3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Unearthing the rich history of a wonderful city, June 12, 2007
This review is from: Albany (Images of America: New York) (Paperback)
Looking at the amazing pictures in this book and reading the accompanying descriptions can make one rather sad that the majority of these buildings, streets, and even natural landscapes no longer exist. Albany, the city I grew up in and love most of all in this world, has a long rich history. For example, Ben Franklin's Plan of Union was signed here in 1754, the famous scientist Joseph Henry made the city his home, it served as the headquarters for numerous military leaders, a number of future Presidents lived or went to school here, and it played a very important role in the era of the steamship. Yet unlike other cities with rich histories, Albanians seem to have no respect for their history. People don't have a lot of concern about preserving the past, and old historic buildings (mansions, stores, theatres, hotels, restaurants, schools, etc.) are more often than not torn down to make way for eyesores like new highways, government buildings, or parking lots. Luckily, the pictures presented here show Albany as it was before the modern era, when its citizens still respected the past and the fact that their city was living history.
The book is divided into five sections--"The Changing Streetscapes of Downtown Albany," "Transportation and Movement," "Institutions: Public and Private," "Recreation," and "Disasters." The past comes alive through these pictures, giving the reader a view of a time when downtown looked *drastically* different than it does today, when there were trolleys, horse-drawn carriages, wagons, steamships, and trains for transportation instead of cars, when there was actually a movie theatre downtown (and a vaudeville house!), stores selling the types of things our grandparents and their grandparents would have bought, such as hats, gloves, tailored clothing, horse equipment, and dry goods, and people could go to a beautiful park called Buttermilk Falls (which was typically destroyed, along with its waterfall). One can almost hear the horns of the boats travelling up and down the Hudson every day, the din of people in the bygone banks, hotels, stores, and schools, and the horses' hooves going down State Street. And while it is sad that, with rare exceptions such as the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, the vast majority of these things are physically long gone, at least they can live forever in memory through the pictures in this book.
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