The lumber district of
Albany,
New York was relatively small in the 1830s with around six wholesale lumber merchants, but by the 1870s Albany was the largest lumber district in the United States by value, though by that time it had recently been outstripped in feet sold by
Chicago
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For about a quarter century in the middle of the 19th century the Albany lumber district was considered the largest
white pine
''Pinus'', the pines, is a genus of approximately 111 extant tree and shrub species. The genus is currently split into two subgenera: subgenus ''Pinus'' (hard pines), and subgenus ''Strobus'' (soft pines). Each of the subgenera have been further ...
wholesale market. There were 3,963 sawmills operating in the lumber district in 1865 but by 1900 there were only around 150. A fire ripped through the district in 1908 signalling the decline of the lumber industry for Albany.
![Albany Lumber District](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d5/Albany_Lumber_District.jpg)
The lumber district was considered to be the land from North Ferry Street north for about 1½ miles and from the
Erie Canal
The Erie Canal is a historic canal in upstate New York that runs east-west between the Hudson River and Lake Erie. Completed in 1825, the canal was the first navigable waterway connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes, vastly reducing t ...
on the west to the
Hudson River
The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between N ...
on the east. It was about wide at the southern end and wide at the northern end and constituted over . Thirty-one
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connected to the canal and ran east to within of the Hudson, the longest slip being long.
![Patroon Island - Before & After](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e2/Patroon_Island_-_Before_%26_After.jpg)
When the
Albany Basin was constructed in 1825 the
pier
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separating the basin from the Hudson River was the quickly turned into a prestigious place for the lumber industry in Albany,
[ which dates back to the arrival of a millwright and two sawyers in 1630 and the first sawmill in 1654. Until 1848 it continued to be considered the headquarters of the lumber trade in the city,] even as the industry moved to the area between Quackenbush Street and the Columbia Street Bridge.[ The future lumber district at this time was owned by the ]Patroon
In the United States, a patroon (; from Dutch '' patroon'' ) was a landholder with manorial rights to large tracts of land in the 17th century Dutch colony of New Netherland on the east coast of North America. Through the Charter of Freedoms ...
Stephen Van Rensselaer and his brother William, and consisted of mostly vegetable gardens that paid little in the way of rent. The Patroon was approached about building slips off the canal for the use of the lumber industry in return for a more ample amount of rent. Originally the Patroon bore the cost of constructing the slips, but as time went on the lumber dealer took upon himself the cost of the slip in return for keeping the rent until such time as construction costs were paid for, at which time the dealer had to start paying rent to the Patroon as everyone else did. It took roughly eight years for the slip to be paid off. During the winter months when the slips were ice-bound and the offices closed, the lumber district virtually abandoned. The inspection system used in Albany for the white pine was the first inspection system for lumber and the model for many other systems.
At first the supplies of white pine were from within New York, in Allegany and Chemung counties. When those became over-harvested the supply shifted to southern Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...
, and after 1856 from Michigan
Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...
where Albany buyers held the monopoly on the good white pine.
The primary markets were the city of New York and New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
.[ The Albany market also had for a time foreign markets such as ]Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
, Chile
Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...
, and Australia.
The lumber district had its own dining saloon, telegraph office, a chapel, and several stores. For fire protection there were many fire hydrant
A fire hydrant, waterplug, or firecock (archaic) is a connection point by which firefighters can tap into a water supply. It is a component of active fire protection. Underground fire hydrants have been used in Europe and Asia since at least t ...
s and thousands of feet of fire hose
A fire hose (or firehose) is a high-pressure hose that carries water or other fire retardant (such as foam) to a fire to extinguish it. Outdoors, it attaches either to a fire engine, fire hydrant, or a portable fire pump. Indoors, it can perm ...
. The lumber district did not have any track facilities connecting it to the railroads that fed into Albany until 1906 due to fears that the locomotives would spark a fire.
The eastern part of Arbor Hill around Ten Broeck Street became home to many of the wealthiest lumber merchants in Albany, where they proceeded to build grand rowhouses overlooking the lumber district, Erie Canal, and Hudson River.
References
{{Albany, New York
History of Albany, New York