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The ScotlandShop American Dream: Why Albany?
America is a huge place, and we are but a wee Scottish company so where should we plant our flag? We used data and research and all those high powered tools, but ultimately it came down to a feeling. Most decisions come down to emotion and this one was no different.
We wanted a location with a story, a history of Scots and their travels across the Atlantic, generations of heritage and fond memories of a land left behind. Albany caught our imagination, the capital of New York state, the oldest continuous settlement in the original 13 English colonies (a fort was built here prior to 1614), and of course with a name derived from the Gaelic word for Scotland. When Henry Hudson arrived in 1609, the area was already home to the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) and the Dutch had established a trading post. Prior to being named Albany, the settlement was called Beverwyck (beaver district) after the animal created a lucrative fur trade for the Dutch. In fact Dutch was the language spoken until the American Revolution and the oldest pulpit in America, carved in Holland in 1656 can be found at the Dutch First Reformed Church in Albany.
In 1797, Albany became the official capital of New York State largely because it was the farthest you could navigate on the Hudson, it was as north as you can go and still have river commerce and communications. The city is located on the west bank of the Hudson River approximately 10 miles (16 km) south of its confluence with the Mohawk River and approximately 135 miles (220 km) north of New York City. A more recent blog shares the ship building links between the river Clyde in Glasgow and the Hudson which go back thousands of years. Albany was named after the Duke of York's Scottish title, "Duke of Albany" in 1664 when the English took control of the area. The revolutionaries first set up their capital in Kingston, NY, about 80 miles up the Hudson River, as the revolution progressed, they moved more inland, to Albany, since the British Navy could easily attack Kingston from the river. Albany has been the capital ever since.
The modern day Albany has a huge Empire State Plaza downtown with reflecting pools, an art-filled underground shopping concourse and The Egg, a striking performing arts center. Quite a difference from the location of our HQ here in the sleepy market town of Duns, steeped in thousands of years of history. However the modern buildings of the Plaza juxtapose with the 1800s New York State Capitol and the New York State Museum, where you can discover natural and cultural history. Work on the Capitol building began in 1867 and took over 30 years to complete at a cost of more than $25 million. The steps of this building are very famous and not just because Theodore Roosevelt ran up and down them to get his daily exercise in. In honour of the year 1777, when New York replaced its colonial government with the current state government, the Capitol building features 17 steps approaching its western entrance and 77 steps approaching its eastern entrance.
However although I do love to run and will definitely be going to test my legs on those steps, aside from it's history and links with Scotland, another strong reason for choosing Albany was location. We want to establish a base in the US where we can travel to Highland Games and events, join Scottish Society's and groups and support their work. From Albany we will run a monthly pop-up measuring service in New York (we are starting before Albany even opens and soon you can book your November appointment!), we can be in Boston in 2 hours, fly down to see our friends the Chicago Scots a few times a year, return to Florida for the Scottish Festival when it is cold and snowy in Albany in February, as well as of course enjoying supporting our now local Capital District Highland Games and a wee bit further away New Hampshire Highland Games. The most difficult thing will be fitting everything in! Kalyn wrote a blog last week about all the different St Andrew's Societies in New York State we need to get to know and they alone have so many fabulous activities and events.
Of course it would have been the perfect address is we had located ourselves in the town of New Scotland in Albany County, where European settlers arrived in the mid-1600s, followed by immigrants from Holland, Scotland and England over the next 150 years, however we couldn't quite find the right property. Other good and random reasons to be in Albany: modern toilet paper was invented here when an Albany resident patented the use of perforated toilet paper. The very first passenger railroad in America was the Mohawk and Hudson River Railroad, running from the intersection of Albany's Western and Madison Avenues into downtown Schenectady. A seated bronze sculpture of Scotland's national poet, Robert Burns, is located in Washington Park in Albany, dating back to 1888, created by Charles Calverley and designed by George Broughton. Emily, we expect you to be there singing Auld Lang Syne on 25th January 2022!
Or we could have gone to Scotia (the Latin translation of Scotland), originally called Nova Scotia. This wee village on the Mohawk River in Schenectady County was settled by Scotsman, Alexander Lindsay Glen and his family in the 1650s, however today it is said that only 176 of the 7000 local residents can claim Scottish heritage. Nearby Glenville is also named after Alexander who was born in Dysart near Kirkcaldy in Fife and came to America via Holland to escape religious persecution.
Returning to Albany, the city has it's own St Andrews Society started in 1803, when forty-one Scotchmen (as they called themselves then), met at the Tontine Coffee House at the corner of State Street and North Pearl. Set up for “social and benevolent purposes”, merchants, physicians, clergymen, and politicians founded the Society with a vision to help fellow Scots were in need. Archibald McIntyre was one of these 41 men, born in Scotland and came to New York with his Gaelic-speaking family before the Revolution. Taught by his father he was a lawyer, surveyor, Assemblyman; in 1801 he became Deputy Secretary of State for New York. Inevitably he was chosen as first Secretary of the Society. He went on to become Comptroller for the State of New York; this undoubtedly helped St. Andrew’s when the Society incorporated in 1819.
We return to our original question: Why Albany? I am not sure we have answered this very succinctly, however I did admit in the first paragraph that most things eventually come down to emotion and we just felt like Albany was right for us, big enough to have a population to welcome our business, yet small enough for us to become part of the community. We can't wait to share the next stage in the journey as the shopfit begins and the signs go up!
