United Traction Company Building

The buff brick building at the corner of Broadway and Columbia St. is the United Traction Company Building, built in 1899 in Renaissance Revival architectural style. United Traction ran the city's trolley system and used the building as its headquarters until the 1950s. The United Traction Company Building became a National Register of Historic Places entry in 1976 and also is part of the Downtown Albany Historic District. The building, at 600 Broadway, now houses attorneys' and other business offices in over 10,000 square feet.

United Traction Company Building is one of many buildings in Albany designed by architect Marcus T. Reynolds. He may have been inspired by an Italian palazzo when drawing up the plans. The building is diagonally across from Union Station and used to be in a densely-developed commercial area; many older buildings have been demolished and turned into parking lots.

United Traction Company began in 1864 as the Albany Railway Company, offering horse-drawn trolleys. Some of its trolley lines were electrified beginning in 1890. A local electrician from the Watervliet Turnpike Railroad Company, William C, Miller, patented a device in 1890 that helped remove snow and ice that gathered along electric trolley lines; it also improved contact with the line. There were about 15,000 miles of trolley lines in the U.S. by 1895, served by nearly 45,000 trolley cars.

In December 1899, Albany Railway Company and Troy City Railway (of nearby Troy, N.Y.) consolidated, creating a new company named United Traction. The new company announced plans in January 1900 to buy 25 new open cars and 35 new box cars to place the Troy division in as good a condition as the Albany division. Repairmen in Troy would be getting improved shops like Albany Railway already enjoyed, with reading rooms and shower baths. To fund the improvements and pay off the Troy division's debts, President Pruyn and the Board of Directors announced plans to increase the company's capital stick from $4 million to $5 million.

By the early 1910s, all interurban trolleys in Albany started from the corner of Broadway and State St., three blocks south from the United Traction Company Building. United Traction Company ran trolleys to Troy, Watervliet, and Cohoes. The company's trolleys began to be replaced by buses by the late 1930s. The last of its electric trolleys was abandoned in 1946. United Traction Company left its corner office building (on the corner with Columbia St.) in 1950. Financial difficulties resulted in the company's lines being absorbed into the Capital District Transportation Authority.

The building on the corner with Columbia was vacant by the mid-1970s. Here's a fun fact on the building - although it looks rectangular, it is actually trapezoidal. The five front bays and the three side bays facing Columbia are fancier than the other side and rear (which don't border streets). The building is trimmed with cream-colored stone and terra cotta. Inscribed tablets on either side of the entryway now read "PIETER SCHUYLER BUILDING" or "GARRY and CAHILL ATTORNEYS AT LAW"; they used to read "UNITED TRACTION COMPANY." Pieter Schuyler (1657-1724) was Albany's first mayor. Oversized cartouches border the entrance and the first floor between the windows. Above the central entrance, in the slightly projecting bay, is a balcony flanked by Corinthian columns.

Albany Chamber of Commerce. Albany New York. Albany, NY. Brandow Printing Co., 1912.

Anonymous. "How the Cars Will Run." Argus (Albany) February 2nd, 1890. 10-10.

Anonymous. "An Albanian's Invention." Argus (Albany) July 2nd, 1890. Morning ed, 2-2.

Anonymous. "Trolleys of All Types." Argus (Albany) December 1st, 1895. 20-20.

Anonymous. "Obtaining Consents. Albany and Troy Railway Companies Securing Them." Argus (Albany) December 7th, 1899. 3-3.

Brown, T Robins. NRHP Nomination of United Traction Company Building, Albany, New York. National Register. Washington, DC. National Park Service, 1976.