And that's just the politicians. Iron magnates and railroad barons, quintessential American success stories and black sheep of illustrious families are buried here. Exultation and heartbreak are woven through the threads of heroic and tragic narratives that knit the disparate stories of those laid to rest in these rolling acres.

...

More than 135,000 documented burials have taken place over the past 172 years. The remains of thousands more Colonial-era residents of Albany - slaves and their wealthy owners, Dutch dowagers and risk-taking young colonists felled by disease - were dug up in 1868 from the State Street burial grounds along Washington Park in Albany and re-interred en masse on Albany Rural's northwestern edge. No map shows who went where.

Visitors to the cemetery can read a backstory in Victorian-era symbolism and carved iconography that is repeated across the sprawling grounds in a kind of cultural shorthand: a torch inverted for a life extinguished; oak leaves and an acorn for a person of old age; ivy for friendship and fidelity; and crossed swords for a life lost in battle.

It is a monumental mirror held up to the region's past, and sometimes the heavy weight of history is almost too much to bear. We can trace the ancient heartache of scores of infants and young mothers who died in childbirth in the 1800s. There are vestigial reminders of successive waves of long-conquered diseases such as typhoid, yellow fever, cholera and influenza that killed many Albany citizens.

The toll of the nation's wars are commemorated here, too, from the Revolutionary War to 1,030 Civil War soldiers and sailors buried at Albany Rural, as well as casualties of World War I and World War II.

Notes of triumph temper the sadness, too, with monuments that celebrate great industrialists, inventors, entrepreneurs, educators and other successful individuals.

The tumult of the human condition is carved in outsized funerary objects that bring to mind the tantalizing title of William Kennedy's narrative of the city's history: "O Albany! Improbable City of Political Wizards, Fearless Ethnics, Spectacular Aristocrats, Splendid Nobodies, and Underrated Scoundrels."

The landscape appealed to filmmaker Hector Babenco, who shot scenes of his vision of Kennedy's novel, "Ironweed," a redemption tale about Depression-era bums, in Albany Rural.

...

Nobody has dug more deeply into the lives of the people buried there than Peter Hess, former president of the cemetery board. He published three books of short biographies, wrote dozens of articles on the cemetery's people and history for its newsletter and led public tours for many years. "This area doesn't get the credit it deserves," Hess said. "Albany is the oldest continuously occupied settlement in the 13 colonies. The people buried here are absolutely amazing. They fought and won the Revolutionary War, drafted the Constitution, built major corporations and became leaders in industry. Albany Rural Cemetery is one of the most historic places in all of New York state and even the country. Unfortunately, it remains under-appreciated."

Slowly, dog walkers, joggers, history buffs, birdwatchers, photographers, out-of-town tourists and, of course, descendants of those buried have begun to reclaim Albany Rural as a peaceful locale of reflection and recreation.  

Please join the University Club Foundation in celebrating Albany's history at the 4th Annual Pinkster Celebration! 

Friday, June 6

6:00 - 8:00 p.m.

University Club of Albany's 

4th Annual Pinkster Celebration 

with journalist 

Paul Grondahl 

author of  

These Exalted Acres: Unlocking the Secrets of

Albany Rural Cemetery 

The Pinkster Celebration will feature a cocktail reception with light fare and cash bar from 6:00 - 7:00 p.m., followed by a presentation by Grondahl. Books will be available for purchase and signing. 

When the reception wraps up at 8:00 p.m., Pinkster revelers are invited to head downstairs for an after-party in the Grille Room with vocalist/guitarist Geo Doody, who serves up a versatile mix of classic rock, R&B, and Irish Pub standards. 

Tickets for the Pinkster Celebration are $30 per person or $50 per person for Honorary Committee. Reservations are required and may be made by calling the University Club at 518-463-1151 or by email.

This event is presented by the University Club of Albany Foundation, Inc., a 501c3 corporation, and one need not be a member of the University Club to attend.