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September 28, 2011: Montpelier, VT, and Mt. Washington |
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September 26, 2011: Rhode Island & Connecticut State Capitols |
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Return to the Index for our New England Trip |
Today, we will be spending the entire day in Albany, the state capital of New York. We plan on taking a day-long walking tour of the city, following a guide we found online, and a copy of which we'll get at the Albany Visitor Center. There will be 22 stops on that tour. I want to organize the pictures a bit for you, so here's what we'll do:
In the first section of photos, I'll have you follow us along as we visit the first 12 stops on the tour, and in the next photo section, you can visit the State Capitol (stop 13) with us. You'll be getting hungry, so we'll do lunch in the next photo section before resuming our tour. Empire State Plaza is stop 14, but I'm going to break it down into three photo sections- the Plaza itself, the New York State Museum and the Corning Tower Observation Deck. In the last photo section, you can come with us to visit the last eight stops (15-22) on the Albany walking tour. I am sure you will be exhausted by then, so you can just sit back in the car as we drive to Montpelier, Vermont, for our next state capitol tomorrow.
So, put on your walking shoes and come on along for a tour of Albany!
Touring Albany (Walking Tour Stops 1-12)
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We took the downtown exit off I-787 for the visitor center, thinking that a good place to start.
When we got there and parked, we stopped in and picked up a brochure detailing a walking tour of Albany. It would include the State Capitol, so it is just what we needed. For today's pictures, what I'll do is simply take you on the same tour we took, supplying the narrative from the brochure and any additional comments of our own.
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On this aerial view, I'll mark the stops we made and key them to the stop numbers in the brochure, and also draw the path that we took on our walk around the city. I hope this will make it more informative for you and more fun to follow us. Our path will begin at the Albany Visitor Center, and this location is in the upper right corner of the aerial view. So use the horizontal scroll bar to go all the way to the right (you should already be at the top) to begin. You can come back to this aerial view to follow us, but I think I may duplicate it every so often for you.
Have you found the Visitor Center? Good. Let's begin our walk through Albany, New York!
Stop #1: The Albany Visitor Center
The Albany Heritage Area Visitors Center is comprised of two historic buildings, the former Albany Pumping Station built in the 1870s, and a former townhouse built in 1852. Water was pumped from the Hudson River to the Pumping Station where it was filtered and pumped to Bleecker Reservoir. In the 1980s this historic district was renovated and the area became known as Quackenbush Square. The former townhouse and a segment of the Pumping Station became the home of the Albany Visitors Center.
Stop #2: Quackenbush House
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The section of the building closest to Broadway (shown in the picture at left) is the original section of Dutch architecture, dating from the 1730s, and may have been built from bricks molded at a brickyard located on this site. The rear portion of the building is Federal style architecture, dating to the late 18th century.
Out on the corner on our way to the next stop, we found one of the many Albany Walk route diagrams that we found throughout downtown, all along our walk. They helped folks from getting lost.
Stop #3: The Palace Theatre
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From the park across North Pearl Street from the theatre, we took some nice pictures of it.
Stop #4: Clinton Square
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At Clinton Square, there is a park on the south side of Pearl Street and a row of historic structures on the north. One of them, an 1832 structure of Federal-style architecture located to the far left of this row of buildings. It was here that Herman Melville, famous author of the classic book Moby Dick, lived for a short time during his youth. As you can see, the tavern in the rightmost of the three buildings has appropriated his name.
You can see Fred with one of the Albany Trolleys and the Melville house in the background here.
Stop #5: The First Church
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The church was not open, so we didn't go in, but according to the guide, the Hour-Glass Pulpit inside the sanctuary of the church is the oldest pulpit in the United States, imported from Holland in 1656. Also on display is the 1720 Charter of Incorporation, the Weathercock from the previous “blockhouse” church and the Sarah Faye Sumner Memorial Window which is the work of Louis Comfort Tiffany.
In the picture that you can see here, Fred, Mario and I are standing on the sidewalk opposite the church on the south side of Pearl. Steve had not yet crossed Orange Street when he snapped the picture. You can see the parking garage ramp behind us in the aerial view of our walk. After he, too, crossed Orange Street, Steve got a nice close-up of the front of The First Church.
And as we passed by the church and continued down Pearl Street, I looked back and got a picture of Fred and The First Church.
Stop #6: The Kenmore Hotel
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In the 1940s the Rain-Bo Room was a famous nightclub in the hotel, and was named for the Rainbow Room in the GE Building of Rockefeller Center in New York City. Gangster Jack “Legs” Diamond frequented the hotel, and had partied at the Rain-Bo the night of his death after having been acquitted of theft in the nearby city of Troy. The Kenmore Hotel features prominently in many of William Kennedy's books, including his novel Legs about the life of Jack Diamond.
The building and its intricate brickwork was renovated in 1986 into an office building, and from 1986-1999 the major tenant was the Healthcare Association of New York State. The building housed major events, with the first after renovation being the 13th annual conference of the Preservation League of New York State. In May 2008 a new nightclub was proposed for the Kenmore. The Terrace Lounge at The Kenmore will be on the ground floor and not in the two-story, former Rain-bo Room.
Stop #7: Steuben Street
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At the corner of Steuben Street and Pearl stands the Steuben Athletic Club, formerly the YMCA. The architects of this building, Fuller and Wheeler of Albany, became known nationally as specialists in this type of building structure and were consulted on the construction of the YMCA in Paris, France. The entrance to the club is actually on Steuben Street, rather than Pearl, and we passed it walking up the hill.
As we turned to ascend along Steuben Street, we noticed a white line diagonally across the pavement and some of the building walls. A marker indicated that this line traced the old protective stockade wall that once surrounded Albany. This line was painted in 1986 during Albany’s Tricentennial. Albany became a city in 1686.
Cobblestones line Steuben Street. The stones had a life before they became part of Albany itself; they were originally used as ballast to even out cargo weight on the ships that brought goods to Albany’s port during the 19th century.
We continued a block up the street, and I could look back down Steuben Street towards Pearl. As we came up the street, we could see the back of St. Mary's Church, our next stop.
Stop #8: St. Mary's Church
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The steeple of St. Mary's had very interesting detailing, with what appeared to be an open area, or balcony, near the top. It was very handsome, which is why Fred took the picture.
Fred took a couple of other pictures of churches from this same spot. One looked further down Lodge Street to St. Peter's Episcopal Church, and another looked back the way we had come to the steeples of The First Church.
Stop #9: The Albany County Courthouse
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The Courthouse, completed in 1916, is constructed of granite and limestone in Neo-Classical design. Built on a slope, there are four stories at the front of the building and six in the back.
Stop #10: The Court of Appeals for the State of New York
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The Court of Appeals, New York State's highest court, is composed of a Chief Judge and six Associate Judges, each appointed to a 14-year term. New York's highest appellate court was established to articulate statewide principles of law in the context of deciding particular lawsuits. The only cases the Court hears are those where there is a question as to whether a law has been correctly applied or interpreted; the Court does not deal in factual disputes. Thus, the judges might hear about a billion-dollar computer fraud one day and a dog biting a man the next.
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Stop #11: Academy Park
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As we were walking through the park, we could now see the New York State Capitol Building beyond the trees. As you can see, it is under construction.
Just before we came out of the park at Washington Street and prepared to go south just a bit to see the Albany City Hall, we came across a sculpture honoring Albany Arts patron and developer Lewis A. Swyer. The sculpture was a life‑size "sit‑by‑me" sculpture; this is the name given to these types of human figures that are sitting in locations that invite real people to sit down beside them. We have seen a good many of these sculptures before, but only recently did I learn that they constitute an entire genre of public art.
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We came out of the park on Washington Street, a little southeast of the capitol and just north of the intersection of Washington and Eagle. In the center of that intersection is a monument to Philip Schuyler. Schuyler (1733–1804) was a general in the American Revolution and a United States Senator from New York. He served in the colonial assembly of New York from 1768 to 1775, becoming more and more outspoken against British colonial rule- especially in matters of trade and currency. He was elected to the Continental Congress in 1775, and then appointed a Major General of the Continental Army in June. He took command of the Northern Department, planned the invasion of Canada and was instrumental in the victory at Saratoga. In 1780, he was elected to the New York State Senate where he actively supported the adoption of the United States Constitution. In 1789 he was elected a U.S. Senator from New York to the First United States Congress and elected again to the Fifth Congress. From just in front of City Hall, you can see the back of the Schuyler statue and the view up Washington Street here.
Stop #12: Albany City Hall
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We went inside City Hall and just wandered around for a little while; the building was so interesting outside that we just wanted to see what the inside was like. We took a good many candid shots inside the building, and I have put thumbnails for some of them below. Just click on the thumbnails for the ones you might like to see:
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Well, that was quite a walk, visiting the first twelve stops on the Albany walking tour. Next, we are going to visit the New York State Capitol Building. Then we'll stop for a well-deserved lunch somewhere.
Getting to the Capitol Building for Our Tour
South Capitol Park
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The centerpiece of this southern park is the Philip Sheridan statue. Born in Albany, Sheridan (1831–1888) was a career United States Army officer and a Union general in the American Civil War. His career was noted for his rapid rise to major general and his close association with Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, who transferred Sheridan from command of an infantry division in the Western Theater to lead the Cavalry Corps of the Army of the Potomac in the East. In 1864, he defeated Confederate forces in the Shenandoah Valley, and in 1865, his cavalry pursued Gen. Robert E. Lee and was instrumental in forcing his surrender at Appomattox.
Sheridan prosecuted the later years of the Indian Wars of the Great Plains. Both as a soldier and private citizen, he was instrumental in the development and protection of Yellowstone National Park. In 1883 Sheridan was appointed general-in-chief of the U.S. Army, and in 1888 he was promoted to the rank of General of the Army during the term of President Grover Cleveland. You might think it an odd view, but when we got between the statue and the capitol, I took a picture of the statue from the rear, looking down State Street past City Hall. You can see that picture here.
It is a shame that the construction was going on; I would have liked to ascend the broad stairs to the south entry, if only to see the view from there. I did note that on either side of the granite railings on both sides of the bottom of the stairs were old copper oil lamps, now covered with a patina of tarnish. Presumably, they were converted to electricity at some point. We took a number of other interesting pictures from here of the building and its detail, and if you click on the thumbnail images below, you can have a look at some of them:
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The New York State Vietnam Memorial
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There were a number of brass monoliths commemorating the service of New York State personnel in that war, and listing the known casualties. There was also a large fountain, and all of this was set in an area one level below the level of the main expanse of Empire State Plaza. Ahead of us was an entrance to the underground facilities at the Plaza, but the main underground concourse where the Visitor Center and various shops and businesses are located is yet one more level down. That main concourse, we discovered, connects the nine major buildings that comprise the center of New York State government.
So after we looked around the memorial plaza, we entered and descended another level down to that concourse. As we did, we passed beneath "The Egg," a state convention/meeting center that is part of Empire State Plaza. You can see it looming above me here. We noticed that there was a great deal of security; we learned later that former President Clinton, among other dignitaries, was attending a function there today. When we got out into the broad underground concourse, we found the Visitor Center Office and were directed to go back through concourse towards the capitol building, pass through security, and go up two levels to the start point for capitol tours. We made it only minutes before a tour departed to take us through the building.
A Tour of the New York State Capitol (Walking Tour Stop 13)
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The current building is the third capitol building. A small building, the Van Gaasbeek house, was used briefly at Kingston, New York, and then for a few days in 1777, the Van Schaick House at Cohoes was used by Governor George Clinton as the New York State Capitol. After the Revolution, a second building was erected on land just in front of the current building.
The Capitol was initially designed by Englishman Thomas Fuller, who also designed the Parliament buildings in Ottawa, Canada. However, the Capitol that Fuller envisioned was never completed. In 1876, he was replaced by two prominent American architects, Leopold Eidlitz and Henry Hobson Richardson. Working together to evaluate and modify Fuller's design, they transformed the Capitol from a good building to a great one. Spanning four decades, the finished Capitol took 32 years to build, from 1867 to 1899. The final cost was a staggering $25 million dollars- $500 million today. Four hundred feet long and three hundred feet wide, the Capitol has five stories with a full basement and attic. It is constructed principally of gray granite and has walls over sixteen feet thick at the foundation. The overall style of the building can best be described as a mash-up, iof Italian Renaissance, Romanesque and French Renaissance.
Even before the current building was completed, there were problems. The Assembly Chamber had been given the largest arched span ever attempted, and it began to fail- perhaps due to a more general failure caused by the weight of the dome compromising the outer structure and actually moving the building slightly. Assemblymen would often arrive in the morning to find dust and rock shards on their desks from the ceiling above. In 1888, a new ceiling for the Assembly Chamber was built (five feet below the original one and unfortunately hiding the famous Hunt murals mentioned below). The ceiling was supposed to be made of solid oak, but the contractor substituted panels made of oak and papier-mache, a cost-cutting material not authorized by the legislature. It was fortunate he did, however, because in 1911, a horrendous fire swept through the Capitol, causing wholesale destruction. It was certain that if the fire engulfed the Assembly Chamber, the entire building would be lost. But the progress of the fire was slowed by the papier-mache ceiling; it had absorbed the water that was poured into the Capitol from the fire fighter's hoses.
The Hall of Governors/Executive Wing
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We did not get to go into the Executive Chamber, which has been in continuous use by New York State Governors since its completion in 1881. Nicknamed for its original red drapes and rug, this room served as the working office of the Governor until the end of Grover Cleveland's administration in 1885. His successor, David Hill, then moved his private office into a nearby smaller room, leaving the Executive Chamber for ceremonial occasions, a function that still continues today.
The Red Room remains one of the truly outstanding works within the Capitol. Designed by Senate Chamber architect, Henry Hobson Richardson, the similarities between the two rooms are apparent. It has the same carpeting, chandeliers, and gold leaf wall band that the Senate Chamber possesses. The room has an elegant mahogany wainscoting, and the intricate coffered oak ceiling stained to match. Additionally, a beautiful bronze leaf band covers the upper half of the walls.
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Although we didn't get to see the Red Room, at least I got to see its occupant. As we left the hall to go into the Governor's Reception Hall, I had just finished taking a picture and was lagging behind the group. I heard a door open behind me and some people come out, so I stepped quickly into the passage to the reception hall. Then I turned around to look and found myself about six feet from the current Governor, Andrew Cuomo, whom I recognized. He was talking to some aides, but he looked up at me, smiled and gave a wave- as much to me as to the rest of the group, I guess. And then he was off down the hall to an appointment.
Governor's Reception Hall (The War Room)
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Once there, she gave us a bit of history about the room, and pointed out some of the murals on the walls and ceilings. I don't think anyone really paid attention to the murals themselves; certainly she didn't. They just seemed like very ornate depictions of New York's Colonial history. She did point out a mural of Teddy Roosevelt and one of the Unknown Soldier- both war-related- but even so, I didn't look closely enough at the rest of the wall murals and those on the ceiling to figure out that all the paintings depicted the violent conflicts in New York's past.
It wasn't until I started working on this web page that I found that the actual name of the room we were in is "The War Room." The halls of government may not be the first place you think to go to admire the male physique, but when you take a gander at the ceiling of the War Room you realize that you are actually taking a tour through New York's violent past, as depicted in the impressively muscled ceiling murals.
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Although the State of New York installed these cinematic murals, painted by William de Leftwich Dodge in the 1920s, they were not meant to be viewed this closely. When the murals were installed, the plan called for knocking out the floor to make this space the top of a multi-story rotunda. Viewed from another twenty or thirty feet below, the detail of the murals would have been much harder to discern (without a zoom lens or binoculars, of course). But the Depression killed the idea of that renovation, and the murals were left to be easily and closely viewed.
Fred's picture of the ceiling was pretty good, but let's take a closer look (courtesy of a couple of different websites) at the sections of the ceiling mural. Arrayed around the Goddess of War are large depictions of the four major conflicts in New York history, each one exemplified by two men locked in combat. In order by conflict, the battle for New York involved (1) the Native Americans vs. the French, (2) the French vs. the Dutch, (3) the Dutch vs. the English and finally (4) the English vs. the Americans. The wrestling! The killing! The testosterone! Below are images of these four panels:
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Between each pair of these scenes is a mural depicting one of the Indian nations that made up the Native American population of the area. These four murals are below:
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The War Room, officially called the Governor's Reception Room, has been used as storage space and used to be divided up into cubicles. Restoring the murals in the 1990s cost $345,000. Included in the renovation was a new woven rug with the seal and motto of the State of New York. ("Excelsior" loosely translates to "ever upward") Now the room is open, public space. But is it warm in here? Or is it just the battle smoke?
Fred took some additional pictures in and around the War Room, and if you want to have a look at any of them, just click on the thumbnails below:
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The Assembly Chamber
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The Assembly Chamber is the single largest room in the Capitol building. Designed by American architect Leopold Eidlitz, it was the first of the building's "grand spaces" to be completed and occupied. The original Assembly chamber was designed in a Moorish Gothic style and characterized by the period's architectural critic, Henry Van Brunt, as "the most monumental interior in the country".
The massive volume was marked by a groined vaulted sandstone ceiling that rose to a height of 56 feet above the floor. At the time of its construction, the chamber's ceiling was the widest vaulted structure attempted to that time. The sandstone was ornamented with bands painted in tones of greenish-blue, red and black, and highlighted with gold. Supporting the spectacular groined arches were four pillars of polished granite.
On the north and south walls, large windows of both clear and stained glass provided natural light. Even the chamber's furniture was specially designed for the room. Made of solid mahogany and red leather, it provided the perfect accent for a noble setting. Unfortunately, almost from the start the arched chamber ceiling experienced structural problems. As the foundation in the Capitol began to settle the stone ceiling began to crack and break.
Soon, members were greeted each morning with desks covered in dust and pieces of stone. Finally, when a large rock, the size of a bowling ball, fell dangerously close to an assemblyman, it was decided that something must be done. That something was a new ceiling, which replaced the original vaulted ceiling at a height four feet below the ceiling's beautiful murals. Today's Assembly chamber, while still an impressive room, only slightly resembles the magnificent wonder that was first opened in 1879.
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Today members can tally their votes electronically, using electronic voting panels at their desks. Mounted on the walls of the chamber is a state-of-the-art electronic voting tote board. With each of the 150 members connected into the system, members can quickly and effectively cast their vote on a bill within seconds, thus alleviating the past problems of missed votes or wrong votes being cast. There are approximately 2000 bills and resolutions voted on annually in this chamber.
As I was taking in the view from the rostrum, I noticed the tour group heading our to the next stop, so I quickly came back down into the well of the assembly and headed up the main aisle. In the last desk on my right, a gentleman had come in to sit down and have lunch. I stopped to talk with him for just a minute, asking about his duties and his job here in the Assembly Chamber. You can see my photograph of Wayne. P. Jackson, Sergeant-at-Arms for the New York State Assembly, here. Just before going out the door of the Assembly Chamber, Fred took a picture of one of the two matching ornately‑carved fireplaces that are set into the back wall of the chamber on either side of the center aisle.
The crowning elements of the original Assembly chamber were the two beautiful murals on the upper walls, high above the members' desks. Painted on the bare sandstone by William Morris Hunt, these 40 foot murals were entitled "The Discoverer" and "The Flight of Night". Unfortunately in 1888, after only 10 short years, the original groined ceiling was replaced. The new ceiling began four feet below the murals, hiding Hunt's masterpieces from public view.
Each of us took a number of pictures here in the Assembly Chamber, and these pictures will show you the wide range of detail used in the columns, walls, windows and ceiling. Click on the thumbnail images below to have a look at some of these pictures:
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The Senate Chamber
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One floor up, our guide took us into the gallery on the left side of the Senate Chamber.
In order to fully appreciate the interior splendor of the Capitol building, one need only to look at the Senate Chamber. Designed by Henry Hobson Richardson, and first occupied in 1881, this room has been acclaimed as one of Richardson's finest designs. Beginning at its highest point, the chamber's richly carved golden oak ceiling was designed with deep paneled "pockets" or recesses, creating an acoustically perfect "debate arena" for the senators. The walls are covered with beautiful, shimmering 23 carat gold leaf.
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A master at using the different materials of the world, Richardson imported Siena marble from Italy for the large arches above the visitor's gallery, red granite from Scotland for the pillars, and Mexican onyx to panel the north and south walls. The ultimate in luxury was attained with red leather and carved mahogany paneling on the walls below the galleries. Adding to the feeling of elegance are the beautiful chandeliers that set off the stenciling and architectural details of the arches, walls and windows.
As a tribute to the five architects who worked on the Capitol throughout its construction - the Senate in 1980, commissioned stone cutter Vincent Leggiadro to carve the portrait medallions of Thomas Fuller, Leopold Eidlitz, Frederick Law Olmsted, Henry Hobson Richardson and Isaac Perry into the stone lintels above the five entrances of the Chamber.
At the front of the chamber sits the Senate's chief presiding officer. Seated on the top tier of the dais, he is flanked by an aide and the Senate Chaplain. Every legislative session begins with a prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance. The bottom tier is for the various Senate staff who track legislation and keep attendance.
At the back of the chamber are two large fireplaces, each with openings six feet high. Designed initially as sources of heat, they soon became mere decoration when electricity became a standard feature of the completed building. However, building on a tradition that began with the English parliament, the fireplaces were soon serving as quiet meeting areas for senators to "walk into", and discuss important issues, And, because the chamber's acoustics allowed for virtually every spoken word to be heard, these "fireplace" chats soon became an everyday occurrence.
Fred took some other really nice pictures from here in the visitor's gallery that show the architectural detail and beauty of the chamber, and you can have a look at them if you click on the thumbnails below:
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The Senate Gallery was very interesting, and the chamber below was one of the most beautiful we saw in all of the six state capitols that we visited this week.
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The Great Western Staircase
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But that didn't matter, because we got to learn about and descend The Great Western Staircase- one of the jewels of the New York State Capitol building. Also known as the "Million Dollar Staircase," it was designed by Henry Hobson Richardson and built by Isaac Perry. It contains 444 steps and reaches 119 feet high and is renowned as an outstanding example of American architectural stone carving excellence.
Click on the thumbnails below to see a selection of views of this amazing staircase system:
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The staircase took an unheard of 14 years to construct, from 1883-1897, and cost more than one million dollars. There were problems and delays all throughout construction, and two major problems since they were completed.
Architect Issac Perry predicted that "a flood of light would emanate from the "glazed dome" he designed in 1895. He was not disappointed; for many years Perry's original skylight and laylight illuminated the Great Western Staircase and its magnificent sandstone carvings. Then, in 1911, fire destroyed both skylight and laylight. they were rebuilt shortly after, but at the height of World War II the laylight was covered over, effectively blocking the intended natural light. For 60 years, one of the Capitol's grandest features remained in relative darkness. In March, 2000, the New York State Office of General Services began restoring the skylight and laylight over the Great Western Staircase. This historic restoration was completed in 2002. It is once again possible to view the Great Western Staircase under a flood of light.
Over 500 stone cutters and carvers were employed at various times. Many were Europeans who had mastered their trade in their homelands of England, Scotland and Italy. Their main task was the carving of various prominent people into the stone as ordered by chief architect Isaac Perry. For reasons that are now unknown, Perry wanted 77 of these facial carvings in all, and what's remarkable is these 77 faces, along with countless other designs, were sculptured from existing stone walls.
Using only ladders and scaffolding, often in very uncomfortable positions, these stone artists spent years, at a salary of five dollars a day, sculpturing some of the finest stonework found anywhere in the world. Years later, ornate lights were added.
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One trivia tidbit offered by our tour guide involved a stone sculptor who was fired from the project. Before he left, he surreptitiously carved a demon into the stonework, hiding it so that it would not be noticed. It eventually was, but has not been removed. You can see it here.
The Great Western Staircase was incredibly beautiful, and we took lots of pictures as we descended four levels. You can click on the thumbnails below to have a look at the best of these pictures:
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Our visit to the New York State Capitol ended as our tour guide took us back to the lobby starting point and took final questions from the group. It being already almost one o'clock, we decided that the next order of business should be lunch.
We Have Lunch in Downtown Albany
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We passed one building, at the corner of State and Lodge, that had some interesting glass block work in the front, and so I stopped to take Fred's picture there. You can see him with the glass block facade in the picture at right.
All the way down State Street to Pearl, where we turned right, there were lots of interesting buildings, old architecture and unique decoration, as exemplified by this office building decorated in an Indian motif. We also passed one of the many beer halls that used to be all over downtown Albany; this one, apparently, had been in a building that was also a commercial structure. After turning right on Pearl Street, we came across Maurice's Pearl Street Deli where we stopped to have a very nice lunch.
After lunch, we planned to get back onto the route of the walking tour so we could complete it; there was still lots to see. The next stop was supposed to be The Empire State Plaza, and so we had to get back up there. Right at the corner where the deli was, we turned right again (north) on Howard Street and took that a couple of blocks until it ended at Lodge. There, we hung a left and entered an elevated pedestrian walkway (shown here in a picture we took later from the Plaza) that connected the Plaza to some of the parking garages south of it. Just before Fred climbed the stairs to the walkway, he took a picture looking up towards Empire State Plaza, and you can have a look at that picture here. We walked north inside the walkway and I took my own picture through the windows of the walkway at the Plaza up ahead.
The Empire State Plaza (Stop 14-A)
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Before we get started, let me orient you to Empire State Plaza. I'll begin a movie looking northeast at the State Capitol, and then pan around counterclockwise to show you the entire Plaza. Have a look at this movie with the player at left.
The State Capitol
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The Capitol was designed by four leading architects of the day- Thomas Fuller, Leopold Eidlitz, Henry Hobson Richardson and Isaac Perry. The architecture varies from Italian Renaissance to Romanesque to French Renaissance.
Looking more like a huge mansion from the Gilded Age, rather than a state capitol, the building sits diagonally across State Street from the Legislative Office Building.
The New York State Legislative Office Building
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Agency Buildings 1-4
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The entire Plaza is situated on what was once 40 city blocks. The outdoor plaza is built upon three levels of parking and a concourse of shops and cafeterias. All four of the Agency buildings are faced with marble (as are all the other buildings in Empire State Plaza, save for "The Egg"). All the same height, they are the third, fourth, fifth and sixth tallest buildings in the city. Here is a view of one of the Agency Buildings taken from across the Plaza.
The New York State Museum
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It is a research museum, one of a select and vital group of institutions charged by our society with both preserving and investigating the material record of our past. It is the only such institution which takes New York State, its natural and cultural heritage, as its mandate.
The architecture of the New York State Museum is striking. The visitor entrance to the museum is at grade level, where Madison Avenue runs along the southwest end of Empire State Plaza. This is one level below the plaza and one level above the concourse. Originally, I think, Rockefeller envisioned that the main entrance be one level above the plaza, so the museum was built with a broad stone staircase leading up from the plaza to what is actually the third floor of the museum. We saw no evidence that this entrance was used, although the steps provide a good vantage point from which to view the Capitol at the other end of the Plaza. The sculpture that sits in the middle of the reflecting pool in the pictures of the museum and in the panoramic picture below is by Alexander Calder, and is entitled "Triangles and Arch."
In fact, Fred took the opportunity afforded by the view from the top of the stairs to put together a panoramic picture looking northeast across Empire State Plaza to the New York Capitol building. Take a look at that panorama below:
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The New York State World War II Memorial
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World War II Memorial |
Off to the side, there is a smaller memorial to the combat infantryman, which includes a verse and a replica of the combat infantryman badge.
We'd already seen a Vietnam memorial, which made me wonder if there was a World War I memorial somewhere as well.
Corning Tower
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Completed in 1966 and sided with Vermont Pearl marble and glass, the state office building is part of the Empire State Plaza. At 589 feet, it is the tallest skyscraper in the state of New York outside of the city of New York. (Just for comparison, the tallest building in the world, located in Dubai, is over 2700 feet tall.) Erastus Corning 2nd, the building's namesake, was the mayor of Albany for over 40 years from 1941 to 1983. The tower was dedicated to him in March 1983 during his hospitalization. Before that dedication, it was known as the "Tower Building". The Corning Tower houses the New York State Department of Health and the New York State Office of General Services. Two New York State Department of Transportation traffic cameras are located in the building.
While we were at this end of Empire Plaza, I made another movie panning around the entire Plaza, this time beginning with Corning Tower. You can watch that movie with the player below:
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Empire Plaza/Corning Tower |
Between Corning Tower and The Egg, we were walking along the edge of the Plaza which, as I said before, is built up from grade. The land here slopes down to the Hudson River, and in the space of the width of the Plaza, it has dropped thirty or forty feet. So, on the south side of the Plaza, there are retaining walls that give this side of the Plaza the appearance of Fort Ticonderoga or some old castle. Below the south side of the Plaza they have done some nice landscaping around the roadways that go underneath the Plaza itself, and they have also taken the air exhausts for the underground concourses and the buildings themselves and made them almost sculptures. You can have a look at all this here.
The Egg (Performing Arts Center)
The construction of The Egg began in 1966 and was completed twelve years later in 1978. The Egg was designed by Wallace Harrison for all the people of New York State and to accommodate many events and performances.
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The Egg houses two theatres- the Lewis A. Swyer Theatre and the Kitty Carlisle Hart Theatre. Seating 450, the Swyer Theatre is used for chamber music concerts, cabaret, lectures, multimedia presentations, solo performers and a majority of educational programming. With a seating capacity of 982, the Hart Theatre is used for larger productions including musical theatre, dance and music concerts. Wrapping around fully half The Egg is a lounge area for the Hart theatre. This space is ideal for seminars, receptions, after theatre parties and small cabaret type performances.
Outside The Egg, there are two sculptures of note, part of the New York State Modern Art Collection, pieces of which are outside on the Plaza, inside the underground concourse, and in the lobbies of the various buildings on the Plaza. Near the reflecting pool is a work entitled "Trio" by George Sugarman. And between The Egg and Corning Tower, there is another work entitled "Salem 7, 1/3" by Antoni Milkowski. You can see another view of this last sculpture, nestled under The Egg, here.
We went into the lobby of The Egg, but perhaps due to the day's function, we couldn't actually get inside the theatres. But from The Egg's website, I learned that the building's curved exterior defines the interior statement as well. There are virtually no straight lines or harsh corners inside The Egg. Instead, walls along the edge curve upward to meet gently concave ceiling light for celestial effect. The backs of performing areas are fanned - inviting one inward - providing an intimacy impossible in a conventional theatre. And throughout, walls of Swiss pearwood veneer add warmth and enhance the acoustics in the theatres. Visually distinctive, yet ingenious, The Egg is a beautiful synthesis of form and function.
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The Robert Abrams Building for Law and Justice
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From 1970 to 1979, he was the Bronx Borough President and he was a delegate to four Democratic National Conventions in a row- 1972-1984. In 1988, he was a presidential elector. In 1979 he was elected as New York State Attorney General, and he served until 1993.
In 1992, Abrams sought election to the United States Senate, to challenge Republican Senator Al D'Amato. He won the Democratic Primary, but the nomination battle was well known for its bitterness, particularly the attacks by two candidates, including Abrams, on Geraldine Ferraro's questionable associations which Ferraro interpreted as anti-Italian slurs.
After Abrams emerged as the nominee, the Democrats remained divided and he was unable to secure Ferraro's endorsement until the last days of the campaign. Abrams was also criticized for calling D'Amato a fascist, and he narrowly lost the general election as a result of these controversies.
After losing the Senate race Abrams announced his resignation from the office of Attorney General. He left politics and joined a prominent law firm as a partner, remaining active in New York's civic affairs. On May 9, 2009, New York Governor David Paterson renamed the Justice Building at the Empire State Plaza in Albany after Abrams.
The Justice Building completes our tour of the buildings at the Empire State Plaza. As we worked our way around the Plaza, we actually went into the New York State Museum and the Corning Tower, and we'll look at the pictures from those locations next.
The New York State Museum (Stop 14-B)
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By 1842, crates and barrels of fossils, rocks and mineral specimens collected during the Survey had filled three rooms in the Old State Hall. In an effort to end confusion over the status of the collections which sat unstudied and disorganized for seven years, the Legislature created the "State Cabinet of Natural History." In 1845, the Legislature placed the Cabinet under the Board of Regents, hired John W. Taylor as a curator and, nine years after the first geological and paleontological specimens were hauled in by the crateful, the Cabinet opened its doors to the public. Over the next several decades, the collections grew to include thousands of specimens spanning the fields of geology, paleontology, botany, entomology , ethnology, archaeology and history.
In 1847, the museum's anthropological and historical collections were initiated when the Regents established an Historical and Antiquarian Collection. In 1849-1850, Lewis H. Morgan, later called the "Father of american Anthropology," collected and documented for the Museum the complete range of objects being made and used by members of New York's Iroquois tribes. Development continued, a new building was built to house the collections and, in 1866, the Cohoes Mastodon was discovered near Cohoes, New York. In 1870, the State Cabinet of Natural History was deemed by the Legislature to be "a museum of scientific and practical geology and general natural history," and its name was officially changed to "The New York State Museum of Natural History." The museum got its first Director and an annual budget of $10,000.
In 1911, the Capitol fire destroyed 85% of some 10,000 archaeological artifacts and ethnographic objects that were on display in the State Library. In 1916, the Museum moved to new, spacious quarters in the new Education Building in downtown Albany, and former President Theodore Roosevelt hosted the dedication ceremony. The Museum published the beautiful book "Birds of New York" in 1914 and created the Iroquois dioramas in 1918; these were immensely popular for over fifty years. In 1926, the first non-geologist (the zoologist Dr. Charles Adams) was appointed Director, and he expanded the museum's scope to include botany, entomology, zoology, archaeology, ethnology, history and art.
Within a decade of moving into the State Education Building in 1912, the Museum had already exhausted every possible nook and office and hallway where collections could be stored. Hope for more space was not realized until 1962 when the Legislature approved the construction of Empire State Plaza. Included in the proposal were plans for a new Museum building. The 11-story, 1.5 million square foot Cultural Education Center was completed in 1976 and today houses the State Museum, State Library, State Archives, Public Broadcasting and their parent organization, the Office of Cultural Education. One of the newest exhibits, created in 2002, is devoted to the events of September 11, 2001, and includes a piece of the steel structure of Tower Two that is on display just inside the Madison Street entrance.
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As for our pictures, you can have a look at some of them by clicking on the thumbnail images below:
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I also took pictures of many of the mineral samples, and you can have a look at them if you click on the thumbnail images below:
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The Corning Tower Observation Deck (Stop 14-C)
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I tried an experiment while we were here at the observation deck, taking three pictures from the east side of the building, those pictures looking north, east and south along the Hudson River. Then I used photoshop to stitch them together. I should have asked Fred to use the automatic feature of his camera to do it, but I think my effort turned out acceptably:
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With our stop at Corning Tower, we'd completed our walk around Empire State Plaza. So now it was time for me to check the brochure for our Albany Walk to see what our next stop would be. We sat down on a bench by the elevator and Fred snapped our picture.
Albany City Tour (Stops 15-22)
Stop #15: St. Peter's Church
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Anglican services were first held in Albany in 1708, primarily for British soldiers. These services were held at St. Peter's, although not in the building we see today. Construction of the present day St. Peter’s Church was completed in 1860, and the Church recently celebrated its Sesquicentennial as an active parish church. The building housing the church is old, to be sure, but of particular note on the exterior of the bell tower are three prominent gargoyles, each weighing three tons and each extending eight feet beyond the walls of the tower.
The interior of the church is decorated with works by leading artists of the day including the rose window over the State Street entrance, designed by the Tiffany Company.
Stop #16: The State Street Banks
Here are four of the interesting bank buildings that we passed:
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Stop #17: The State University of New York
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To the right of the Delaware & Hudson building is the former ticket office for the Hudson River Day Line, one of America’s most successful steamboat passenger lines that provided regular service between Albany and New York City.
You can see two more nice views of the SUNY campus here and here.
Stop #18: The James T. Foley U.S. Courthouse
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Eagles, standing 8 feet tall and produced from a 17-ton Vermont marble block, are carved above the two main entrances. A frieze encircles the building showing the activities of the postal service, customs, and courts.
Stop #19: The Hudson RiverWay
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The Hudson River Way was intended to spark downtown and riverfront growth in Albany. The bridge's $8.5 million cost was covered by the municipal government, the New York State Department of Transportation and over 11,000 individuals, businesses, and other organizations who purchased personalized bricks to support the bridge's construction, which started in April 2001. These bricks now pave the structure. The grand opening was on August 10, 2002.
We both took some pictures from the viewing plaza, but I stitched together three of them to give a panoramic view of the Hudson River at Albany. I have put a copy of this panoramic image below:
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We spent a few minutes here at the viewing plaza just admiring the view of the river in the afternoon sunshine, but eventually had to turn and return along the pedestrian bridge.
The most interesting aspect of the pedestrian bridge is that it visually tells the story of Albany’s history through a series of paintings, many depicting historical artifacts discovered in various archeological excavations. The paintings are done in 17th century trompe l’oeil style, which “trick the eye” into believing it is seeing actual objects. There were about thirty of these, and all were interesting, poignant or humorous, and I might have liked to photograph them all, but I settled for six of them at random. You can have a look at the six I chose if you click on the thumbnails below:
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Stop #20: Union Station
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Apparently, this old building was then the offices of Norstar Bancorp, as this is carved into the stone above the front doors, just beneath a replica of the New York State motto.
As it turned out, just across the street from the southern end of the Union Station building was the foot of Steuben Street, and we could look all the way up that street to Academy Park.
Stop #21: Tricentennial Park
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Tricentennial Park is also home to a memorial to former Albany Mayor, Thomas M. Whalen III. Fred took a picture of his memorial, another "sit-by-me" memorial. That's Mayor Whalen on the left.
Stop #22: 600 Broadway
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Fred took a couple of pictures of the interesting and intricate stone carvings that adorn the outside of the building, and you can have a look at them if you click on the thumbnails below:
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Well, that was the last stop on our walking tour, and it was just a two-block walk along Broadway back to the Albany Visitors Center and the parking lot. As we passed under the viaduct that carries Orange Street up onto I-787, we found a hidden gem- a trompe l’oeil painting under the bridge.
We reclaimed the car, set the GPS for Montepelier, Vermont, and off we went.
Driving From Albany (NY) to Montpelier (VT)
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Driving to Montpelier |
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As you can see from the GPS route above, just beyond Rutland we were told to turn north, but when we got to the intersection, the road north was closed due to flooding somewhere north. All we could do was keep heading east, and the GPS at first kept trying to route us back to its route, and then began trying to send us on alternate routes up to that chosen route. Some of these alternate routes were also closed, but we didn't want to chance the ones that weren't, thinking we might have to turn around.
We consulted the Internet from our phones, found that US Highway 4 would eventually reach I-89 at the town of Hartford, so we just ignored the GPS for a while until we got there. We passed through some inviting, picturesque New England towns on the way. We took I-89 north to Montepelier, and arrived there without further problems about ten in the evening.
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You can use the links below to either continue to another day of our New England trip or return to the main index for the trip (and from there continue on through the photo album).
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September 28, 2011: Montpelier, VT, and Mt. Washington |
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September 26, 2011: Rhode Island & Connecticut State Capitols |
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Return to the Index for our New England Trip |
