The Brewery Map
Where Albany made its beer, from the Dutch fort on the river to today's taprooms. Slide through the years to watch breweries open and close.
Try this
Choose 1892 · Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from the overlay menu and zoom in close on Ferry Street, the South End or Broadway & 4th Avenue. The brewery names on the old fire maps are readable right under the pins. Then slide the fade control to watch the old city dissolve into today's.
How accurate are these pins?
About half the pins are now geocoded from modern addresses or read off the 1892 Sanborn fire maps, which have been georeferenced and line up with today's streets to within about 10–20 meters. Solid1 Sites west of Swan Street were placed from the 1908–09 Sanborn sheets at the Library of Congress. Approximate2 Each popup says whether its pin is geocoded or approximate. Dutch-era sites are placed from 17th-century deeds and maps, so treat them as approximate. Some old overlays are only roughly aligned: the 1828 map is about 50–100 meters off at the waterfront. Opening and closing years on the slider are rounded for display.
Sources for this page
- Map Warper: Albany layers mapwarper.net
- Sanborn Map of Albany, 1909 (Library of Congress) www.loc.gov