The neighborhood has been home to the centers of power since it was established.
In 1809, 12 years after Albany was permanently designated New York's state capital at the end of the 18th century, the first state capitol building in the city was erected on a site adjacent to the location of the current building, in order to leave space for commercial development around the Hudson River waterfront.
The city government used the building as well for meetings and office space.
Philip Hooker's original Albany Academy building, the oldest extant building in the district, was built in 1815.

In the academy building, a dozen years later, one of the school's professors, Joseph Henry, conducted experiments with electricity that proved the existence of inductance and created the first functional electromagnet.
For several years in the early 1830s he demonstrated the practical effects of this discovery to his classes by using a magnet to ring a bell at the end of a wire run around the room.
Not only was this the prototype for the electric doorbell, it has been considered an important step on the road to the invention of the telegraph two decades later.

In 1832, the city decided it needed its own city hall, and Hooker provided a domed marble Greek Revival building on the present site, which had already been designated for future development as a public square.
The next year, the two acres (8,100 m²) on the east of the Academy building were formally laid out as Academy Park.
It was encircled by an iron fence similar to that which Hooker had designed for nearby Capitol Park.
Elk and Columbia streets were the center of development in the district during this era.
On the former, the houses closest to the park, Nos.
2 through 7, were built between 1827 and 1833, among them some considered Albany's finest Greek Revival houses.
Columbia Street, where Henry made his home at 107, was developed more modestly.

Because of its proximity to the capitol, Elk Street was often a preferred residence of the state's governors during this area, since New York did not erect its governor's mansion until later in the 19th century.
William L. Marcy lived at 2 Elk Street during his first term, and Hamilton Fish made 21 Elk his home after he was elected in 1848.
Daniel Barnard, a congressman and later ambassador to Germany, lived at 25 Elk Street and may have owned 1 Elk Street (since demolished).
Three governors—Enos T. Throop, Washington Hunt and Horatio Seymour—rented the building from him during their tenure in office.

Martin van Buren, a state senator and New York's Attorney General before he became President, owned 4 Elk Street and lived there for some of the time he was not serving in the latter post.
While he was, it was occupied by his son Smith Thompson and his wife, Ellen King James.
Among the visitors who came to the house in the later years was Ellen's young nephew Henry.
Later in his life, when he had become an accomplished novelist, he wrote that Elk Street had always seemed to him "vaguely portentous, as though beasts of the forests not fully exorcised."

The first of the large buildings, mostly governmental edifices, that dominate the district today, the New York State Court of Appeals Building, was completed in 1842 after eight years of construction.
Originally "State Hall", housing a number of other state offices in addition to the court, Henry Rector's neoclassical structure used all three orders in its design.
It was considered one of the finest government buildings of its era.
Three years later, 17 Elk Street, the grandest house yet built on that street, was built for John V. L. Pruyn, an industrialist who later served in the state senate and U.S. House.
It was expanded to the east in 1858.

After the Civil War, during which a temporary structure was set up in Academy Park as the Army Relief Bazaar to raise money for medical supplies, this change accelerated further with the beginning of construction on the new capitol.
Marcus T. Reynolds, an architect who worked in the city through the 1930s, was born at 98 Columbia Street in 1869 and lived
The neighborhood has been home to the centers of power since it was established. In 1809, 12 years after Albany was permanently designated New York's state capital at the end of the 18th century, the first state capitol building in the city was erected on a site adjacent to the location of the current building, in order to leave space for commercial development around the Hudson River waterfront. The city government used the building as well for meetings and office space. Philip Hooker's original Albany Academy building, the oldest extant building in the district, was built in 1815.
In the academy building, a dozen years later, one of the school's professors, Joseph Henry, conducted experiments with electricity that proved the existence of inductance and created the first functional electromagnet. For several years in the early 1830s he demonstrated the practical effects of this discovery to his classes by using a magnet to ring a bell at the end of a wire run around the room. Not only was this the prototype for the electric doorbell, it has been considered an important step on the road to the invention of the telegraph two decades later.
In 1832, the city decided it needed its own city hall, and Hooker provided a domed marble Greek Revival building on the present site, which had already been designated for future development as a public square. The next year, the two acres (8,100 m²) on the east of the Academy building were formally laid out as Academy Park. It was encircled by an iron fence similar to that which Hooker had designed for nearby Capitol Park. Elk and Columbia streets were the center of development in the district during this era. On the former, the houses closest to the park, Nos. 2 through 7, were built between 1827 and 1833, among them some considered Albany's finest Greek Revival houses. Columbia Street, where Henry made his home at 107, was developed more modestly.
Because of its proximity to the capitol, Elk Street was often a preferred residence of the state's governors during this area, since New York did not erect its governor's mansion until later in the 19th century. William L. Marcy lived at 2 Elk Street during his first term, and Hamilton Fish made 21 Elk his home after he was elected in 1848. Daniel Barnard, a congressman and later ambassador to Germany, lived at 25 Elk Street and may have owned 1 Elk Street (since demolished). Three governors—Enos T. Throop, Washington Hunt and Horatio Seymour—rented the building from him during their tenure in office.
Martin van Buren, a state senator and New York's Attorney General before he became President, owned 4 Elk Street and lived there for some of the time he was not serving in the latter post. While he was, it was occupied by his son Smith Thompson and his wife, Ellen King James. Among the visitors who came to the house in the later years was Ellen's young nephew Henry. Later in his life, when he had become an accomplished novelist, he wrote that Elk Street had always seemed to him "vaguely portentous, as though beasts of the forests not fully exorcised."
The first of the large buildings, mostly governmental edifices, that dominate the district today, the New York State Court of Appeals Building, was completed in 1842 after eight years of construction. Originally "State Hall", housing a number of other state offices in addition to the court, Henry Rector's neoclassical structure used all three orders in its design. It was considered one of the finest government buildings of its era. Three years later, 17 Elk Street, the grandest house yet built on that street, was built for John V. L. Pruyn, an industrialist who later served in the state senate and U.S. House. It was expanded to the east in 1858.
After the Civil War, during which a temporary structure was set up in Academy Park as the Army Relief Bazaar to raise money for medical supplies, this change accelerated further with the beginning of construction on the new capitol. Marcus T. Reynolds, an architect who worked in the city through the 1930s, was born at 98 Columbia Street in 1869 and lived 
Lafayette Park Historic District