Documenting Displacement

On the morning of March 27, 1962, the New York State Department of Public Works (DPW) filed two maps with the Albany County Clerk, thereby acquiring by right of eminent domain 98.5 acres in downtown Albany—part or all of 40 city blocks. The take maps, along with individual notices appropriation to property owners and management…

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…

Finding Former Residents

Until sometime in 1962, 220 Hudson Avenue was home to Michael and Mabel Tello; Jessie and Margaret Carrington; Jose and Mabel Rendondo; and Moses Timmons. It was vacant by the time these photographs were taken, and the storefront—once the office of plumber Gordon Callan—appears to have been vacant somewhat longer. Although they did not own…