Jump to the intro.
This is not a comprehensive collection. There's a lot to see over at the APL's online collection on New York Heritage.
Maiden Lane and North Pearl Street, 1892
"Great Reduction in Prices Prior to Removal to 52 N Pearl St. May 1st" (maybe "moving sale" wasn't a thing yet).
50 N. Pearl Street, 1900
North Pearl Street at Van Tromp, 1922
North Pearl Street between Maiden Lane and Steuben Street, 1926
132 State Street, undated (maybe 1920s or 30s)
S. Pearl between State and Norton, undated (guessing 1930s or 40s)
94-102 S. Pearl Street, undated
"Underpriced Shoe Store"
508-510 Broadway, undated (maybe 1930s)
Hyman & Hess was a women's clothing store.
Drislane Building, North Pearl Street, undated (maybe 1930s or 40s)
That "Knickerbocker" sign is great.
20 S. Pearl Street, undated
Love that name -- "Champagne's Radio."
Orange Street and N. Pearl Street, undated (maybe the 1940s?)
Check out the storefront for Danker Florists on the left -- the business is still in operation, now at Central Ave and North Allen.
Maiden Lane, between Pearl and James, looking up the hill, undated.
S. Pearl Street and State Street, 1945.
We've written about the Waldorf cafeteria before -- "There'll be good, fresh coffee at the Waldorf Lunch today. It's always the same."
While talking with Schuyler Bull this week about his plans to re-open the Fort Orange General Store downtown, he mentioned hearing stories from his grandmother about how downtown Albany was at one time the place to shop.
And that's apparent when you flip through old photos of the area, like the "commercial streets" group of the Albany Public Library History Collection.
It's interesting to see how many shops were once packed into buildings around downtown Albany. But the thing we often end up gawking at is the old storefront signage. There's a certain style about it that makes today's signage just seem sort of... plain.
So we thought it'd be fun to go through the APL collection of photos and pull out a bunch of examples of downtown Albany storefront signs from the early 20th century...
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Photos are above in large format -- click or scroll all the way up.
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Comments
I love these old photos of downtown Albany! I still (vaguely) remember shopping there in the '60s with my mom.
... said Ellen on Apr 13, 2017 at 7:49 PM | link
pretty cool
... said Dave on Apr 14, 2017 at 3:50 AM | link
Fantastic. I loved the street light / clock sign on this pic, North Pearl Street between Maiden Lane and Steuben Street, 1926.
... said Paul on Apr 14, 2017 at 9:10 AM | link
Lol looks like Albany was nice a long time ago. What happened?
... said Jeff on Apr 14, 2017 at 1:07 PM | link
These are great photos - thanks. I believe one of them, however, is mislabeled. It reads "S. Pearl St. between State and Norton." I'm fairly certain that should be "State and Morton."
... said Greg Patrei on Apr 15, 2017 at 4:50 AM | link
@Greg Patrei
State and Norton is correct. Norton still exists as a small side street on the east side of South Pearl a few doors south of State. It's little more than an alley now.
As a side note - Aaron Burr had a law office on Norton Street.
... said Paula on Apr 17, 2017 at 9:10 AM | link
Loved seeing my grandfather's store front:
CHAMPAGNE'S RADIO.
... said Margot J. Champagne on Apr 15, 2018 at 1:27 PM | link