The hamlet lies along Albany's northern border and was once home to many industries, including one of the largest cattle stockyards in the United States, a large railroad switching yard, and a Tobin First Prize packing plant.

[1] Though the neighborhood is predominately Italian-American,[1] it remains diverse with the Polish American Citizens Club, the West Albany Italian Benevolent Society, the Bet Shraga Hebrew Academy, and a Korean worship center in the former St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church.

Andrew R. Hunter purchased in the 1850s extensive holdings in what would become West Albany, improving and surveying lots that he would then subsequently sell to homesteaders.

The cattle stockyards were moved here from Albany in 1860 and quickly rose to national importance, ranking just behind Chicago and Buffalo at the end of the 1880s, and occasionally even surpassing them in business transacted.

In 1893, those shops built Engine 999 as a special publicity project in order to win an international competition to build the world's fastest steam locomotive.

[10] The slaughterhouse roots of West Albany continued into the later half of the 20th century, decades after the railroad abandoned the hamlet, thanks to the Tobin Packing Company.

[11] The plant, also referred to as Tobin's First Prize Center, was according to former employees so busy it pumped out 50,000 hot dogs, 700 hams, and 20,000 pounds of kielbasa a day; and every hour roughly 360 hogs were slaughtered to keep up with this production.

[13] The First Prize Center has seen interest from several different retail development plans, including at one point or another either a Walmart, Kmart (which backed away when it filed for bankruptcy), Home Depot (which decided to build on the other side of Interstate 90 on Central Avenue in Albany), or Lowe's.

[15] The Albany County Industrial Development Agency (IDA) has owned the 32-acre (130,000 m2) property since the late 1980s after purchasing it from the US federal government foreclosure sale.