Van Rensselaer Island was an island in 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 ...

opposite the

city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

of Albany,

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. The island was also known as de Laet's Island, Kalebacker's Island, Boston Island and B&A Island, the last two names in reference to the

Boston and Albany Railroad The Boston and Albany Railroad was a railroad connecting Boston, Massachusetts to Albany, New York, later becoming part of the New York Central Railroad system, Conrail, and CSX Transportation. The line is currently used by CSX for freight. Pass ...

. The island stretched from Mill Creek north to the

Livingston Avenue Bridge The Livingston Avenue Bridge is a railroad bridge over the Hudson River in New York connecting Albany and Rensselaer. The original structure was built in 1866 by the Hudson River Bridge Company but was replaced in 1901–02. A rotating swing bri ...

. Van Rensselaer Island is now connected to the City of Rensselaer, and is no longer an island. Van Rensselaer Island was also a name given to Westerlo Island in Albany, today the

Port of Albany-Rensselaer A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Ham ...

History

The island went through many name changes in the 400 years since

Henry Hudson Henry Hudson ( 1565 – disappeared 23 June 1611) was an English sea explorer and navigator during the early 17th century, best known for his explorations of present-day Canada and parts of the northeastern United States. In 1607 and 160 ...

saw it when he was at the present-day site of Albany. The name Kalebacker's Island may be related to the Dutch term "kale backer", translated into English it means down-and-outer, or mean fellow; the term Kalebacker was the term used by the Dutch for Native Americans who possessed guns, and were regarded as troublesome and war-like. There was a settlement of Native Americans who moved to the island after the Dutch established

Fort Orange Fort Orange ( nl, Fort Oranje) was the first permanent Dutch settlement in New Netherland; the present-day city of Albany, New York developed at this site. It was built in 1624 as a replacement for Fort Nassau, which had been built on nearb ...

across the Hudson from the island, they apparently moved there in order to trade with the Dutch, they had a fort, village, and crop fields. The site is listed in the

New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (NYS OPRHP) is a state agency within the New York State Executive Department Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation Law § 3.03. "The office of parks, recreation a ...

archaeological files, but not within the

New York State Museum The New York State Museum is a research-backed institution in Albany, New York, United States. It is located on Madison Avenue, attached to the south side of the Empire State Plaza, facing onto the plaza and towards the New York State Capitol. ...

site files. The name De Laets Eylandt (de Laet's Island in English) was in honor of

Joannes de Laet Joannes or Johannes De Laet (Latinized as ''Ioannes Latius'') (1581 in Antwerp – buried 15 December 1649, in Leiden) was a Dutch geographer and director of the Dutch West India Company. Philip Burden called his ''History of the New World'', " ...

, given in the 1630s by Kiliaen van Rensselaer, the first

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 a ...

of the

Rensselaerswyck The Manor of Rensselaerswyck, Manor Rensselaerswyck, Van Rensselaer Manor, or just simply Rensselaerswyck ( nl, Rensselaerswijck ), was the name of a colonial estate—specifically, a Dutch patroonship and later an English manor—owned by the va ...

, a feudal estate encompassing Albany and Rensselaer counties. On May 1, 1658

Jan Baptist van Rensselaer Jan Baptist van Rensselaer (18 March 1629, in Amsterdam – 24 October 1678, in Amsterdam) was the second son of Kiliaen van Rensselaer, the first Patroon of the Manor of Rensselaerswyck. Early life Jan Baptist van Rensselaer was born in Amst ...

, the director of the

patroonship 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 a ...

leased to Arent Adriessen all the tilled land on the island, which was referred to as "the island opposite the center of the village of

Beverwyck Beverwijck ( ; ), often written using the pre-reform orthography Beverwyck, was a fur-trading community north of Fort Orange on the Hudson River in New Netherland that was renamed and developed as Albany, New York, after the English took cont ...

". The lease was set for four years. In the 1800s the island became the site of the

's (B&A) passenger depot, shops, freight houses, round house, and coach yard. The island was the site of transfers between trains of the

New York Central The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Midw ...

and the B&A. The island became known as the Boston and Albany Island, or just Boston Island. A

ferry A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water taxi ...

transported people to and from the island and

downtown Albany The Downtown Albany Historic District is a 19-block, area of Albany, New York, United States, centered on the junction of State ( New York State Route 5) and North and South Pearl streets ( New York State Route 32). It is the oldest settled area ...

at Maiden Lane. The railroad changed the shoreline of the island by building docks for receiving coal and grain and by dredging an east–west channel splitting the island in half. In 1871 the

Maiden Lane Bridge The Maiden Lane Bridge was a railroad bridge across the Hudson River between the city of Albany and Rensselaer County, New York. It was designed by Kellogg, Clark & Co., and was one of the largest bridges they designed. The bridge was owned and ...

was built replacing the ferry. When the NY Central and the B&A merged in 1900 the island's activities became less important, though a new round house and coach yard was built even as many buildings were demolished. In 1903 the channel that separated the island from the mainland was filled in with sand dredged from the bottom of the Hudson River. Also in 1903 the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad purchased outright the island from the van Rensselaer family for $6,000. The Maiden Lane Bridge and all the railroad associated buildings were demolished when in 1969 the Rensselaer City School District's school campus was built on the portion of the island north of Quackenderry Creek. Two years earlier the Rensselaer side approach and exit ramps for the

Dunn Memorial Bridge The Dunn Memorial Bridge, officially known as the Private Parker F. Dunn Memorial Bridge, carries US 9 and US 20 across the Hudson River between Albany, New York and Rensselaer, New York. Description Completed in 1969 to replace an earlier span be ...

were built on the southern part of the island, just north of Mill Creek. The site of the Rensselaer City School campus is slated to be redeveloped as a mixed-use waterfront community, the developers (U.W. Marx Construction) gave the school land that had recently been annexed from a neighboring town, now in the northern section of the city, and built a new school campus. The redevelopment of of the island is named de Laet's Landing in honor of Johan de Laet and the original name of the island. De Laet's Landing is a project estimated at costing about $300 million, and could take 10–15 years to build to completion. The project would include offices, retail, restaurants, apartments, a promenade along the Hudson, and a marina carved from the waterfront; it is modeled on Baltimore's Inner Harbor. The project was dealt a setback in late 2009 when the

New York State Department of Environmental Conservation The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (informally referred to as NYSDEC, DEC, EnCon or NYSENCON) is a department of New York state government. The department guides and regulates the conservation, improvement, and protection ...

declared that the project's marina would need to be reworked so as not to disturb he

water celery Water celery is a common name for several plants and may refer to: *Oenanthe (plant), ''Oenanthe'' (plant), primarily: **''Oenanthe javanica'' (Apiaceae), native to eastern Asia *''Ranunculus sceleratus'' (Ranunculaceae), native to North America, A ...

along the shoreline, which is important for keeping the water clean and provides habitat for fish, it is rare along that stretch of the Hudson due to dredging of the shipping channel. This set-back, however, has not stopped the project; de Laet's Landing has been approved for a $1.4 million grant by the

Empire State Development Corporation Empire State Development (ESD) is the umbrella organization for New York's two principal economic development public-benefit corporations, the New York State Urban Development Corporation (UDC) and the New York Job Development Authority (JDA). T ...

and the company planned on breaking ground sometime in the later half of 2010. As of June 2014, no construction project has begun; however, casino development has been proposed for this location.
Access date=June 2014

Geology

Today the island is no longer an island as the channel to the east has been filled. The area consists of

Middle Ordovician The Ordovician ( ) is a geologic period and system, the second of six periods of the Paleozoic Era. The Ordovician spans 41.6 million years from the end of the Cambrian Period million years ago (Mya) to the start of the Silurian Period Mya. The ...

bedrock made of Normanskill

shale Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4) and tiny fragments (silt-sized particles) of other minerals, especial ...

, with soil consisting of loamy and sandy udorthents dredged from the bottom of the Hudson River. During the 17th century the island probably had an elevation of about or less above the river, today it is about 25 feet. Mill Creek enters the Hudson River at the southern end of the island. In the past the Quackenderry Creek emptied into the Hudson at the channel between the island and the mainland, today the creek continues through the area.

References

External links

de Laet's Landing
website for the new mixed-use development slated for the island. {{Authority control Islands of Rensselaer County, New York Islands of the Hudson River River islands of New York (state) Islands of New York (state)