North Albany, Albany, New York

North Albany is a neighborhood in the city of Albany, New York. North Albany was settled in the mid-17th century by the Patroon of Rensselaerswyck and his tenants and later became a hamlet in the town of Watervliet. Due to the Erie Canal being constructed in 1825, North Albany saw immense growth, with the Albany Lumber District and an influx of Irish immigrants lending the area the name of Limerick. Home to many historic warehouses and row houses, North Albany continues to be an important industrial neighborhood. Recent efforts have begun to gentrify the neighborhood by adapting heavy industry/warehouse use to artistic and entertainment venues, such as a German beer garden, an amusement park, live music venues, and arts and crafts marketplaces.HistoryThe area of North Albany was originally woodland and farmland as part of the patroonship of Rensselaerswyck, a feudal land patent covering present-day Albany and Rensselaer counties. In 1654 Barent Pietersen Coeymans and Teunis Cornelissen van der Poel ( also known as Teunis Cornelissen Spitsenberch, or Spitsbergen) rented a mill along the Patroon Creek from the patroon, and in 1666 Patroon Jeremias van Rensselaer built a house and associated buildings such as a mill and barn also along the Patroon Creek. This area north of the original city limits of Albany as delineated by the Dongan Charter was referred to as the colonie.