Meet the St. Andrew's Society of the City of Albany

The St. Andrews Society of Albany was founded in 1803. There were 41 members present at the first meeting at the Tontine Coffee house in Albany, NY. The purpose of the Society was to provide assistance to the waves of Scottish immigrants arriving in Albany. The founders were Scots who had already established themselves and were in a position to financially assist other Scots. Times have changed and the waves of Scottish immigration are no longer. However, the Albany St. Andrew’s Society is still a charitable, philanthropic organization that disburses funds each year to not for profit organizations serving the needs of residents in the Albany region.

In 1888, the Society President, Peter Kinnear, oversaw the commissioning and fabrication of a large monument of Robert Burns in Albany’s Washington Park. Called the McPherson Legacy, funding was provided in the will of Mary McPherson, long time Albany resident and native of Scotland, who named Mr. Kinnear as Executor of her will. The monument, dedicated on August 30, 1888 is said to be one of the finest Burns monuments in the world.

For the first 100 years, the Society met in public facilities and private homes. In 1903 it opened St. Andrew’s Hall in downtown Albany. This property was sold by the Society in 1926 to make way for a large hotel project downtown, still in operation today as the Renaissance Hotel, directly in front of the NYS Capitol.

In 1928 the Society purchased an elegant, architect designed townhouse that had been built in 1890 for James McKinney, owner of The Albany Architectural Iron Works & Foundry. The building was renovated for use by the Society with renovation plans prepared by David Lithgow, a Glasgow educated and trained artist, sculptor, and muralist. David was a society member at the time, who became Society President in the 1930's. Mr. Lithgow designed the renovations in the image of an Edinburgh gentleman’s club that he was familiar with.

The Rooms, as they are called by members, are a celebration of Scottish history and culture, filled with museum quality art and artifacts. There is a library with over 1400 volumes, much devoted to Scottish history, in glass doored wooden bookcases. The collection was made possible by a grant from Andrew Carnegie at the beginning of the 20^th century. You can visit the Society website at www.standrewssocietyalbany.org, go to Who We Are, then Rooms, and Tour of The Rooms.

My role within the society is Librarian / Historian so I maintain the collection and act as the contact person for people out with the society who wish to use the library for research.

The primary focus of the collection is all things Scottish, poetry and history is prevalent. However, the collection also includes many volumes on local and NYS history as well as early editions of the complete works of authors like Robert Louis Stevenson, Washington Irving, and Thomas Carlyle. Many of the volumes are quite old, some are leather bound and include decorative book binding and marbling, dating to the early 1700’s.