Albany - 1765

This is a print of a map of Albany made by a British army engineer showing the city at the end of the French and Indian Wars. It is dated "1765." This image presents an intriguing yet puzzling perspective on the Albany landscape.

Albany in 1765
Gallows Hill shell of Fort Orange the Pastures King's Highway to Schenectady Schuyler House St. Peter's Anglican church the Albany fort Dutch Reformed church City Hall - aka the Stadt Huys Market House Watervliet Watervliet British army hospital The Ruttenkill The Ruttenkill Southside - taverns and inns State or Jonker Street upper part of Foxes Creek Foxes Creek flats New Dock Market Street Road to the Van Rensselaer Manor House

It shows the "Remains of an Old Fort" (Fort Orange) in the lower left hand corner; a knoll within the stockade above today's South Pearl Street we believe is the legendary "Gallows Hill"; the first visualization of a dock extending out from today's Exchange Street (Mark Lane); a number of unidentified military structures; and a greatly expanded (yet labeled as "proposed") stockade.

This piece of cartography presents an interesting comparative to the city of just five years later as shown in a Albany map drawn by Robert Yates.

More material on this important piece of community iconography will be added in the future.




notes

Oversize, reproduction print of unknown origins in the Graphics Archive of the Colonial Albany Social History Project.

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