Bicentennial Plaque No. 29 - The North-East Gate

This bronze tablet is difficult to spot, set flush to the ground and surrounded by greenery in front of SUNY Plaza on Broadway (just north of the marble Independence Day tablet). In warmer weather, the plants almost completely engulf it.   It is, however, close to its original location.  It was first placed in a granite block by the curb in front of the Van Benthuysen Printing & Publishing House which stood at 403 Broadway a few yards to the south.

The inscription on this plaque reads:

On the northeast corner of Broadway, then Court street, and Hudson, then Spanish street, stood the Second City Hall, Erected 1705, in which the Famous Congress of 1754 Met and Prepared a Union of the Several Colonies for Mutual Defense and Security.  The Southeast Gate of the City stood in front, to the south of the City Hall.  To the north of this spot a Bridge crossed, and on this ground was the house where Peter Schuyler, the first and for sixteen successive years Mayor of this City.

The Rutten Kill referenced on this plaque was also known as the Rat Creek and was buried in the 1800s.  It ran through a ravine that was filled in to create parts of Hudson Avenue. 

The Bicentennial Tablets
Bicentennial Plaque No. 1 - Fort Orange
Bicentennial Plaque No. 4 - The Progenitor

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

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

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