We feel like we are back in Washington, DC! All of the buildings below are within one block of our hotel, the Albany Hilton. The first is simply amazing and gorgeous, the New York State Capitol building. It was the most expensive city building ever built at that time, 1899, and it shows. In a city noted for architecture, this really stands out. After that is Albany City Hall, just across the plaza from the State Capitol. The next one looks so much like Washington! It is a former museum that now serves as the State Department of Education. Then there is the Court of Appeals, the highest court in NY (usually it is the State Supreme Court that is highest).
St. Mary’s Church on Capitol Hill dates from 1796, and it is noted for its herald angel atop the spire. The Gothic-looking building after that is the former railroad station downtown, and is now the SUNY administrative building. St. Peter’s Episcopal Church had its first service in 1678, as you can see, and it most interesting to see mentions of Queen Anne, King George III, and Lord Howe on an American edifice.
The magnificent Million-Dollar Staircase, located in the State Capitol, was completed in 1899. It actually cost $1.5 million, is enormous, rising 119 feet in height and consisting of 444 steps. It is made of freestone, sandstone, limestone, and granite and decorated with the sculpted faces of figures in New York and American history, including Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Walt Whitman, and Abraham Lincoln (although we do not know whose close-up we snapped).
We were pleased to see a plaque honoring the leaders of the Women’s Suffrage Movement, as the first convention for women’s rights was held in Seneca Falls, NY. Finally, we were thrilled that, as several times before over the years, the City held a parade to honor us the day we arrived there. We are not sure what it was for, nor were there many people gathered to watch; we came out of the State Capitol, and the parade began! Such fun! The bagpipe band was great.
