Free blacks, many of whom had migrated from the Upper South to escape its discrimination, also settled the village in the mid-19th century.

Lewis's admission policies were influenced by the liberal ideals of Oberlin College, which he had attended as a student.

Students with financial need could borrow money from the institution and repay their tuition by working two hours a day in the manual labor department: farming land owned by the school, operating the school's saw-mill, or making bricks.

The academy's constitution stated that the institution's primary goal was:... to break down, so far as our influence shall extend, the oppressive distinctions on account of caste and color, and counteract, both by example and precept, a spirit of aristocracy, that is spreading itself throughout the land.

Philip Clay, a former slave from Virginia who was a successful shoemaker in Albany, was one of the first members of the board.

Notable Ohio abolitionists served as trustees and board members, including John Brown, an Albany merchant and activist with the Underground Railroad, and Salmon P. Chase, twice U.S.

In 1862, a denominational church group, Albany's Free Will Baptists, took over management of the school.

[10] The outbreak of the Civil War resulted in a decline in the number of students, and the academy closed.

[8][12] To ensure the education of their children, African Americans from the county and state founded the private Albany Enterprise Academy in 1862.

Founders included leaders of the black community such as Thomas Jefferson Furguson (co-founder of the Ohio Colored Teacher's Association, member of the Albany City Council, and the first black to serve on a jury in Athens County), Cornelius Berry (father of Edward Berry of the Berry Hotel), Philip Clay, David Norman, Woodrow Wiley, and Jackson Wiley.

[12] In 1864, the board advertised their academy in a broadsheet, saying: The School will be owned and managed by colored persons; but this does not in our opinion make an argument against it.

[12]The Enterprise Academy had in "excess of one hundred students" in its early years of operation (for comparison, about the same number then enrolled at Ohio University at the same time).

By the late 1870s, many blacks had left the area for work in larger cities and local public integrated schools were available.

[12] In the predawn hours of May 2, 1911, one of the most disastrous fires to ever happen in the village destroyed an entire block in downtown Albany.

[citation needed] 14 years earlier the other side of this block burned and most of those buildings were rebuilt with brick structures.

[citation needed] As of the census[14] of 2010, there were 828 people, 347 households, and 230 families living in the village.

Public Education in the village of Albany is provided by the Alexander Local School District.