Talking about that time a whole apartment building was picked up and moved in Albany
An undated photo of the Fort Frederick after its move to State Street from the APL's "Commercial Streets" collection at New York Heritage.
The Fort Frederick Apartments in Albany -- which now stands on State Street near the Capitol -- originally started out at Swan and Washington Ave. It was moved a block south in 1926 to make way for construction of the Smith Building.
Yep, they literally picked up the whole building and moved it.
That episode will be at the center of a talk by Albany city historian Tony Opalka and longtime local architect Harris Sanders at the the Albany Public Library's Pine Hills branch January 18.
Opalka and Sanders will be talking the Fort Frederick's move, the city's geology and how it affects the way buildings are constructed, along with a bunch of other local architecture bits.
Here's an old photo showing the Fort Frederick standing along Washington Ave (it looks like the date attributed to the photo might be wrong).
The talk at the Pine Hills branch is Wednesday, January 18 at 6:30 pm. It's sponsored by the Friends of the Albany Public Library. It's free and open to the public.
Harris Sanders
If you're not familiar with Harris Sanders, you're almost surely familiar with many of his buildings -- they're all over this area. But his most famous local architectural work is... a dog. Yep -- he came up with the idea of putting Nipper atop what was then a distribution warehouse for RCA products.
Check out this profile of Sanders from a few years back by Joseph Dalton.
Earlier on AOA: Albany, sliding between past and present
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Comments
They actually didn't "pick it up," per se--it was moved on rails, which can still be seen supporting the rear left side of the building if you walk into the alley on the downhill side of it. Pretty cool!
... said JEFF KRENN on Jan 13, 2017 at 11:05 AM | link
Jeff, that's awesome! Thanks for the clarification and the tip. You've made this afternoon's walk home from the bus even more interesting!
... said JayK on Jan 13, 2017 at 12:05 PM | link
I think the steeple in the background is of Westminster Presbyterian Church. The church burned around 1928 and was rebuilt on the same site around 1929. Compare this steeple against the steeple today, and that might narrow down the date of this photo.
... said Mark Backhaus on Jan 18, 2017 at 9:35 PM | link