Albany Lumber District

[1] The future lumber district at this time was owned by the Patroon Stephen Van Rensselaer and his brother William, and consisted of mostly vegetable gardens that paid little in the way of rent.

[6] The Patroon was approached about building slips off the canal for the use of the lumber industry in return for a more ample amount of rent.

[7] During the winter months when the slips were ice-bound and the offices closed, the lumber district virtually abandoned.

When those became over-harvested the supply shifted to southern Ontario, and after 1856 from Michigan where Albany buyers held the monopoly on the good white pine.

[12] The lumber district did not have any track facilities connecting it to the railroads that fed into Albany until 1906 due to fears that the locomotives would spark a fire.