The Morris Diner

Blurred by Saturday's rain, an old sign rests outside the Quintessence Diner as the building is torn down as part of the Albany Medical Center expansion.

Taking Down The Diner

The diner that stood at the corner of New Scotland and Dana Avenues is coming down.  Mostly recently known as Quintessence and, before that, the U.N. Diner, it's being demolished as Albany Medical Center continues is expansion.  There was a little hope that the iconic little building could be saved, either incorporated into the redevelopment of the neighborhood or moved intact, but plans never materialized and crews are taking it down.

Rubble

The rubble left behind after the demolition of the Wellington Hotel Annex on Saturday.  The partially collapsed structure on the right is the old parking garage from the Wellington complex In the background, the bell tower of City Hall and, to the left, the DeWitt Clinton Hotel which is being renovated. 

One Last Look

The final moments of the old Wellington Hotel's Annex on Howard Street.  This was the view of the Annex from the main platform of the Empire State Plaza just minutes before a rather colorfully choreographed implosion reduced the long-vacant building to rubble behind a cloud of smoke.

For video, click here.

Bolton Hall

Shadows fill the courtyard of the former nursing dorm which is soon to be demolished as part of the Albany Medical Center expansion.

Written On The Walls

Names and other words on the wall of the soon-to-closed Valentine's.  The old New Scotland Avenue music club is going to regenerate on Central Avenue with a new name (The Low Beat) as this block is pending demolition.

Under Clark's Corner

Not too long after writing about the demolition of the Paul Clark Tavern at the corner of Madison Avenue and Lark Street, the site was excavated further and I noticed this brick structure.  This week, I finally got a chance to poke my camera through the fence surrounding the construction area.

Don Rittner has some suggestions as to what it might have been in his excellent post, What Happened To Paul Clark's Corner?

The brick building in the background is the former Metroland office, now being converted to condos.

Also:  Paul Clark's gravestone

Almost Gone

I wasn't expecting this.

I'd set out with my camera for Beaver Street south of Eagle to see if there were any visible remnants of the previously photographed Elks Lodge, the gutted structure behind the crane. Not much to see there, but next to it - to my surprise - was an old house. A brick house with cheerful moss-green paint still on its window frames.

The house must have been completely hidden for almost a century. The front of it appears to have faced Eagle Street where it would have been completely enveloped by the handsome DeWitt Clinton Hotel which was built in the 1920s. The north side of the house would have been blocked off by the Elks Lodge and adjacent structures on State Street, and the side shown here would have been obscured by buildings on Beaver Street which were torn down only recently as part of the ongoing stabilization and demolition of buildings in the Wellington Row parcel.

I don't know how old the house is, though, or from whom it was built. And I have to wonder why it was never demolished sooner and, instead, left standing and enclosed as other buildings rose around it.

It's probably gone already. When I poked my camera through the fence to take this picture, demolition had already begun on this long-forgotten house.