Sarah Stapleton vs. the State of New York

The house at 204 State Street, in Albany across from the Capitol, had been Sarah McGroarty Stapleton’s home since the summer of 1919, when she married her husband Edward. Born in Donegal, Ireland and raised in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, Sarah moved to Albany to attend the Hospital Training School for Nurses. She was 28 years old…

St. Paul’s Episcopal Church and Its Changing Neighborhood

By the late 1950s, the parishioners of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church faced an existential decision. Should the congregation remain in their aging but elegant 78 Lancaster Street building, boasting stained glass by Tiffany and J. and R. Lamb studios—or relocate to a modern building outside the center city. The congregation had worshipped at 78 Lancaster…

The Mystery of the Missing Model

More than a year after appropriating 98.5 acres—and 9 months after demolitions began—the State of New York finally unveiled two scale models embodying plans for a futuristic office complex in a revitalized Albany. Taking center stage at the April 23, 1963 ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda, Governor Nelson Rockefeller declared that the State’s plan would…