40 Men and Things in Albany Tioo Centuries Ago. 



1790, when a market-house was built in the centre of it 

 below Maiden lane. JSToticing trifles as we proceed, I will 

 mention that this market was removed to a vacant lot 

 behind the old Lutheran church, now forming the corner 

 of Howard and William streets, where it was long famous 

 as Cassidj's and Friedenreich's market, but more signifi- 

 cantly termed the Fly market, and still stands there, in 

 the guise of an oyster shop and a sample room — an insti- 

 tution unknown to the ouders under that name. 



We have now returned to one of the most notable locali- 

 ties of this notable city — the Dutch church. But before 

 entering its venerable porch, allow me to speak of its pre- 

 decessor, the first church of the colonists, built, we are 

 told, in the pine grove, somewhere in the neighborhood 

 of the present steam boat landing, in 1644. Being the first 

 church edifice erected in this region, it serves to mark 

 the progress of church architecture to mention that it was 

 provided with pews for the magistrates and deacons, and 

 nine benches for the congregation, at an expense of about 

 $88. Here Megapolensis was engaged in his ministrations 

 -when, in 1648, the grim Peter Stuyvesant came up from 

 Manhattan, and took possession of Fort Orange and all 

 that eligible ground, and four years later forced the inhabit- 

 ants that had settled around it to remove, and give scope 

 to the guns placed there to defend it. He also seized a 

 strip of the patroon's manor, one mile wide and fourteen 

 miles long, in the name of their high mightinesses, the 

 states general of Holland. This gives Albany its singular 

 appearance on the map, which so many have remarked 

 without being able to account for. It gave the govern- 

 ment a military road through the patroon's manor into 

 the vast country beyond. 



The people being forced away from Fort Orange, began 

 more actively to build on the higher ground at the corners 

 of State street and Broadway, and the new cluster of habi- 

 tations was called Beverwyck. The patroon had already 



