The village lies inside the town of Colonie and borders the northern city line of Albany.

[5] Menands would have been first spotted by Europeans circa 1609, when Henry Hudson dropped anchor somewhere near Cuyler or Pleasure Island during his voyage on the river later to be named after him.

[6] Today, those islands are connected to the mainland, and are the site of Interstate 787 exits 6 and 7, which includes the cloverleaf interchange with NY 378 and the Troy-Menands Bridge.

From north to south they were Richardson, Mix, Leary, Keyes, Kanes, Lundergans, Island Park, Delaware and Hudson Railroad, and Garbarance.

The original boundaries did not include what are now the Sage Hill Lane, Sky Hollow, and Roost Country Estates; those were annexed later and continue to be in the North Colonie Central School District.

All thirteen were named for historic people and locations in the Capital District; subsequent additions have kept to that tradition with the exception of Tremaine House, named for a former New York State Comptroller and Yates House for a former manager of Dutch Village.

[8] In 1940, the now-defunct New York Herald Tribune declared Dutch Village to be "one of the most interesting scale housing developments in the East".

The steeped roofs and brick construction were designed to reflect early Dutch architecture.

Wards Lane at the time was small and unpaved on a steep slope, but by using money from a federal program designed to pave "farm to market" roads, the project was able to improve the road to Dutch Village without any cost to the village of Menands.

[8] One of the largest printing plants in the eastern USA existed in Menands in the forties and fifties.

Built on Broadway with rail tracks behind, Williams printed many of today's magazines such as Business Week, Sports Illustrated and many others, plus most of the New England telephone directories.

Two boys came up with the design for the seal, and the motto was chosen from an entry by a girl in the school's seventh grade class.

[13] At the time Al-Tro Park was considered the finest pleasure resort in northern New York.

[14] In the early 1920s Al-Tro closed and the concept was used in the late 1920s by nearby Mid-City Park, an amusement park along Broadway on the other side away from the river, it had a roller coaster, merry-go-round, roller skating rink, and swimming pool; it too would close after a few decades.

[15] In 1928 Chadwick Park was rebuilt, in 1929 it was renamed Hawkins Stadium,[16] and in 1930 General Electric installed lights for night games.

[17] It was at Hawkins Stadium that the New York Yankees played the Albany Senators in 1931 before a crowd of 6,300; Babe Ruth hit two home runs.

It too was demolished to make way for the Mid-City Shopping Center and a department type store, which would eventually close and be replaced by the New York State Office of Workers Compensation Board.

It was a quarter mile paved oval track and was located close enough to the Hudson River that spectators would sit on the Troy-Menands Bridge and watch the races for free.