Photo: New York State Capitol Building, ca. 1868-1899; National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places; nrhp.focus.nps.gov.
The principal county government offices are located at 112 State Street, Albany NY 12207; county help desk phone: 518-447-7200.
Albany was one of the original 12 counties of New York State, formed in 1683. The county seat is the City of Albany It is situated on the west bank of the Hudson River, approximately 135 miles north of New York City..
By 1774 Albany had the highest population across New York counties, almost 43,000 settlers. Present boundaries were settled by 1800 when Columbia, Greene, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Schenectady, and Schoharie had been split off. Once reduced to the area west of the Hudson and south of the Mohawk, Albany's revised population was about one-third (25,000) of what it had been in 1790.
The New York State Department of Education website (accessed April 2007, www.nysed.gov) provides the following historic timeline summary.
1624 — Fort Orange established
1652 — Beverwyck created as a separate jurisdiction
1664 — Dutch surrender New Netherland to the Duke of York - Beverwyck becomes Albany!
1673 — Dutch regain control of New York for a year
1676 — English build a new fort overlooking
Albany
1680 — Missionaries Danckaerts and Sluyter visit Albany
1683 — Albany County created
1686 — Albany receives its municipal charter
1697 — Census shows city population at 714
1713-1744 — Three decades of peace on the New York frontier
1714 — city population counted at 1128
1749 — Peter Kalm arrives at Albany
1754 — The Albany Congress meets at city
hall
1754-1763 — The French and Indian War
1765 — Albany buys the fort and other military
buildings from the British
1766 — Sons of Liberty orchestrate opposition to the Stamp Act
1766 — Docks and seawall built by Albany Corporation
1771 — The Albany Gazette, Albany's first newspaper, begins publication
1773 — Laws and Ordinances of Albany published
1775 — First public meeting of the Albany Committee of Correspondence
1776 — Tories arrested for drinking to the King's health
1778 — Commissioners for Detecting and Defeating Conspiracies prosecute Tories
1780 — New York State Legislature first meets in Albany
1782-83 — General George Washington visits Albany
1785 — Stewart Dean sails from Albany to China
1790 — Albany population reaches 3,498
1793 — Albany's first great fire destroys several blocks in the core city
1799 — New York State passes law that will abolish slavery by 1827
1800 — Census fixes city population at 5,349
1813 — First Albany city directory published
1820 — City population reaches 12,630
1823 — Funding appropriated for creation of an Albany Basin
