The most noted old Albany building is at the northern end of Broadway,
in grounds extending to the river, and surrounded by fine trees, the
ancient Van Rensselaer Mansion, commonly called the "Patroon's,"--a
broad house with porch and wide central hall. This occupies the site
of the first mansion, which was covered with a roof of reeds. Over on
the opposite side of the river at Greenbush, the "Greene Bosch" or
"pine woods" of the original settlers, is the Patroon's other
residence, built of bricks from Holland, by the second Patroon
Johannes. Port-holes were cut in the walls for the musketeers, it
having been a fort in the Indian forays. The family burial-ground
adjoins the mansion. State Street, at the corner of Pearl, which is
parallel with Broadway, is the most interesting historic locality of
ancient Albany. Here stood that elaborate dwelling of the
Knickerbockers, regarded as the best specimen of old Dutch
architecture in New York State, the "Vanderheyden Palace," an
extensive building with two tall gables facing the street. One of the
old burghers, Johannes Beekman, built it in 1725, and during the
Revolution Jacob Vanderheyden of Troy bought it, and lived there many
years in the almost regal state of the Dutch aristocracy. Washington
Irving tells of it in the story of Dolph Heyliger, in _Bracebridge
Hall_, as the residence of "Herr Anthony Vanderheyden," and when
Irving transformed Van Tassel's old farmhouse into his villa at
Sunnyside he made a gable in imitation of one of these, and also
captured the old weather-vane of the "Palace"--a horse going at full
speed--to mount on top of it. Upon the opposite corner was the quaint
"Lydius House," the home of Rev. John Lydius, the owner of a great
manor at Fort Edward, farther up the Hudson, and in front of it stood
the crooked elm, giving the locality the name of the "Old Elm Tree
Corner." This tree is said to have been planted by Philip Livingston,
a signer of the Declaration of Independence, who lived in an adjoining
house. The "Lydius House" had been built as a parsonage for the
clergyman sent out to the old Dutch church, Rev. Gideon Schaats, the
bricks, tiles, iron and woodwork, together with the church bell and
pulpit, all coming from Holland in 1657, in the same ship. During many
years its only occupant was Balthazar Lydius, an eccentric bachelor, a
tall, spare, morose and irritable Dutchman, fond of bottle and pipe,
and having a round bullet head thinly sprinkled with white hair. He
gloried in his celibacy until the infirmities of age came upon him,
when it is said he gave a pint of gin for an Indian squaw, called her
his wife, and they lived contentedly together until he died. This was
the oldest brick building in the United States; its partitions were
made of mahogany and the exposed beams were richly carved.
The antique pulpit, which came across in the ship with the materials
of the "Lydius House," has done duty from then until now in various
Dutch churches of Albany. It is of carved oak, octagonal in form. The
original church stood in the middle of State Street, a low building
with a tall pyramidal roof and little steeple, since removed to widen
the street. The church gallery was quite low, while the huge stove
warming the building was put upon a platform so high that the sexton
had to step on it from the gallery when he wanted to kindle the fire.
The astute Albany philosophers of those days believed heat descended
from above. The bell-rope hung from the little steeple down into the
centre of the church, and here, at eight o'clock at night, was rung
the "suppawn bell," a signal to the obedient people to eat their
"suppawn" or hasty pudding, and go to bed. Albany in the olden time
had a quaint aspect because of the predominance of steep-roofed
houses, with their terraced gables, but many of them have given way
for modern improvements. Upon State Street, at the corner of James,
lived in one of these the famous Anneke Jans Bogardus, who died there
in 1663, the owner of the lands in New York city now partly held by
Trinity Church, which her heirs have acquired so much notoriety in
trying to recover. A bank now occupies the site. Albany has had some
interesting history. In 1754 the Congress met here which was the first
colonial organization, and finally developed into the Continental
Congress. Seven colonies, north of Maryland, sent twenty-five
Commissioners, who made a treaty with the Iroquois, the Indian league
of the "Six Nations." Afterwards, under the guidance of Benjamin
Franklin, a plan was adopted for a union of the colonies, its
provisions being much similar to the United States Constitution of
1787. Thus the germ of the American Union was first developed at
Albany. Her influences have been powerful in politics. For many years
the "Albany Regency" controlled the old Democratic party, this name
having been given by Thurlow Weed, then editor of the _Albany Evening
Journal_, to a junta of politicians usually assembling there, headed
by Martin Van Buren. Subsequently, another combination at Albany was
potential in ruling the Whigs and in controlling the Republican
party--the political firm of "Seward, Weed and Greeley." Albany
manoeuvres managed to control the preliminaries that twice made
Grover Cleveland President; and in both parties the Albany political
"patroons" are still industriously at work.
Among the finest Albany buildings is the magnificent new Episcopal
Cathedral of All Saints, an English Gothic structure, as yet
incomplete, which will be one of the most beautiful churches in
America. In the southern part of the city is the Schuyler Mansion,
built in 1760, a brick house with a broad front, having a closed
octagonal porch over the doorway and spacious apartments; its lawns in
the olden time reaching to the Hudson, where now the city is densely
built. Peter Schuyler was the first Mayor of Albany, and his
descendant, General Philip Schuyler of the Revolution, occupied a
large space in New York history. In this house Alexander Hamilton was
married to Elizabeth Schuyler, and a subsequent owner, Mrs. McIntosh,
was made the wife of Millard Fillmore, President of the United States.
General Schuyler and his family always dispensed a princely
hospitality in this mansion. In 1781, towards the close of the
Revolution, it was the scene of a stirring event. The British,
discovering that Schuyler was at home, tried to capture him. The house
was then distant from the small town and surrounded by forests. A
party of Canadians and Indians prowled for several days in the woods,
and capturing a laborer, learnt that the General was in the house with
a bodyguard of six men. The laborer escaped afterwards and notified
the General. Upon a sultry day in August, when three of the guards
were asleep in the basement and the other three lying on the grass in
front of the house, a servant announced that a stranger at the back
gate wished to speak with the General. The errand being apprehended,
the doors and windows were barred, the family collected up stairs, and
the General hastened to his bedchamber for his arms. From the window
he saw the place surrounded by armed men, and fired a pistol to arouse
the guards on the grass and alarm the town. At this moment the enemy
burst open the doors, when Mrs. Schuyler suddenly discovered she had
left her infant in the cradle in the hall below. She rushed to the
rescue, but the General stopped her. One of her daughters then quickly
ran down stairs, and carried the infant up in safety. An Indian who
had entered hurled a tomahawk, as she rushed up the stairs, which cut
her dress within a few inches of the baby's head, and striking the
hand-rail made a deep scar. As she ran up stairs, the Tory commander,
thinking her a servant, called out, "Wench, where is your master?"
With great presence of mind she quickly replied, "Gone to alarm the
town." General Schuyler heard her, and taking advantage, threw up a
window, crying out loudly, as if to a multitude, "Come on, my brave
fellows, surround the house and secure the villains!" The marauders,
who were then plundering the plate in the dining-room, becoming
frightened, beat a hasty retreat, taking prisoners the three guards
who were in the house. The brave daughter, who made the gallant
rescue, afterwards became the wife of the last Patroon Van Rensselaer,
while the infant she saved lived until 1857, and was Schuyler's last
surviving child, Mrs. Catharine Cochran of Oswego, New York. General
Schuyler is buried in the beautiful Albany Rural Cemetery, north of
the city, and nearby is Palmer's famous figure of the "Angel at the
Sepulchre." Here is also the tomb of President Chester A. Arthur, who
died in 1886.