Much has been written about the demise (and hopefully redevelopment) of Albany's Wellington Hotel. Saving the facade of the Wellington, the completely forgotten Berkshire Hotel, and the more glorious Elks Lodge turned out to be the best that could be hoped for after a couple of decades of not entirely benign neglect by speculators. While there seem to have been many stories of Albany history, political and personal, attached to better known landmarks like the Kenmore and the DeWitt Clinton, stories and images of the Wellington are scarce. But somewhere in my hoovering of the web, I came across this delightful old postcard from better times, unfortunately undated, that shows the forgotten extent of the Wellington. Its second building is forgotten but, as far as I can tell, still standing, and not part of the current redevelopment. Whether it connected to the State Street building underground, or if patrons were obliged to slog across Howard Street, I simply don't know, though the attraction of a "garage-in" hotel would certainly be limited if the main part of the hotel wasn't accessible from the garage. Anyone who knows more about how the Wellington was laid out, please feel free to comment.(Like most typographical oddities, the odd emphasis on "Garage-IN" leads one to wonder if, hidden somewhere in Albany, there was a "Garage-OUT" hotel, making a similar claim.)
(Oh, yeah - click on the postcard to see it large!)
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There was a passage - referred to as a subway - connecting the two Wellington buildings. I once read a brief, passing reference to it being marble-floored. I don't know how much of it remains now, though. I was just mentioning it to a friend over the weekend.
I was never inside the Wellington; a friend of mine said she stayed there when she came to Albany to take the bar exam, which must have been in its very last days. There were grander hotels, to be sure, but other than the Kenmore and the DeWitt Clinton, it was the last of its kind.
Miraculously, 74 State Street has become exactly what we all hoped could be saved - a beautiful downtown hotel.