Our Name Means Shoemaker

Our thanks to Angelo Kontis for his help with this post. Hudson Shoe Rebuilders was more than just a shoe repair store. It was also a variety store, selling inexpensive socks, shoes, shirts, and other sundries to residents of Albany’s rooming house district. At the back of the store, Greek immigrants could find cheese, olives,…

Hunter’s Pharmacy

Our thanks to Mary Jane Hunter Kretzler for photographs and extensive email and phone conversations and to University at Albany student Jackson Ciavardoni for conducting an oral history interview with Mary Jane and her brother James on May 11, 2015. Like most of the roughly 400 businesses that once served the 98 acres, Kenneth Hunter’s pharmacy…