Albany Rural Cemetery & The Civil War

I've spent quite a bit of time in the Albany Rural Cemetery in recent months. Partly to do research for a book about this wonderful Cemetery, partly for my companion blog about it, and partly because it's just a beautiful place that I love to explore.

There are hundreds of Civil War burials at the Rural Cemetery. At almost every turn, one can find a monument embellished with swords, carved flags, caps, and other such soldierly emblems.

Video editing is not my favorite task, but I wanted to share the photos I've taken so far of these monuments, including the Soldiers Lot. So I've put together a simple video of Civil War monuments.



Many of these monuments have stories to be shared in future blog posts, but for now, they are gathered together in this slideshow.

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.

The State Street Burying Grounds

Above - An engraving from Joel Munsell's "Annals of Albany" showing monuments in the State Street Burying Grounds.






Click here for a more in-depth exploration of the State Street Burying Grounds and the Church Grounds.
Before the Albany Rural Cemetery was established, the City's primary burial ground was located at the present site of Washington Park.

The State Street Burying Ground, founded in 1800 as an alternative to the overcrowded churchyards and private family graveyards, was located at the present park's northeast corner. Enclosed by a ten-foot high wooden fence, the grounds were divided into four large section for various churches, as well as an area set aside for strangers, African-Americans, and deceased persons not associated with any religious congregations. Graves from a number of smaller burial grounds were relocated here as progress encroached on downtown churchyards, raising the real estate value of land previously dedicated to the dead.

Within a few decades, however, the State Street Burying Ground was already in serious decline. The high mortality rate of the early 19th-century, combined with epidemics such as an 1832 cholera outbreak, had resulted in a badly overcrowded graveyard. The fence had suffered from neglect and vandalism, livestock wandered freely among graves, headstones were stolen or damaged, and immigrant gangs used the forlorn spot for violent brawls.

After the opening of the Rural Cemetery in 1844, the State Street Burying Grounds' condition became so pitiful that it was deemed "in the highest decree discreditable to the city authorities and the churches interested." A future Superintendent of Albany's parks later recalled that there was "a mouldy and neglected air about the place."

In 1866, Albany's Common Council addressed the matter of the Burying Grounds and passed a resolution to close it. All graves in it would be removed to the Rural Cemetery and reburied in a special lot set aside for that purpose. Before removal, "competent persons" would be engaged to copy all inscriptions from the monuments. A complete list of these inscriptions - which range from merely initials or first names to short epitaphs - would later be published along with a complete copy of the Common Council's resolution.

Permission was sought from and granted by the various congregations with sections in the State Street Burying Grounds for the transfer of the graves at the City's expense. The total cost to copy the inscriptions, exhume the remains, provide new coffins, remove all headstones, and transport the coffins and monuments out to the Rural Cemetery was about $45,000.

Above: A rows of headstones in the Church Grounds section of the Albany Rural Cemetery
The graves were moved to a section of the Rural Cemetery now known as the Church Grounds. Because it was difficult to match each headstone with its original coffin (and because some graves lacked headstones entirely), the markers were laid out in flat rows over the field. These monuments range from simple slabs bearing only names and dates to more elaborately carved stones featuring willow trees, angels bearing trumpets, to winged cherubs heads or skulls.

Above: An old headstone with a folksy carved angel in the Church Grounds at the Rural Cemetery.
In 1868, the land formerly occupied by the State Street Burying Ground became part of the newly created Washington Park, which remains one of Albany's most popular outdoor spaces.

The Church Grounds remain one of the most fascinating sections of the Rural Cemetery. Notable burials there include several of Albany's earliest mayors, an Oneida sachem, and an African-American veteran of the Revolutionary War.

Located deep within the Cemetery just beyond the western end of the Middle Ridge, The Church Grounds can be easily missed since, from a distance, it looks like an empty field. But it is well worth a visit and appears on Cemetery maps as Section 49.

Above: Modern Washington Park near the old location of the State Street Burying Grounds.

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