100 years ago

Albany history for schools

Dr. C. Edward Jones, superintendent of public schools, said he will be directing an effort that will enlist the history teachers of Albany toward outlining a new syllabus in history for use in the Albany schools “which will deal more fully with the historical richness of the city.”

In a letter to teachers, Jones says, "throughout the country there is a growing interest in local history. Cities and other communities are becoming more anxious to show their part in the growth of this country.”

“Few cities are as rich as in historical significance; few have done as much in the fundamentals that make for patriotism as the City of Albany.”

The tentative outline will be covered in the seventh and eighth grades. Teachers will get the chance to weigh in on the ways to make the course an effective one.

A local historical organization has shown a great interest in the subject as well.

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The first phase of the Uncle Sam Mall in Troy will be built with a $7 million (about $217 million today), construction loan from the Lincoln First Real Estate Credit Corp. of White Plains, a subsidiary of the Lincoln First Banks, the Times Union learned. Roy Pollitt, senior vice president of Lincoln First, said his firm would lend 75 percent of the estimated $10 million cost of the first phase of the mall. It was slated to get under way next month, said Frank Yankowski, director of Troy Urban Renewal Agency, which had already purchased and demolished 75 properties in downtown in the area that was to be the mall. The agency’s task force will be handling much of the day-to-day detail of the mall project.

The projected date of its opening was Easter 1975.