VINTAGE ALBANY-Historic Floods
Tweet Left: Two men attempt to rescue a cow during the flood of 1925; Right: Asa Tift July seventh will mark the eighteenth anniversary of Albany’s “flood of the century” when Tropical Storm Alberto stalled out over parts of Georgia, Alabama and Florida. Though Albany only received a total of 6.88 inches of rain [...]
Read More →VINTAGE ALBANY-A History Timeline Part Two
Tweet Actors Walter Brennan and Brandon De Wilde on the set of Goodbye My Lady taken in 1956. The film was made in the Albany area and was about a boy and his Basenji dog named Lady. NOTE: Much of the material for the following timeline came from History and Reminiscences of Dougherty County Georgia, [...]
Read More →VINTAGE ALBANY-Notable Albanians Part One
Tweet A lot of famous people were either born in Albany or lived here including the “three Rays” (Charles, Stevens and Knight). Albany has been home at one time or another to many actors/actresses, singers, artists, athletes and composers. Singer and composer Ray Charles (Robinson) was born in Albany in 1930, the family [...]
Read More →VINTAGE ALBANY: A History Timeline
Tweet Top: the Bridge House/Tift Hall after it became Keenan Auto, Bottom: Carnegie Library and the bridge that replaced the burned Horace King Bridge. 1841- Albany gets its first newspaper, The Southwest Georgian, later renamed The Courier. The paper went out of business in 1849. By 1845 Nelson Tift and a business partner had started the second [...]
Read More →VINTAGE ALBANY-AHS Football Champs of 1959
Tweet High school football was always a favorite in Albany. Perhaps one of the highlights of football here occurred with the Albany High Indians Football season of 1959. The team was coached by John Tillitski, Pat Field and Bob Fowler and Graham Lowe was also on the coaching staff. The team included many names well-known [...]
Read More →VINTAGE ALBANY: Currency
Tweet The top photo is of a $10 banknote issued by The City National Bank of Albany, Georgia in 1929. According to Vintage Albany Member, Alton Allen, one reason banks issued their own currency was because the US government wanted to track how and where money was being spent after the stock market crash of [...]
Read More →VINTAGE ALBANY- Baseball and Albany
Tweet The game of baseball became a craze in the US by the mid 1850’s when it was introduced in New York. Baseball has a long history with Albany as well. Going back at least to the 1870’s when Albany had the D. E. Smith ball club. One of Albany’s early baseball parks was [...]
Read More →VINTAGE ALBANY: J.D. Gortatowsky
Tweet Young Gorty in 1903, Center: the painting Fete Nocturne, Right: Ciro’s nightclub in NYC with Herman Hover Louella Parsons and J. D. Gortatowsky in 1955 Jacob Dewey Gortatowsky was born in Albany in 1885, the son of Prussian (Germany later Poland) immigrant Morris D. Gortatowsky and Mary Casper Gortatowsky of Griffin, Georgia, Morris [...]
Read More →VINTAGE ALBANY- Early Travel
Tweet Before Albany was founded, travel through the area was either by steamboat or by traveling the “Old Federal Road.” The Old Federal Road was made sometime before 1805 and was in use during the Creek Indian wars. The Cherokee gave free access to settlers to use the road through their territories. The [...]
Read More →VINTAGE ALBANY: AFD Chief D.W. Brosnan
Tweet AFD Chief D.W. “Bill” Brosnan circa 1920 or earlier According to the City of Albany’s own website, D. W. “Bill” Brosnan became Albany’s fire chief on November 11, 1911. He became the most famous fire chief in all of Albany’s history and held the position for forty years. Brosnan was well [...]
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