The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Being from the Albany area, I've always been fascinated by the Indestructible Company and later the Federal Record Company. For literally 20 years, I tried to locate information about the factory. After discovering ads in the Talking Machine World and the fantastic book by Sutton and Nauck, I was able to pin down an address on Hamilton Street. With the advent of google maps and such, I figured out the general area of where the factory had stood, just a few hundred feet from the Telephone Company building I worked at on State Street. A high school acquaintance with access to Albany's two largest newspaper's archives came up dry in her search and I basically figured I'd hit a brick wall and forgot about it. Quite by accident yesterday, while looking for something else, I found two aerial photos from around 1910 of the area, including the Telephone building and the State Capital. I now had some perspective and studied both photos closely and something jumped right out at me. Hamilton Street ran parallel to State Street all the way down the hill at the time, just one street down. Going back to addresses on Hamilton Street that still exist, I conformed again that I wasn't imagining things and there it was...the Indestructible factory nestled in among a bunch of working class rowhouses! To further back up my theory, I located some later aerial views of the same area from the late 1940s, everything was still basically the same, but that particular building was now completely gone. I think I've solved a mystery that some of us have wondered about and to me, it's pretty exciting!

Sadly, this entire area was demolished to make way for the Empire State Plaza complex in the early 1960s. Urban removal at its best.

Sean

Sean,
Thank you for doing the research to find the location and the photographs of the Indestructible Record Co.factory. I occasionally go to Albany (just last week to the museum)and always wonder where it was. Also, do you know anything about the giant Nipper dog that I used to see on top of some building in the north part of Albany?
Dan Z.

I know all about the "Big Nipper", Dan! He sits atop the former RCA Distributing building on Broadway, he's still there!

To put into perspective re the Indestructible Factory, since you've been to the State museum, you're right near where that factory once stood!

Sean

OrthoSean wrote:I located some later aerial views ... but that particular building was now completely gone.

You mean that the Indestructible Factory was... Destroyed?

Sorry, I couldn't resist. Honestly, that's a very cool discovery.

Martin

martinola wrote:

OrthoSean wrote:I located some later aerial views ... but that particular building was now completely gone.

You mean that the Indestructible Factory was... Destroyed?

Sorry, I couldn't resist. Honestly, that's a very cool discovery.

Martin

Nothing like a little irony, eh ?

As I recall the plant burned in a rather spectacular conflagration in 1921, didn't it?

I'd expect some newspaper coverage. Wonder how much of the neighborhood went up with the plant.

Uncle Vanya wrote:As I recall the plant burned in a rather spectacular conflagration in 1921, didn't it?

I'd expect some newspaper coverage. Wonder how much of the neighborhood went up with the plant.

Since they were making celluloid cylinders (if they were in 1921) there must have been a lot of cellulose nitrate or other chemicals to feed the blaze.

One interesting fact about the factory and the fire. The building was shared with a small shoe factory, the fire started in the shoe part and spread. My Great-Grandfather was in his 3rd year as an Albany policeman when this happened and although he wasn't "at the scene" when it happened, which was at night, he and my Great-Grandmother lived in the South End, maybe a mile and a half away and I remember him telling me more than once how the sky was lit up from the explosions and subsequent blaze and how you could smell it very strongly. I can only imagine. He used to love to share stories about being a police officer in the 1920s and the things he witnessed, most of which weren't very pretty in one of the most politically corrupt cities at the time! He was such a cool guy and I'm glad he lived long enough to tell me about old Albany, nobody else in my family was ever interested.

Sean

Sean,
does the large building with turrets on top of the hill still exist or was that also re-developed?

Swing Band Heaven wrote:Sean,
does the large building with turrets on top of the hill still exist or was that also re-developed?

That is the New York State Capitol....still very much in use.