Coulson's News Center

Coulson's is a familiar sight to anyone who frequents downtown Albany, particularly lower State Street at Broadway. For as long as I can remember, it was a place where we'd stop for the Sunday Times Union after Mass at Saint Mary's. These days, I sometimes stop in for coffee or something cold to drink after events like Alive@Five.

The News Center occupies the first floor of a 1814 building, built by a New Englander named Spencer Stafford, hardware & stove dealer - a gilt stove hung over the door. Hardware and saddlery firms sold their goods on the ground floor, upper floors housed manufacturing space.

Looking up at the fifth floor (added in the 1850s), you can see the pulley and doors through which merchandise was hoisted. Originally, each floor had such a bay. And, if you look along the north wall, you can see the ghost marks of a round window and the original gabled roof from 1814.

Coulson's has been in business since 1940s and a brass plaque on their threshold appears in a previous blog entry.