That’s a lot of lemons

By Kathryn Gallien Everybody loved Joe Aiello’s lemons. The young man who immigrated in 1908 from a small fishing village in Sicily found quick success on the streets of New York City with his fruit-filled pushcart. Customers kept coming back, because his lemons were the juiciest. More than a century later, you can get lemons…

The Dairy in the City

A guest post by Kathryn Gallien. Our thanks to John Garman and Susan Garman Hess for sharing their photographs and memories with us. When Hopalong Cassidy visited Albany in 1951, his famed horse Topper found comfortable lodgings on the second floor of the Norman’s Kill Farm Dairy plant on 120 South Swan St. Hoppy’s visit…

The Many Lives of 283 Madison Ave.

A guest post by Kathryn Gallien. Our thanks to Kathryn for sharing her family’s story with us. Before I even knew it was my ancestors’ home, 283 Madison Avenue was demolished. Back in the 1970s my grandmother told me it had been across the street from where the State Museum now sits. It had been…

A Hudson Avenue Symphony

A guest post by Jack Guthy. Our thanks to Jack for sharing with us the lost soundscape of his childhood home. In the mid-1940s, my family and I lived in an apartment at 273 Hudson Ave., across from the Melody Inn, during an era of live music and lively crowds, described in William Kennedy’s O…

Lancaster Street Hullabaloo

A guest post by Sandra Pierce. Our thanks to Sandie for sharing her childhood memories with us. Many knew Mae Carlson as Albany’s rooming house queen, but I called her Mamay— Mother Mae, as I grew older. Bill Costigan, I called Dad. I was only two years old, when they adopted me in 1957. Their…

Growing up on the “Street of Regret”

A guest post by Barry Levine. Our thanks to Barry for sharing his stories and family photos. I was six years old, when my family moved from Ballston Spa to Albany, NY in 1942. My father, Morris, found a war job in Schenectady, and we lived in a rented 3-room apartment above Dinty’s Tavern, on…

St. Paul’s and the City of Albany, Part II: Moving up the Hill

A guest post by Paul Nance The shape of Albany changed dramatically in the 1840’s. The State Street hill was graded, making the incline much less steep. But the most important change was the grading and filling of the Ruttenkill ravine. The gully, which had been fifty feet deep and three hundred feet across, was…

St. Paul’s and the City of Albany, Part I: South End and Downtown

A guest post by Paul Nance Readers of this blog may recall that St. Paul’s Episcopal was one of four churches appropriated by the State for the South Mall in 1962. As a result, St Paul’s congregation was forced to move to its current location on Hackett Boulevard. This was, however, far from the first…