Company Number 13 was assigned this station in 1867. The neighborhood just west of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception was slowly being developed as new houses were built along Madison Avenue and parallel streets. When Company 13 disbanded two years later, Steamer Number 6 was assigned to the new station. Originally a steamer company, it motorized in 1918.

The decision to close this firehouse in 1986 was met with criticism and protests (including a demonstration outside the Governor's Mansion on nearby Eagle Street, one of the buildings covered by this fire station). The building was auctioned and has remained unused since.

As of 11:30 this morning, National Grid crews were on the scene, along with officials from the fire and building departments.

More as this story develops.

ETA: According to an updated story in the TU, the building will not be demolished and the owner is working with the city to stabilize the structure. The flagpole on the roof is being removed as a result of the roof collapse, but the tower near the rear of the building is said to be in no danger. The article also notes that the old fire house is actually several buildings combined within the yellow brick exterior. This can be see by the entrances on the Swan Street side; the smallest one was access for hose carts and the large for the horse-drawn (and later, motorized) fire trucks.

Bicentennial Plaque No. One - Fort Orange

Located on a retaining wall under the tangle of ramps just a few yards north of lower Madison Avenue, this plaque was the first in the series of bronze tablets erected throughout Albany during the City's Bicentennial in 1886.

This plaque was originally mounted on a granite base in the long-gone Steamboat Square near the foot of Madison Avenue (not to be confused with the modern public housing building of the same name located a few blocks south). Moved several times over the years (first in 1930 during the construction of the original Dunn Memorial Bridge and again in the 1970s with the building of I-787), it is virtually lost in a drab concrete wasteland behind the Holiday Inn Express on Broadway.

Despite its unappealing location, this plaque was designated the first in the series with good reason as it commemorates the origins of the Albany and, arguably, its most significant historic site - the first permanent settlement at Fort Orange.

Despite being designated a National Historic Landmark and excavated by archaeologists in the early 1970s), the Fort Orange site is now completely buried beneath the ramps and overpasses of I-787 and the South Mall Expressway.

It is a pity that this marker, the only tangible commemoration of Albany's earliest days, is hardly visible, except as a glimpse from a passing car.

The plaque reads:

Upon this spot washed by the tide, stood the north east bastion* of FORT ORANGE
Erected in 1623, Here the powerful Iroquois met the deputies of this and other colonies in conference to establish treaties. Here the first courts were held. Here in 1643 under the direction of Dominie Johannes Megapolensis, a learned and estimable minister, the earliest church was erected north west of the fort and to the south of it stood the Dominie's house.

*While the plaque is currently located on the site of Fort, it is no longer located at the exact spot of this bastion.

More on Fort Orange
The Bicentennial Tablets

Trinity Church Demolition

Chuck Miller has an excellent set of photos documenting the demolition of Trinity Church, including the work to salvage the historic building's stained glass windows (which are believed to be Tiffany).

Trinity Demolition Photos

Added 7/15 - Chuck also has a blog post about the demise of Trinity Church to accompany the terrific photos:

The Final Days of Trinity Church

Breaking: Church Collapsing On Trinity Place

From today's Times Union, the loss of another historic structure:

19th-century Trinity Church collapsing

This blog, from 2009, has a photo and addition information on Trinity (as well as another vacant historic Albany church):

Hope For Albany's Decaying Churches

ETA: The photo above was taken around noon today from the corner of Westerlo and Trinity Streets shows the area around the church blocked off by police. Heavy equipment was parked in front of the building, but no demolition had begun at the time.

According to the book, "Architects In Albany," the structures twin steeples originally featured decorative wooden gables and pinnacles.

This church was the work of architect James Renwick, Jr. whose works include New York City's Grace Church and Saint Patrick's Cathedral, as well as the castle-like Smithsonian Institute. Trinity Church, built in the late 1840s, was his only work in Albany.

WNYT's coverage includes a photo of the badly damaged interior.

The Historic Albany Foundation has long been concerned about the deterioration of Trinity Church and, in 2005, placed it on their list of Endangered Historic Resources.

CBS 6 has a video report on the collapse now:

Historic Albany Church To Be Demolished

Demolition of the structure was scheduled to begin tomorrow, adding another building to the long list of lost historic buildings in Albany. However, a photo just posted tonight on Twitter by Daniel Boyce shows work has already begun at the rear and Fox 23 News has more on the story:

Crews Tear Down Crumbling Historic Albany Church

7/13 Update - Photographer and blogger Chuck Miller has an excellent picture of the rear of the church as demolition work continues:

All Over Albany - What's Left of Trinity Church

Happy Fourth of July

In honor of the holiday, a quick collection of related posts from this blog and its companion blogs.

Independence Day Memorial Plaque
The appropriately named Liberty Park
Burgoyne Plaque
Philip Livingston, Signer of the Declaration of Independence
Lafayette Park
William Paterson, Signer of the Constitution
Walter Whitney, Revolutionary War Soldier

The Albany Bicenntennial Tablets - Part One

1886 was a celebratory year for Albany. It marked the 200th anniversary of the granting of the Dongan Charter, the municipal charter issued by Governor Dongan which separated Albany from the colonial estate of Rensselaerwyck and created it as a city.

Among the many commemorations, a series of 42 bronze plaques were placed throughout Albany through the efforts of a committee headed by architect Walter Dickson. The Bicentennial Tablets were created by William Hailes (a maker of stove and machine patterns whose shop stood at the corner of Broadway and Hamilton Street) and placed at sites significant to Albany history.

The plaques varied in size from small (about 16 x 7 inches) to large (about 32 x 40 inches) and marked such places as the site of Fort Frederick atop State Street's steep hill, historic churches and private residences of note, original names of streets, and the courses of some of the old streams that once flowed through the city. They commemorated events such as the ride of Symon Schermerhorn who carried the news of the Schenectady Massacre to Albany, visits by George Washington, and the planting of an elm tree by Philip Livingston.

The tablets were part of a celebration of Albany heritage that included proclamations, sermons, hymns, parades, visits by Mohawk chiefs, and an evergreen "triumphal arch" built across Broadway complete with a wooden replica of the old stockade gates.

A numbered list of the plaques was published in various late 19th and early 20th century guidebooks to aid visitors to Albany in retracing the paths of the city's history.

Almost 125 years have passed since the Bicentennial Tablets were set in place and, gradually, many of the plaques disappeared as buildings were torn down and new structures raised. Streets were widened, paved, and repaved and the plaques set along curbs lost or destroyed.

More than half of the original 42 plaques are gone. At least one of the current plaques is a replica replacing a lost marker noting the home where Governor DeWitt Clinton died in 1828. The majority, though, are lost and forgotten. Only about a dozen survive and some of those are now very difficult to find.

Looking at the original list of markers is a poignant reminder of how much of Albany's early history was not preserved. So many of the places commemorated by the plaques were gone by the time of the Bicentennial and many of those that still stood intact as of 1886 are long since gone.

To be continued...

Plaque Number 1 - Fort Orange 
Plaque Number 4 - The Progenitor
Plaque Number 29 - The North East Gate
Plaque - Old Saint Mary's
Plaque - Lydius Corner
Plaque - On Broadway

Wacheka Albanya (Sophie High Dog)

The little girl's grave lies among the elegant monuments of Albany's elite and wealthy. The white marble headstone has toppled and lies propped against its base. The inscription is beginning to weather away and tall grass often half-hides the grave.

The child who was known as Sophie High Dog or Wacheka Albanya was Sioux born in South Dakota around 1890. Too little information is known about her early childhood or family, but she was brought to Albany at the age of five as an orphan. It was later claimed that she had been "thrown away," simply abandoned by her parents.

Wacheka had initially been sent to the Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. The Carlisle school's purpose was to assimilate Native American children in white society and its history is one of abuse and tragedy. Wacheka, however, came to the attention of the Albany Indian Association and was termed "too delicate" for a boarding school where hundreds of children died of disease and harsh treatment. The Association, which was founded in 1883 to aid in solving the so-called "Indian problem" through eduction, had the child brought to Albany and placed her in St. Christina's Home. St. Christina's, which operated under the auspices of the Episcopal Diocese of Albany, was located in Saratoga Springs and served as a summer home for the Child's Hospital.

Described as a "bright and earnest" child, she soon became a favorite of caretakers who referred to her in the sentimental language of the era, as a "sweet flower out of rough forest soil" even as they sought to erase all traces of her Sioux heritage with a white Christian education.

Meanwhile, the delicate health that had first won the sympathy of her guardians worsened. Her body was weakened by measles and tuberculosis and she passed away on February 13, 1900. Four days later, William C. Doane, the popular Episcopal Bishop of Albany, presided over her funeral at the Cathedral of All Saints.

Her obituary is a sad one which reflects the prejudices and misconceptions of the day, describing her parents as a "drunken" Sioux father and a "dissolute half-breed" mother. It was accompanied by a picture of Wacheka in fashionable child's coat and bonnet.

She was laid to rest in the Rural Cemetery, her grave paid for by the Albany Indian Association.

The people who arranged for her care, those who paid for her education and, later, mourned her with a lavish funeral acted no doubt believed they did right for Wacheka. They probably meant well and their actions were the product of their era and its cultural values.

Owner of Iconic Miss Albany Diner Dies

Clifford Brown, owner of the Miss Albany Diner, passed away yesterday.

Read more about the Miss Albany here.

State Street Fire

An fire broke out before dawn in one of the buildings on the old Wellington Row block of State Street below Eagle Street. The building is vacant and, like the rest of the row, awaiting redevelopment.

CBS6 has a brief piece on the fire here. Additional details will be posted if they become available.

The building on fire is the one at the left of the Wellington in this photo taken in early 2009:

Albany (NY) Daily Photo Blog - Shells

Central Warehouse Fire

The massive white hulk of the Central Warehouse is both a landmark and an eyesore. A familiar part of Albany's skyline...especially to commuters on 787...the Warehouse caught fire this past Friday and, as of this writing, continues to burn from within. The photo above was taken about twenty-four hours after the fire began and a large house can be see directing water at the upper stories on the south side of the building.

The eleven-story Warehouse was built around 1927 and was, at that time, a state-of-the-art facility for cold and dry storage of meats and other foods.

With its steel and concrete design insulted with cork and cooled with ammonia, it's said it could hold enough food to feed the entire city for three months. En route to the nearby Livingston Avenue Bridge, a spur of railroad actually diverted right into the building to allow goods to be unloaded from trains directly into the Warehouse to be moved to storage areas via large freight elevators. The tracks enter the Warehouse on the western side and reemerge from the second floor on the east side.

It wasn't only meats that passed through this facility. During the height of operations, everything from cranberries for local supermarkets to flour bound for West Africa.

Later, after warehouse operations had all but ceased, its cavernous floors sometimes served as storage for toys donated to area charities at Christmas. For a time, a small store remained open on the ground floor. A cold, white-tiled relic of the building's original use, it sold wholesale packs of chicken and meat, mostly to restaurants.

In the early 1980s, the building made headlines when its then-owner Richard Gerrity has a massive sign painted on one of the exterior walls. The huge logo proclaimed the Year of The Bible to passing motorists...and became the subject of a court case because it violated then-current laws governing billboards and outdoor signage.

In the late 1980s, ninety-eight cases of butter valued (at the time) at $3,000, vanished from the Warehouse where it was being stored after being issued by the U.S. Government to the Albany County Emergency Food Task Force.

For the past decade and a half, though, the building had changed owners a number of times. At one time, it was sold by a bank for $1 (and back taxes of $120,000). At the time of the fire, it was been offered for sale at over $4,000,000.

The signs of neglect were obvious even from a distance. Graffiti was visible on upper stories. A court had to order bankrupt owners to keep the power on in the building to prevent leakage of ammonia from the cooling pipes and thereby endangering surrounding neighborhoods on either side of the Hudson River. The painted signs on the exterior walls faded to illegible shadows. Plaster rained from the facade on windy days. It was becoming a modern ruin.

It became a property with some potential, but many obstacles. As a cold-storage facility, it was obsolete and unneeded. The cost to renovate the building for any sort of reuse was higher than most investors would be willing to risk...not to mention potential environmental issues associated with the dormant refrigeration systems. The cost of any drastic reuse - such as conversion to an aquarium or art space or even a new train station - was equally high. Demolition of the building had been frequently estimated at at least $1.5 million dollars (roughly the amount the current owners paid for it a few years ago).

As of today, the building is in a smoky limbo. The fire which has burned through the weekend has, so far, not weaken the exterior walls and there is reportedly no threat of a collapse. The steel and concrete were simply built that solid. As the fire spread downward through vast empty spaces and deep elevator shats from its apparent origin on the upper floor to create an inferno in the ground floors, it has undoubtedly gutted much of the interior. Whether or not this derelict, but impressive part of Albany's skyline can or should be saved will remain to be seen.

Photographer Sebastien Barre ventured inside the derelict Warehouse and documented its ghostly interior (as well as the spectacular skyline views from the roof) in a 2009 photoset. On Friday, he returned to document the fire. Kudos to him; between his tweets from the scene and his impressive photos, he did a much better job capturing this story than much of the "official" media.

Also, All Over Albany has an excellent collection of photos and stories about the fire, as well.