STUDIES ON MUSEUMS AND KINDKKD INSTITUTIONS. 8U7 



Albany is a hilly city. The hill on which the eapitol is situated 

 rises 150 feet above the Hudson, 51 feet al)ove the level of the wide 

 main street, which runs up from tiie river. The building is 300 feet 

 long, 400 feet wide, and 108 feet high, and will have a tower 800 

 feet higJi. (The Reichstag building in Berlin is 395 feet long, 254 feet 

 wide, awd 81 feet high.) The inner court is 92 feet long and 137 feet 

 wide. A straight staircase, witli four landings and seventy-seven 

 steps, the lower sixteen 100 feet wide, extends outward 16G feet from 

 the building. The whole occupies 3 acres. It is built of white granite 

 in the. free renaissance st^de with wonderful stone masonry.- The 

 three staircases are of reddish sandstone, the western being particu- 

 larly etiective. Eleven elevators render access easy from one part of 

 the l)uilding to another. The basement contains 144 rooms for heat- 

 ing, lighting, ventilating, storage, etc. The administrative rooms and 

 the governor's magnificent state hall are on the first and second floors. 

 These two floors combined include over 120 rooms. On the third 

 floor are the magnificent halls of the two houses, the court of ai)peals, 

 the historical collection, the lil)rary, together with over 50 rooms. 

 The fourth story contains over 40 rooms, among them the offices of 

 the university, the entomological, botanical, and ethnological collection 

 of the State museum (the latter with rich archeological finds from the 

 State of New York and its vicinity). There are also on the fourth 

 and fifth floors additional librar}' rooms. The building was begun in 

 1867, occupied in 18T9, and finished all to the central tower in 1898. 

 Its cost was originally estimated at $4,000,000, but over $25,000,000 

 have already been spent upon it. The architects were Fuller, Laver, 

 Eidlitz, Richardson, and Perry. 



The library, with its api)llances ])lanned and executed in the most 

 minute detail, some of them in beautiful and artistic st>de, is particu- 

 larly worth seeing. It is open daih^, except Sunday, from 8 in the 

 morning until 10 in the evening; lighted in the evening l\y electricity. 

 On Saturdax's. holidays, and from July to September, it closes at 6 p. m. 

 It is accessible only from the third story. Until recently the director 

 was also secretary of the university. He has under him 31 li])rarians, 

 archivists, assistant librarians, assistatits, etc.; 51 employees in all, and 

 among them 37 women. The annual ])udget amounts to$75,0(»0. The 

 west wing of the capitol may )>e said to form on the third story a 

 single roouj 290 feet long, 40 to 00 feet wide, the middle of which is 

 occupied ])y the great reading room, 53 feet high, 07 feet long, 40 feet 

 wide, wliich is cormected with fi\e additional reading rooms on the 

 right and five on the left, all occupied wit!) bookstacks, altogether 

 with more than 3oo seats. There are, moreover, two administrative 

 rooms. The reading rooms are in pai't adorned with palms and other 

 living plants. C>n the window side one may glance along the entire 

 suite of lune rooms, 290 feet long, which, together with the fine view 

 of the country and the distant mountains Avhich may be enjoyed from 



