Van Rensselaer Island
Encyclopedia
Van Rensselaer Island was an island in the Hudson River
opposite the city of Albany
, New York
. Today it is within the city of Rensselaer
in Rensselaer County, and has been connected to the mainland on the east side and parts of the island's west side has been dredged away. The island has also been known as de Laet's Island, Kalebacker's Island, Boston Island and B&A Island, the last two names in reference to the Boston and Albany Railroad
. The island stretched from Mill Creek north to the Livingston Avenue Bridge
.
Van Rensselaer Island was also a name given to Westerlo Island in Albany, today the Port of Albany-Rensselaer
.
saw it when he was at the present-day site of Albany. The name Kalebacker's Island may be related to the Dutch term "kale backer", translated into English it means down-and-outer, or mean fellow; the term Kalebacker was the term used by the Dutch for Native Americans
who possessed guns, and were regarded as troublesome and war-like. There was a settlement of Native Americans who moved to the island after the Dutch established Fort Orange
across the Hudson from the island, they apparently moved there in order to trade with the Dutch, they had a fort, village, and crop fields. The site is listed in the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation
archaeological files, but not within the New York State Museum
site files. The name De Laets Eylandt (de Laet's Island in English) was in honor of Joannes de Laet
, given in the 1630s by Kiliaen van Rensselaer, the first Patroon
of the Rensselaerswyck, a feudal estate encompassing Albany
and Rensselaer
counties. On May 1, 1658 Jan Baptist van Rensselaer
, the director of the patroonship leased to Arent Adriessen all the tilled land on the island, which was referred to as "the island opposite the center of the village of Beverwyck
". The lease was set for four years.
In the 1800s the island became the site of the Boston and Albany Railroad
's (B&A) passenger depot, shops, freight houses, round house, and coach yard. The island was the site of transfers between trains of the New York Central and the B&A. The island became known as the Boston and Albany Island, or just Boston Island. A ferry
transported people to and from the island and downtown Albany
at Maiden Lane. The railroad changed the shoreline of the island by building docks for receiving coal and grain and by dredging an east-west channel splitting the island in half. In 1871 the Maiden Lane Bridge was built replacing the ferry. When the NY Central and the B&A merged in 1900 the island's activities became less important, though a new round house and coach yard was built even as many buildings were demolished. In 1903 the channel that separated the island from the mainland was filled in with sand dredged from the bottom of the Hudson River. Also in 1903 the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad purchased outright the island from the van Rensselaer family for $6,000.
The Maiden Lane Bridge and all the railroad associated buildings were demolished when in 1969 the Rensselaer City School District's school campus was built on the portion of the island north of Quackenderry Creek. Two years earlier the Rensselaer side approach and exit ramps for the Dunn Memorial Bridge
were built on the southern part of the island, just north of Mill Creek. The site of the Rensselaer City School campus is slated to be redeveloped as a mixed-use waterfront community, the developers (U.W. Marx Construction) gave the school land that had recently been annexed from a neighboring town
, now in the northern section of the city, and built a new school campus. The redevelopment of 24 acres (9.7 ha) of the island is named de Laet's Landing in honor of Johan de Laet and the original name of the island. De Laet's Landing is a 1500000 square feet (139,354.6 m²) project estimated at costing about $300 million, and could take 10–15 years to build to completion. The project would include offices, retail, restaurants, apartments, a promenade along the Hudson, and a marina carved from the waterfront; it is modeled on Baltimore's Inner Harbor. The project was dealt a setback in late 2009 when the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
declared that the project's marina would need to be reworked so as not to disturb he water celery along the shoreline, which is important for keeping the water clean and provides habitat for fish, it is rare along that stretch of the Hudson due to dredging of the shipping channel. This set-back, however, has not stopped the project; de Laet's Landing has been approved for a $1.4 million grant by the Empire State Development Corporation
and the company plans on breaking ground sometime in the later half of 2010.
, with soil consisting of loamy and sandy udorthents
dredged from the bottom of the Hudson River. During the 17th century the island probably had an elevation of about 10 feet (3 m) or less above the river, today it is about 25 feet. Mill Creek enters the Hudson River at the southern end of the island. In the past the Quackenderry Creek emptied into the Hudson at the channel between the island and the mainland, today the creek continues through the area.
Hudson River
The Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...
opposite the city of Albany
Albany, New York
Albany is the capital city of the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Albany County, and the central city of New York's Capital District. Roughly north of New York City, Albany sits on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. Today it is within the city of Rensselaer
Rensselaer, New York
Rensselaer is a city in Rensselaer County, New York, United States, and is located on the Hudson River directly opposite Albany. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 9,392; in 1920, it was 10,832. The name is from Kiliaen van Rensselaer, the original landowner of the region in New...
in Rensselaer County, and has been connected to the mainland on the east side and parts of the island's west side has been dredged away. The island has also been known as de Laet's Island, Kalebacker's Island, Boston Island and B&A Island, the last two names in reference to the Boston and Albany Railroad
Boston and Albany Railroad
The Boston and Albany Railroad was a railroad connecting Boston, Massachusetts to Albany, New York, later becoming part of the New York Central Railroad system, Conrail and CSX. The line is used by CSX for freight...
. The island stretched from Mill Creek north to the Livingston Avenue Bridge
Livingston Avenue Bridge
The Livingston Avenue Bridge is a railroad bridge over the Hudson River in New York connecting Albany and Rensselaer. The original structure was built in 1866 by the Hudson River Bridge Company but was replaced in 1901. A rotating swing bridge, it still operates to allow large ships to proceed up...
.
Van Rensselaer Island was also a name given to Westerlo Island in Albany, today the Port of Albany-Rensselaer
Port of Albany-Rensselaer
The Port of Albany–Rensselaer, widely known as the Port of Albany, is a port of entry in the United States with facilities on both sides of the Hudson River in Albany and Rensselaer, New York. Private and public port facilities have existed in both cities since the 17th century, with an increas in...
.
History
The island went through many name changes in the 400 years since Henry HudsonHenry Hudson
Henry Hudson was an English sea explorer and navigator in the early 17th century. Hudson made two attempts on behalf of English merchants to find a prospective Northeast Passage to Cathay via a route above the Arctic Circle...
saw it when he was at the present-day site of Albany. The name Kalebacker's Island may be related to the Dutch term "kale backer", translated into English it means down-and-outer, or mean fellow; the term Kalebacker was the term used by the Dutch for Native Americans
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
who possessed guns, and were regarded as troublesome and war-like. There was a settlement of Native Americans who moved to the island after the Dutch established Fort Orange
Fort Orange
Fort Orange was the first permanent Dutch settlement in New Netherland and was on the site of the present-day city of Albany, New York. It was a replacement for Fort Nassau, which had been built on nearby Castle Island in the Hudson River, and which served as a trading post until 1617 or 1618,...
across the Hudson from the island, they apparently moved there in order to trade with the Dutch, they had a fort, village, and crop fields. The site is listed in the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation
New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation
The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation operates :*168 state parks*35 state historic sites*76 developed beaches*53 water recreational facilities*27 golf courses*39 full service cottages*818 cabins...
archaeological files, but not within the New York State Museum
New York State Museum
The New York State Museum is a research-backed institution in Albany, New York, United States. It is located on Madison Avenue, attached to the south side of the Empire State Plaza, facing onto the plaza and towards the New York State Capitol...
site files. The name De Laets Eylandt (de Laet's Island in English) was in honor of Joannes de Laet
Joannes de Laet
Joannes or Johannes de Laet was a Dutch geographer and director of the Dutch West India Company. Philip Burden called his History of the New World, "...arguably the finest description of the Americas published in the seventeenth century" and "...one of the foundation maps of Canada"...
, given in the 1630s by Kiliaen van Rensselaer, the first Patroon
Patroon
In the United States, a patroon was a landholder with manorial rights to large tracts of land in the 17th century Dutch colony of New Netherland in North America...
of the Rensselaerswyck, a feudal estate encompassing Albany
Albany County, New York
Albany County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York, and is part of the Albany-Schenectady-Troy Metropolitan Statistical Area. The name is from the title of the Duke of York and Albany, who became James II of England . As of the 2010 census, the population was 304,204...
and Rensselaer
Rensselaer County, New York
Rensselaer County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2010 census, the population was 159,429. Its name is in honor of the family of Kiliaen van Rensselaer, the original Dutch owner of the land in the area. Its county seat is Troy...
counties. On May 1, 1658 Jan Baptist van Rensselaer
Jan Baptist van Rensselaer
Jan Baptist van Rensselaer was the second son of Kiliaen van Rensselaer, and his first son by his second wife, Anna van Wely. He was the third patroon of the Manor of Rensselaerswyck and the first to visit the colony in 1651, accompanied by his brother, Jeremias. He assumed the office of director...
, the director of the patroonship leased to Arent Adriessen all the tilled land on the island, which was referred to as "the island opposite the center of the village of Beverwyck
Beverwyck
Beverwijck was a fur-trading community north of Fort Orange on the Hudson River in New Netherland that was to become Albany, New York, when the English took control of the colony in 1664....
". The lease was set for four years.
Boston and Albany Railroad
The Boston and Albany Railroad was a railroad connecting Boston, Massachusetts to Albany, New York, later becoming part of the New York Central Railroad system, Conrail and CSX. The line is used by CSX for freight...
's (B&A) passenger depot, shops, freight houses, round house, and coach yard. The island was the site of transfers between trains of the New York Central and the B&A. The island became known as the Boston and Albany Island, or just Boston Island. A ferry
Ferry
A ferry is a form of transportation, usually a boat, but sometimes a ship, used to carry primarily passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo as well, across a body of water. Most ferries operate on regular, frequent, return services...
transported people to and from the island and downtown Albany
Downtown Albany Historic District
The Downtown Albany Historic District is a 19-block, area of Albany, New York, United States, centered around the junction of State and North and South Pearl streets . It is the oldest settled area of the city, originally planned and settled in the 17th century, and the nucleus of its later...
at Maiden Lane. The railroad changed the shoreline of the island by building docks for receiving coal and grain and by dredging an east-west channel splitting the island in half. In 1871 the Maiden Lane Bridge was built replacing the ferry. When the NY Central and the B&A merged in 1900 the island's activities became less important, though a new round house and coach yard was built even as many buildings were demolished. In 1903 the channel that separated the island from the mainland was filled in with sand dredged from the bottom of the Hudson River. Also in 1903 the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad purchased outright the island from the van Rensselaer family for $6,000.
The Maiden Lane Bridge and all the railroad associated buildings were demolished when in 1969 the Rensselaer City School District's school campus was built on the portion of the island north of Quackenderry Creek. Two years earlier the Rensselaer side approach and exit ramps for the Dunn Memorial Bridge
Dunn Memorial Bridge
The Dunn Memorial Bridge, officially known as the Private Parker F. Dunn Memorial Bridge, carries US 9 and US 20 across the Hudson River between Albany, New York and Rensselaer, New York. Completed in 1967 to replace an earlier span bearing the same name, the highway bridge has a steel girder...
were built on the southern part of the island, just north of Mill Creek. The site of the Rensselaer City School campus is slated to be redeveloped as a mixed-use waterfront community, the developers (U.W. Marx Construction) gave the school land that had recently been annexed from a neighboring town
North Greenbush, New York
North Greenbush is a town in Rensselaer County, New York, United States. North Greenbush is located in the western part of the county. The population was 10,805 at the 2000 census....
, now in the northern section of the city, and built a new school campus. The redevelopment of 24 acres (9.7 ha) of the island is named de Laet's Landing in honor of Johan de Laet and the original name of the island. De Laet's Landing is a 1500000 square feet (139,354.6 m²) project estimated at costing about $300 million, and could take 10–15 years to build to completion. The project would include offices, retail, restaurants, apartments, a promenade along the Hudson, and a marina carved from the waterfront; it is modeled on Baltimore's Inner Harbor. The project was dealt a setback in late 2009 when the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation is responsible for the conservation, improvement, and protection of natural resources within the U.S. state of New York. It was founded in 1970, replacing the previous Conservation Department...
declared that the project's marina would need to be reworked so as not to disturb he water celery along the shoreline, which is important for keeping the water clean and provides habitat for fish, it is rare along that stretch of the Hudson due to dredging of the shipping channel. This set-back, however, has not stopped the project; de Laet's Landing has been approved for a $1.4 million grant by the Empire State Development Corporation
Empire State Development Corporation
The Urban Development Corporation, doing business as Empire State Development Corporation is a public authority of the state of New York in the United States that has financed and operated several ambitious state projects by issuing tax exempt bonds....
and the company plans on breaking ground sometime in the later half of 2010.
Geology
Today the island is no longer an island as the channel to the east has been filled. The area consists of Middle Ordovician bedrock made of Normanskill shaleShale
Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock composed of mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals and tiny fragments of other minerals, especially quartz and calcite. The ratio of clay to other minerals is variable. Shale is characterized by breaks along thin laminae or parallel layering...
, with soil consisting of loamy and sandy udorthents
Fill dirt
Fill dirt is earthy material which is used to fill in a depression or hole in the ground or create mounds or otherwise artificially change the grade or elevation of real property....
dredged from the bottom of the Hudson River. During the 17th century the island probably had an elevation of about 10 feet (3 m) or less above the river, today it is about 25 feet. Mill Creek enters the Hudson River at the southern end of the island. In the past the Quackenderry Creek emptied into the Hudson at the channel between the island and the mainland, today the creek continues through the area.
External links
- de Laet's Landing website for the new mixed-use development slated for the island.