In 1923, the city of Albany almost became the home to the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Museum. You’d be forgiven if you didn’t recognize the name, though surely you’d recognize the museum.
All that was needed was a spot in Albany for it to be built. That site was the former home to Landslide Park, and the current home of a parking lot.
But it wasn’t long before New York City made its own push, proposing a pairing with the American Museum of Natural History, while Albany was planning to use it as a new New York State Museum.
One plan showed an entire portion of Washington Avenue being branded as Museum Row. That plan included the Education Building and the Albany Institute of Art and History as the bookends.
It became a classic upstate-downstate fight, but the Big Apple’s push was eventually too strong. About 30 years later, a parking lot was built, leaving Albany with a crummy consolation prize.
