A Schlepp Through Schenectady - State Street

Schenectady, NY - Franny Wentzel - Friday, August 28th, 2009 : goo

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Continuing our journey... we have some old photos of the heart of downtown Schenectady... But first a Googlesat piccy for orientation. We'll pick up where we left off on the corner of Broadway & State looking towards the Woolworth's Building and follow the old German street naming custom and circle around the block

View from the early part of this decade when buildings started getting demolished for the 'Metroplex' redevelopement scheme

Same view today

New state offices

State & B'way at the turn of this century

Today

Broadway (one of the narrowest streets downtown) 2001

Not much has changed

State & B'way 1930s - Woolworth's on left

State & B'way 1960s - Woolworth's first remodel

State & B'way 2000 - Wooworth's second remodel

A better view of the second remodel - building had since been converted to offices

State & B'way today - Woolworth's third remodel

Next door was a Lerner Shop and later a D&K dollar store.

mid-1990s view of the Wallace Block and Center City

Wallace block early part of this decade - taken with an Ixla SuperPro 640

Wallace block and Center City - taken around the same time with an Ixla DualCam 640

About the same view today - taken with a Kodak C763

Center City 2001 - an ice skating rink built in the late-1970s this was going to be The Answer to all of downtown Schenectady's problems

You had to schlepp all the way down to the basement to get to the rink

By 2002 the ice rink was taken out and it was converted to a 'sportsplex'

As of today they're tearing the whole thing down

Removing the whole 1970s addition

To build this... meh

At least the other buildings on the block have been spiffied up

moving on down the block...

I said... moving on down the block

A view up State Street at the corner of Jay Street...

at the shopping block between Jay and Clinton Streets

Which has changed considerably...

Only the one with the Boomers sign is original construction

The one with the awning wasn't there a few years ago

Real buildings - including one of the few Art Deco buildings left in Schenectady - were torn down for these

This mural with its depiction of the Trade Towers was also lost

The same block from a mid-90s photograph

The Fürherbunker - AKA the Albany Savings Bank

Now a Citizens Bank - the brown roof area used to be bronzed glass

Crossing to the south side of State and this 1980s view of the deadest end of the 'Canal Square' deadmall

Was still there in 2001 - including the Bauhaus-style store

That end of the block was replaced by a generic Hampton Inn

The old IOOF hall - now an arts center

Schenectady's first skyscraper - The Parker Building

Restored and converted to a deluxe hotel called imaginatively enough The Parker Inn

A forlorn view uptown and of a 1970s light standard

Whimsical decor for the unused Proctor's Theater ticket booth - you buy your tickets inside now

The Proctor's theater complex - the white building with black window mullions used to be the Carl's Department Store

2001 view of the rest of Canal Square - they painted all the buildings on the block a dank brown and unified the façades with an awning and with interconnections between the buildings inside

The project was a flop and by the turn of this century awnings were replaced and buildings repainted in more festive colors

The Proctor's block in the 1960s

Same view today

State Street during a 1970s sidewalk fair - real festive

The same view today - they did some screwy traffic realignment to allow for diagonal parking - don't like

Proctor's block circa 2000 with a view of the old Hough Block on the corner of B'way & State

Building was torn down a couple years later

The same view today

The old Hough Hotel - nothing occupied the upper floors after it was remodeled for the Canal Square project

Its days were numbered by the time this picture was taken

It was replaced after a couple years of idleness by a cineplex - which had originally been slated to be built where the Hampton Inn ultimately went

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