The 7 Best Historic Sites in Albany, Ranked
Exterior of Schuyler Mansion State Historic Site Albany
Seven Albany historic sites, ranked by what actually survives from the period and how well the story is told.
The top four
1. Schuyler Mansion State Historic Site. Philip Schuyler's 1765 home, where Alexander Hamilton married Eliza Schuyler in 1780. Post-Hamilton the tours got smart — they don’t dodge the fact that the Schuylers enslaved people. 2. The New York State Capitol. 1899, took 32 years and $25 million to build, and the Great Western Staircase is a national treasure. Free tours. 3. Ten Broeck Mansion in Arbor Hill, 1798 Federal-era home with the region's best wine cellar. 4. Historic Cherry Hill, 1787, occupied by one family for five generations.
Five through seven
5. The Pastures Historic District — not one site but a walkable pocket of pre-1830 townhouses south of the Empire State Plaza. Best done as a self-guided walk. 6. St. Peter's Episcopal Church on State Street, 1859, with an interior by Richard Upjohn worth stepping into. 7. The Shaker Heritage Society in Colonie, America's first Shaker settlement founded in 1776 by Mother Ann Lee, who is buried on site. Skipped: the Fort Orange plaques downtown mark a real site but there's nothing physical left to see.
Before you book
The questions people ask about Pastures Historic District, answered with this month’s numbers.
Schuyler Mansion — Hamilton was married there, the Schuyler sisters grew up there, and the site takes the family history seriously rather than mythologizing it. Book ahead; tours are small.
Most of it, remarkably. The Great Western Staircase, the Assembly Chamber ceiling, and the Senate Chamber are all original to the 1880s-90s construction. A 1911 fire destroyed the state library but the ceremonial spaces survived.
