Jump to the intro.

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Boarding the trolleys by the Albany Distilling Co.

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Down Pearl Street to take a look at the Kenmore Hotel, one of Legs Diamond's favorite spots.

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Duncan

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Past the house on Dove Street where Legs was killed. It's now owned by William Kennedy.

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Past the former Hinckel Brewery building. The area near what's now Lincoln Park was once a hot spot for brewing in Albany.

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Ringing the bell outside the speakeasy at the City Beer Hall. (No photos allowed inside, of course. But it's the cat's pajama's.)

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Upstairs at CBH for a beer tasting.

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CBH chef Dimitrios Menagias stopped outside to say hi as people got back on the trolleys.

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Maeve and Duncan doing some important tour guide coordinating.

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A snack of tomato pie from Sciortino's for the ride to Troy.

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Arriving at the Confectionery.

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The back patio at the Confectionery, which was actually a confectionery back around Prohibition.

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Of course, now it's a wine and coffee bar. Owners Vic Christopher and Heather LaVine arranged for a wine tasting with raw oysters for us.

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Headed to Cohoes.

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Arriving at Smith's. It's been gathering place for politicians and party bosses since the 1920s and 30s.

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The inside has an old-school beauty. We got to sample some beer from Ravens Head Brewing, the startup brewery in Cohoes.

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The bar at Smith's originated at Tammany Hall in New York City.

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The back room of the restaurant once included an entrance for ladies (who were not allowed in the bar itself). There are buttons along the wall of this room that are said to date back to Prohibition. As the story goes, people were supposed to hit the button if a copper was snooping around.

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What do you do if you're having a drink at a historic bar? Group photo, obviously.

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Back to Albany and ADC for a whiskey tasting.

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Last stop: the Albany Pump Station next door for a drink.

Photos from the Bad Boys, Broads, and Bootleggers Tour

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The AOA Historic Bad Boys, Broads, and Bootleggers Tour was Wednesday night. We had a lot of fun following some of the hush-hush history of Albany, Troy, and Cohoes. Thanks to everyone who came along!

Our guides for the tour were Maeve McEneny and Duncan Crary. They shared stories about infamous figures like gangster Legs Diamond, madam Mame Faye, and gangster/boxer/Congressman John "Old Smoke" Morrissey. And we stopped at the new speakeasy at the City Beer Hall in Albany, the Confectionery in Troy, Smith's in Cohoes, and Albany Distilling Co. (Along with a post-tour stop at the Albany Pump Station.)

Many thanks to Advantage Transportation for providing the tour trolleys and Harmony House Tours for helping to pull the whole tour together. And thanks to tour sponsors: The Lofts at Harmony Mills, the Cohoes Local Development Corp, and The Downtown Albany BID. Also, thanks to the folks at Enjoy Troy for providing fun swag for the trip.

And bunch of photos from the tour are after the jump. And here's the hashtag stream from the night.

Another tour? This tour sold out quickly, and we've gotten a lot of questions about whether we'll be scheduling another one. The answer is: maybe. A lot of things had to fall into place to make this happen, so we have to see if we can line that all up again. We'd like to -- it's just a matter of making it work.



The photos from the tour are in large format above -- scroll all the way up.

Comments

sure looks like fun

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