From the Adirondacks to the Hudson Valley, the Capital Region offers year-round fun for everyone. Day-trips from Albany take you anywhere from 156 feet underground to 42 stories high and in riverboat cruises to high speed race cars. Exciting attractions and historic locations are everywhere in Albany and waiting for you to enjoy.

photo by Don Elliott

Population: (2000 U.S. census report):
City of Albany:  95,658
Albany County:  294,565
Capital - Saratoga Region:  910,408

CAPITAL REGION TRIVIA

• Albany is the oldest continuing settlement in the nation. The city still serves under its original charter, which dates back to July 22, 1686
• The Rain-bo-room at the former Kenmore Hotel on North Pearl Street was a favorite haunt for notorious gangster Legs Diamond. According to some sources, Legs was shot and killed during one of his stays at the hotel
• Washington Park was originally the site of the State Street Burial Ground. When the park was commissioned, over 40,000 bodies were exhumed and transferred to Albany Rural Cemetery in the 1840's
• The Washington Park site was originally surveyed and planned by Frederick Law Olmsted, designer of New York City's Central Park. The final park design in Albany was, inspired by Olmsted ideas and philosophies, completed by two of his protégés
• George Augustus, Lord Howe, killed in 1758 in an attack on Ticonderoga during the French and Indian War, is buried beneath the front vestibule of St. Peter's Episcopal Church
• The first Shaker community in America was settled in 1776 near the Albany International Airport. The original meeting house, cemetery, orchard and a neighboring farm still stand. The burial site of Ann Lee, founder of the Shaker Movement and first Shaker Settlement, is in the Shaker Cemetery
• Since 1831, two Egyptian mummies have lain in state for public display at the Albany Institute of History & Art
• After years of curiosity, a room in the basement of Ten Broeck Mansion which had been boarded and bricked up for 50-60 years, was opened to reveal a wine cellar. Full wine bottles were found in good condition dating back to 1875
• President Lincoln lay in state at the New York State Capitol as his funeral train passed through Albany
• The Watervliet Arsenal Museum is located in the cast iron storehouse built in 1859 prior to the Civil War by Major Mordecai