Care Homes for Dementia in Albany, NY

Facts about Albany

Neighborhoods in Albany include: Lark Street, Arbor Hill, Beverwyck, Campus Area, Center Square, Delaware Avenue, Dunes, Melrose, Normanskill, North Albany, Park South, Pine Hills, Sheridan Hollow, South End, Washington Park, West Hill, Mount Hope, Krank Park, Pastures, and Second Avenue.

The official website for the city of Albany is http://www.albanyny.gov/.

Albany the Capital District is the 3rd largest metropolitan region in the state and the 45th largest in the country.The first European settlement in this area was by Dutch colonists who built Fort Nassau in 1614 and Fort Orange in 1624. They formed successful relations with both the Mahican and the Mohawk people, two major Native American nations. The fur trade attracted settlers who founded a village called Beverwijck near Fort Orange. In 1664 the English took over and renamed the city as Albany, in honor of the then Duke of Albany, the future James II of England and James VII of Scotland. The city was officially chartered in 1686 under English rule. It became the capital of New York State in 1797, following the United States gaining independence in the American Revolutionary War. Albany is one of the oldest surviving settlements of the original British thirteen colonies, and the longest continuously chartered city in the United States. Its charter is possibly the longest-running instrument of municipal government in the Western Hemisphere.During the late 18th century and throughout most of the 19th, Albany was a center of trade and transportation. It is located on the north end of the navigable Hudson River, was the original eastern terminus of the Erie Canal connecting to the Great Lakes, and was home to some of the earliest railroad systems in the world. Albany’s main exports at the time were beer, lumber, published works, and ironworks. Beginning in 1810, Albany was one of the ten most populous cities in the United States, a distinction that it held until the 1860 census.Albany is one of the first cities in the world to have installed public water mains, sewer lines, natural gas lines and electricity, infrastructure and utilities that attracted and supported substantial new industry to the city and surrounding area during the 19th century.In the 20th century, the city opened one of the first commercial airports in the world, the precursor of today’s Albany International Airport. During the 1920s a powerful political machine controlled by the Democratic Party arose in the state capital, connected to politics in New York City as well.The city’s skyline changed in the 1940s and 50’s with the construction of office towers around the Empire State Plaza and at the uptown campus of SUNY Albany, mainly under the direction of Governor Nelson Rockefeller. While Albany experienced a decline in its population due to urban sprawl, many of its historic neighborhoods were saved from destruction through the policies of Mayor Erastus Corning 2nd, the longest-serving mayor of any city in the United States. In the early 21st century, Albany has experienced growth in the high-technology industry, with great strides in the nanotechnology sector.Albany has been a center of higher education for over a century, with much of the remainder of its economy dependent on state government and health care services. The city has rebounded from the urban decline of the 1970s and 1980s, with noticeable development taking place in the city’s downtown and midtown neighborhoods. Albany is known for its extensive history, culture, architecture, and institutions of higher education. The city is home to the mother churches of two Christian dioceses, as well as the oldest Christian congregation in Upstate New York. Albany won the All-America City Award in both 1991 and 2009.