The Walls Have Hats

A rather pretty doll-sized hat was fastened to the wall of a building under renovations at the corner of North Pearl and Steuben Streets.

Downtown Hawk

A hawk was perched on North Pearl rooftop as I sat outside Cider Belly Doughnuts this morning.  Fortunately, you can't see the pigeon it was snacking on while I enjoyed my lemon doughnut below.

Elvis In The Window

A picture of The King adorns the window of the recently closed Cravings on North Pearl Street.

Downtown Mummy

An Ancient Egyptian mummy pauses to check out a vintage vehicle on display at Saturday's classic car show on North Pearl Street. 

(The mummy has been out and about to promote the Albany Institute of History and Art's new exhibit, The Mystery of The Albany Mummies.  I visited the museum yesterday and highly recommend seeing the exhibit.)

Established 1867

The sign on B. Lodge & Co. at the corner of North Pearl and Columbia Streets.

All Over Albany took a look inside this old-school clothing store.

The founder's son, Douglas, was killed in the Civil War and is buried at Albany Rural Cemetery.

59 North Pearl Street

This building at 59 North Pearl Street is best known these days as the former site of Jillians.  But the structure itself (obviously with some alterations) has an interesting history well beyond the former nightclub.  It was built around 1792 by a local merchant, Goldsbrow Banyar.  From 1819, it was the home of Governor DeWitt Clinton.  He died there in 1828, a fact noted by a plaque in the sidewalk outside. 

The building has been heavily altered over the years, including the addition of a fourth floor and the large storefront.  But there are still some wonderful older details along the building's Steuben Street side and, on the Pearl Street facade, the windows still boast elegant old lintels like this one.

Portraits From The Past

The entrance to the former Home Savings Bank on North Pearl Street is surrounded by these faces; they're meant to represent figures out of Albany's past.  The building is incredibly rich with details like this, as well as a whimsical squirrel on one of the windows.

North Pearl Sticker

Found on a North Pearl Street doorway; looks like it's Rocky, the gangster from Looney Tunes

Pearl & Lodge

Nice floral detail on the corner of North Pearl and Lodge Streets.

A Faded Ghost Sign

While loitering for a moment near Capital Rep, I noticed a ghost sign - faded to almost complete illegibility - on the north wall of the old Harry Simmons building.

Pemberton Corner

Laid into the sidewalk at the corner of North Pearl and Columbia Streets, this plaque (a reproduction of a now lost Bicentennial tablet from 1886) is spotted with old gum, stepped on constantly, and often littered with cigarette butts.

It marks the location of a house built in 1710 by Colonel Jacob Lansing. Located just north of the stockade enclosing colonial Albany, it served for many years as a trading post for local Native Americans. By 1818, it had become a store maintained by one Eben Pemberton, hence the corner's name.

Photos of corner from the early 1880s show the Lansing House as a steep-gabled structure typical of early Albany. Signs painted directly on its walls advertise Pemberton's as a marketplace for provisions, family stores, and groceries. The original interior was described as having no two rooms on the same level (one had to step up or down when going from one chamber to the next) and fireplaces jambs decorated with painted porcelain Biblical scenes.

The Old Lansing House was torn down in 1886, ironically during the same year in which the City commemorated its Bicentennial and marked the spot with a plaque.

Lacey Iron

Close-up of the iron railing enclosing the front steps of the historic Dutch Church on North Pearl Street.

Harry Simmons

This building along North Pearl Street bears the name HARRY SIMMONS. The company billed itself in an 1898 ad as an "Old Established and Largest Auction House In The State" and offered "appraisals of personal effects and Merchandise of every description." The company was previously located on State Street before relocating to this building near Lodge Street around 1913.

Funky Tiles

This colorful wall of tiles is part of the massive building on North Pearl Street between Columbia and Van Tromp Streets. The structure houses both a large parking garage and the Capitol Repertory Theatre.

The space occupied by the theatre now was, a couple of decades ago, home to a small grocery story. While I've been to Cap Rep many times, I can only recall one visit to the old Grand Cash Market...and I think it was for a can of tuna.

Squirreling Away

This whimsical set of cast iron bars protects a window on the ground level of the old Home Savings Bank building at 11 North Pearl Street. The fabulous Home Savings Bank tower at 11 North Pearl Street is one of downtown Albany's most distinctive and elegant landmarks.

Built in the 1929s, the 19-story structure was called Albany's first skyscraper and - for a short time - it was Albany's tallest building. Though it was quickly surpassed in height by other buildings, it remains the fifth tallest.

The facade includes delicate Art Deco terra cotta decorations. The main entrance is surrounded by plaques representing figures from Albany's past. Dutch and Native American profiles surround the upper story. It's one of those buildings that is worth stopping to really look at, even if one passes it every day.

Patroon Street

This sign on North Pearl Street marks the historic boundary between Albany and the vast estate belonging to the descendants of Kiliaen Van Rensselaer.

1879

I've walked past this building adjacent to the old Kenmore Hotel many, many times. The building itself is quite lovely, maybe even more so than the Kenmore itself. But I'd never noticed this pretty plaque on the wall just to the right of the building's empty store front.

Philip Livingston

The recent news about the planned sale of the old Philip Livingston school building reminded me that I photographed this plaque not too long ago.

The plaque commemorates the birthplace - Livingston Manor, long since gone - of Philip Livingston, a New York delegate to the Continental Congress and Signer of the Declaration of Independence.

The plaque is affixed to the wall of a building at the corner of State and Pearl Streets, once known as Elm Tree Corner. Now, it's home to a bank and one of my favorite places...a Starbucks coffee shop.

Nickels, Dimes, and Quarters

If you're on North Pearl Street, look up at No. 15. Way up, above the modern Rite-Aid sign and just below the roof, you'll see gray terra cotta medallions with the Roman numerals V, X, and VV5. They give a hint to the building's original use. It was built in 1937 to house a S.S. Kresge store where, rather like Woolworth's famous "five and dime," merchandise sold for a nickel, a dime, or a quarter. Let's just say the current occupant is a bit more expensive than that!

Pizza Memories

As far as I can recall, my very first taste of pizza came here at Jonathan's when I was quite small.

Two other pizza shops stand out in my early memories - Jack's American Pie on Delaware Avenue and Mr. B's in Colonie Center. Both Jack's American Pie (with its window full of jade plants) and Mr. B's (with its hard orange booths and little coin-operated jukeboxes at each table) are long gone now.

Jonathan's is still here on North Pearl near Maiden Lane, though there is a For Sale sign in the window. I don't eat downtown often, but still stop at Jonathan's for a slice or two every now and then. The interior has changed a little, but it's still the dark-paneled familiar shop where I had my first slice of hot, cheesy pepperoni pizza.

And it's still crowded with downtown office workers at lunch time.