Lafayette Park Historic District

Albany ( (listen) AWL-bən-ee) is the capital city of the U.S. state of New York and the seat of Albany County. It is located on the west bank of the Hudson River, about 10 miles (16 km) south of its confluence with the Mohawk River, and about 135 miles (220 km) north of New York City. The city is known for its architecture, commerce, culture, institutions of higher education, and rich history. It is the economic and cultural core of the Capital District of the State of New York, which comprises the Albany–Schenectady–Troy Metropolitan Statistical Area, including the nearby cities and suburbs of Troy, Schenectady, and Saratoga Springs. With an estimated population of 1.1 million in 2013, the Capital District is the third most populous metropolitan region in the state. As of 2020, Albany's population was 99,224. The Hudson River area was originally inhabited by Algonquian-speaking Mohican (Mahican), who called it Pempotowwuthut-Muhhcanneuw. The area was settled by Dutch colonists who, in 1614, built Fort Nassau for fur trading and in 1624, built Fort Orange. In 1664, the English took over the Dutch settlements, renaming the city Albany in honor of the Duke of Albany, the future James II. The city was officially chartered in 1686 under English rule. It became the capital of New York in 1797 after the formation of the United States. Albany is one of the oldest surviving settlements of the original British thirteen colonies; no other city in the United States has been continuously chartered as long.In the late 18th century and throughout most of the 19th, Albany was a center of trade and transportation. The city lies toward the north end of the navigable Hudson River. It was the original eastern terminus of the Erie Canal, connecting to the Great Lakes, and was home to some of the earliest railroads in the world. In the 1920s a powerful political machine controlled by the Democratic Party arose in Albany. In the latter part of the 20th century, Albany's population shrank because of urban sprawl and suburbanization. In the 1990s, the New York State Legislature approved for the city a US$234 million building and renovation plan, which spurred redevelopment downtown. In the early 21st century, Albany's high-technology industry grew, with great strides in nanotechnology.

The New York State Capitol, the seat of the New York state government, is located in Albany, the capital city of the U.S. state of New York. The capitol building is part of the Empire State Plaza complex on State Street in Capitol Park. Housing the New York State Legislature, the building was completed in 1899 at a cost of US$25 million (equivalent to $703 million in modern dollars), making it the most expensive government building of its time. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971, then included as a contributing property when the Lafayette Park Historic District was listed in 1978. The New York State Capitol was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1979.

On the morning of March 29, 1911, a fire destroyed substantial portions of the New York State Capitol, including vast holdings of the New York State Library and the New York State Museum. It destroyed or damaged hundreds of thousands of documents and books. There was one casualty, Samuel Abbott, a watchman.

The New York State Education Department (NYSED) is the department of the New York state government responsible for the supervision for all public schools in New York and all standardized testing, as well as the production and administration of state tests and Regents Examinations. In addition, the State Education Department oversees higher education, cultural institutions such as museums and libraries, vocational rehabilitation, and the licensing of numerous professions. It is headed by the Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York (USNY) and administered by the Commissioner of Education. Its regulations are compiled in title 8 of the New York Codes, Rules and Regulations. The main offices of the department are housed in the New York State Department of Education Building, located at 89 Washington Avenue in Albany, the state capital.Each year New York spends over $22,000 per student, which is 90% more than the average in the US.

The New York State Education Building (commonly known as the State Education Building) is a state office building in Albany, New York. It houses offices of the New York State Education Department (NYSED) and was formerly home to the New York State Museum and New York State Library. Designed by Henry Hornbostel in the Beaux-Arts style and opened in 1912, the building is known for its expansive colonnade.

Academy Park is a cultural feature park located in the Lafayette Park Historic District of Albany, New York. As an urban park, Academy Park often equates by extension to its surrounding neighborhood near the Albany city hall. The Eagle Street entrance of the New York Court of Appeals Building faces Academy Park.

The New York State Association of Independent Schools (NYSAIS) is an association of 201 independent schools and organizations, ranging from nurseries to high schools, in New York State. Founded in 1947, NYSAIS is the second largest state association of independent schools in the United States. As of July 1, 2019 its member schools enrolled approximately 83,024 students. It was established "to protect independent schools from obstructive legislation and regulation". NYSAIS accredits member schools, provides professional development, and works with community leaders to support the needs and interests of independent schools throughout the state. NYSAIS is a member of the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) as well the International Council Advancing Independent School Accreditation (ICAISA).

The Hawk Street Viaduct was a bridge spanning the Sheridan Hollow neighborhood in Albany, New York. It carried Hawk Street from Clinton Avenue to Elk Street. Completed in 1890, it was demolished in 1970 after decades of neglect which had caused it to be limited to pedestrian traffic only in 1968. It was the first cantilever arch bridge in the world.

The old Albany Academy building, known officially as Academy Park by the City School District of Albany, its owner (after the park in which it is located), and formerly known as the Joseph Henry Memorial, is located in downtown Albany, New York, United States. It is a Federal style brownstone building erected in the early 19th century. In 1971, it was listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Later, it was included as a contributing property when the Lafayette Park Historic District was established. At the time it was built it was home to The Albany Academy, established a few years earlier. Architect Philip Hooker's Federal style design is the city's oldest public building, and the less altered of his two intact non-residential buildings in the city. In the 1820s, Joseph Henry co-discovered electrical inductance in experiments conducted in the building, a discovery that was important to the later development of the telegraph and, by extension, the modern telecommunications of the Information Age. A statue of him by John Flanagan was placed out front to commemorate his accomplishment. T. Romeyn Beck wrote his important early works on forensic medicine while serving as the school's principal for three decades. In the 1930s, the Academy moved to a new building in a different section of the city that it still occupies. It sold the building to the city of Albany; in 1986 the city's school district took ownership and began its current use of the building for its main offices. Another Albany architect, Marcus T. Reynolds, supervised renovations to the building's interior. It has otherwise remained intact.

A statue of Philip Schuyler (sometimes called Major General Philip Schuyler) by J. Massey Rhind was installed outside Albany City Hall in Albany, New York, United States. The memorial was slated for removal in June 2020. It was removed from outside Albany City Hall on June 10, 2023.

Albany City Hall is the seat of government of the city of Albany, New York, United States. It houses the office of the mayor, the Common Council chamber, the city and traffic courts, as well as other city services. The present building was designed by Henry Hobson Richardson in the Romanesque style and opened in 1883 at 24 Eagle Street, between Corning Place (then Maiden Lane) and Pine Street. It is a rectangular three-and-a-half-story building with a 202-foot-tall (62 m) tower at its southwest corner. The tower contains one of the few municipal carillons in the country, dedicated in 1927, with 49 bells. Albany's first city hall was the Stadt Huys (; Dutch for "city hall"); sometimes written Stadt Huis), built by the Dutch at what is now the intersection of Broadway and Hudson Avenue, probably in the 1660s, though possibly earlier. It was probably replaced around 1740 with a larger Stadt Huys. In 1754, it was the site of the Albany Congress, where Benjamin Franklin presented the Albany Plan of Union, the first proposal to unite the British American colonies. After the American Revolution brought independence, Albany was declared the state capital in 1797 and the state legislature met in city hall. In 1809 the Legislature opened the first state capitol and Albany's government moved in with it. Two decades later, the city purchased a plot of land at the eastern end of Washington Avenue, across Eagle Street from the capitol and moved its government into a new city hall designed by Philip Hooker that opened in 1832. In 1880, Hooker's building was destroyed by fire and a new design by Richardson was commissioned. The cornerstone was laid by the local Masonic fraternity in 1881; the building was completed and opened two years later. Because of budget restrictions the original interior was simply designed, consisting chiefly of beaded board partitions, and thus not fireproof; it was entirely rebuilt in 1916-18 from designs by Albany architects Ogden & Gander. The city hall remains essentially as altered at that time, and the exterior is considered one of Richardson's finest works. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 1972; it is also a contributing property to the Lafayette Park Historic District, listed six years later.

The New York State Fallen Firefighters Memorial in Albany, New York is dedicated to the New York firefighters who have died in the line of duty. Governor of New York George Pataki officially dedicated the memorial on October 5, 1998. It features a 54-foot (16 m) by 15-foot (4.6 m) gray granite wall, with 2,312 names permanently etched into the stone. In front of the wall stands a 10-foot (3.0 m) high dark bronze sculpture of two firefighters rescuing an injured colleague created by New York sculptor Robert Eccleston. The sculpture rests on a paved plaza with charcoal and red bricks forming a Maltese Cross. The Memorial stands on the northeast side of the Empire State Plaza in the park-like area bordered by Norway maples. It is easily accessible to the hundreds of thousand of visitors who travel to the New York State Capitol and Plaza each year. The Fallen Firefighters Memorial Ceremony is held each year during national Fire Prevention Week.