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

The Albany Trust Company Building

Crowned with a dome, this ornate building at the northwest corner of State Street and Broadway was the work of Marcus T. Reynolds. 

Reynolds, one of Albany's best-known and prolific architects was commissioned to design the building for the Albany Trust Company in 1902 (the bank itself had been founded only two years earlier).

The building, described as being in a Beaux-Arts Northern Renaissance style, is heavily ornamented with graceful female heads above the windows, eagles which encircle the dome, and a golden orb.  It also has a nod to history with a relief of the North River Steamboat over a door on the Broadway side, though this was a later addition.  The main banking room inside was circular in keeping with the curves lines of the exterior design. 

As newer buildings replaced many of Albany's older structures, this handsome building was a fortunate survivor as modern construction was designed to surround it instead of demolishing it.

For a look an another round-cornered building that stood on the same site prior to the Albany Trust Company, click here.

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.

Independence Day Memorial Plaque

Almost hidden in the greenery in front of University Plaza is a low railing. The iron spikes enclosed a white marble plaque. The marker is very old and barely legible, its antique lettering badly worn with age. Fortunately, a small second marker to its left translates the faded inscription:

The following is the wording that was placed on the memorial stone immediately adjacent to this plaque: The Declaration of Independence was first read in Albany by order of the Committee of Safety July 19, 1776 in front of the City Hall then on this site. This memorial of the event was placed here by the citizens July 4, 1876.

At the time of the Revolutionary War, Albany's first City Hall stood here along Broadway. At the time, this key thoroughfare was call Court Street and ran parallel to the Hudson River just steps away. The City Hall erected in the early 1740s was built to replace Albany's earlier public meeting place on the same site, the 1686 Stadt Huys.

It was at this City Hall that Benjamin Franklin presented the Albany Plan of Union, the first formal proposal to unite the Thirteen American Colonies, to a congress of representatives of the northern colonies and delegates from the Iroquois Confederacy.

In 1776, in the days immediately following its July 4 approval in Philadelphia, copies of the Declaration of Independence were distributed to and read before the public in major cities throughout the rebelling Colonies.

In 1876, a committee was formed in Albany to honor the 100th anniversary of American Independence. The Centennial Memorial Tablet Committee met "to procure the erection of a permanent memorial at the spot where the Declaration of Independence was first publicly read in Albany."

$100 was earmarked for the project and, at the cost of $80, the marble tablet with gilt letters was commissioned and set above the door of the former City Hall.

Before a gathering of "two or three thousand" Albany residents, the plaque, which was covered by an American flag, was unveiled by Visscher Ten Eyck whose grandfather Matthew Visscher has stood before the old City Hall to read the Declaration a century earlier. The plaque was greeted by hearty cheers from the crowd, patriotic songs, chimes from the steeples of nearby churches, and a 100-gun salute.

Today, many historic sites still include a reenactment of the original reading of the Declaration of Independence as part of their Fourth of July celebrations. As the Saratoga National Historic Park, site of the pivotal 1777 battles, a ranger in period costume reads the Declaration, followed by cheers of "Huzzah!" It would be a wonderful tradition if such a short, but meaningful ceremony could be held here in Albany, right beside this historic Memorial Plaque, as a reminder that July 4 is about more than just fireworks and cookouts.

Happy Independence Day!

On Broadway

Bicentennial plaque affixed to the Old Post Office and Federal Building on Broadway at the foot of State Street.