Historic hotels in Albany, ranked
Historic Albany brownstone hotel exterior with wrought iron railings
Seven Albany properties in genuinely old buildings, ranked by preservation quality and whether the history is real or invented.
The real thing
The Morgan State House (1888) on Englewood Place is the most honest historic hotel in Albany — a Queen Anne brownstone that was actually somebody's mansion, converted with restraint. Original moldings, working shutters, staircases with the tread wear you can’t fake. The State House (1888) on State Street is its sibling property and the same standard. The Mansion Hill Inn occupies three brick rowhouses from the 1860s in the Mansion District and has kept the original room proportions even where the plumbing has been completely redone.
The 74 State Hotel is a 2007 conversion of a 1928 office building — the Renaissance Revival lobby is intact and impressive, though the guest rooms have been fully modernised and only nod to the era.
Historic-adjacent, not historic
The Renaissance Albany occupies a 1929 building shell — the DeWitt Clinton Hotel — but the 2014 renovation stripped virtually everything original inside. It's a good hotel; it's not a historic one in any meaningful sense. The Hilton Albany was built in the 1970s and no amount of soft lighting makes it historic. For a truly old-Albany experience, consider that the Ten Broeck Mansion in Arbor Hill offers occasional overnight events but isn’t a hotel. To combine history with a stay, use the Morgan State House as base and spend the day at the Schuyler Mansion and the State Capitol tour.
Before you book
The questions people ask about Mansion District, answered with this month’s numbers.
In the immediate city, none of the original 19th-century hotels survive as hotels. The Adelphi in Saratoga Springs (1877) is the closest continuously-operating historic hotel and is 35 minutes north.
The Morgan State House innkeepers will walk you through the building on request. For institutional history, book the New York State Capitol free guided tour separately — it's excellent.
