The inspirational story of an African American community that migrated from the Deep South to Albany, New York, in the 1930s.

Albany, California--just 1.7 miles square--is one of the smallest cities in the San Francisco Bay Area. Located across the bay from the Golden Gate Bridge, Albany not only has its own captivating past, but it is also tightly linked to the fascinating regional history of the Bay Area: from notorious 19th-century powder company explosions to an early-1900s plague scare and a famous actor accused of murder. This colorful collection of historical vignettes reveals little-known details about Charles MacGregor, the man who built many Albany homes; the origins of the famous Solano Stroll street fair; and how extensive train systems once linked local residents to the rest of the Bay Area. Today, Albany is known as a family-oriented "Urban Village by the Bay." The stories of the city--many obscured by time--reflect its struggle to incorporate and the circuitous path leading to the modern, vibrant community of today.

The early Dutch settlers in Albany called the hills to the west "Hellebergh," or "Clear Mountain." Little did they know of the rugged terrain that lay above the Helderberg Escarpment or of the hardy men and women who would one day tame that wilderness. Faced with thin soil and a harsh climate, the resourceful people of the Helderbergs established four towns: Berne, Knox, Rensselaerville, and Westerlo. The Hilltown farmers declared their independence from the feudal landlord system during the renowned anti-rent wars of the mid-1800s. As the agrarian economy faded, the enterprising Hilltowners used local resources in new ways to earn their livelihood. Landowners capitalized on the natural beauty of the region to attract tourists. Knox's cottage industry of wooden pillbox production brought it fame as the "Pillbox Capital of the World." Rensselaerville's Huyck Preserve created opportunities for the long-term study of biological systems. Helderberg Hilltowns takes the reader back to 1880 through 1950, a time of one-room schoolhouses, church socials, barn raisings, haying with draft horses, bobsledding parties, family reunions, and rocking chairs on the veranda.

When you buy an old house, you get much more than a house. In all its quirks, its alterations, in fragments of memory and traces left behind, you get a bundle of small mysteries. Who used to live here? Why did they come here, and where did they go? Whose name is that written on the attic wall? When did that odd little bathroom get shoehorned in there, and what did the room look like before? If you're lucky, one or two of your house's mysteries might unfold into stories. Akum Norder was very lucky. The History of Here follows Albany, New York's, Pine Hills neighborhood through more than one hundred years of change. At its heart is the story of Norder's 1912 house and the people who built and lived in it. As Norder traced their histories, she came to see the development of her house, her street, and her neighborhood as a piece of Albany's story. In the lives of its residents, their struggles and triumphs, she saw a reflection of twentieth-century America. Drawing on interviews, city records, newspapers, out-of-print books, and other sources, Norder's narrative makes a case for city neighborhoods: their value, their preservation, and the grassroots involvement that turns a jumble of houses into a community. Funny and thought-provoking, readable and relevant, The History of Here celebrates the sense of place that fuels the new urbanism.