"A Street With a Past:" Images of Broadway

Aerial view showing a portion of Broadway near the railroad tracks. The large white building was the Schenectady Paint and Varnish Company. Image from Grems-Doolittle library Photograph Collection. 

Present-day Broadway begins just north of Union Street and extends to the Five Corners intersection in the town of Rotterdam. The street was originally known as Maiden Lane, before being renamed Centre/Center Street during the 1850s and finally named Broadway. In 1930, the different parts of Broadway were known by three different names: it was North Center Street from the short stretch of road between Warren Street and Pine Street down to Union Street, South Center Street from south of Union Street to State Street, and Broadway south of State Street. Industries lined up along Broadway, as did businesses and residences.

1914 image of Broadway looking north from the corner of Edison Avenue. Image from Grems-Doolittle Library Photograph Collection. 

The Broadway streetcar, 1903. Image from Grems-Doolittle Library Photograph Collection. 

European settlers lived along what is now Broadway during the community's earliest settlement; some of the people killed in the Schenectady Massacre of 1690 lived near the intersection of present-day Broadway and State Street. By the mid-nineteenth century, Broadway both north and south of State Street served as a busy commercial district as well as a residential area, and activity intensified as Schenectady's downtown developed through the turn of the 20th century as the General Electric Company drew thousands of people to Schenectady. Through the early decades of the 20th century, immigrants from Lithuania, Poland, Russia, and Italy as well as African-Americans coming to Schenectady from the southern states settled along Broadway near the G.E. plant. Past the railroad underpass, the community of Bellevue developed. Included here are just a few images from days gone by from Broadway, particularly south of State Street.

This 1956 photograph of Broadway between Millard and Hamilton Streets shows buildings that were demolished as part of an urban renewal project in the late 1950s. The second building from the right was Detroy's Chicken Shack, a former jazz landmark. Image from Grems-Doolittle Library Photograph Collection. 

The illuminated window display at Star Furniture, 115 South Centre Street, in 1933. Image from Grems-Doolittle Library Photograph Collection. 

Broadway looking south at Campbell Avenue in Bellevue. Image from Grems-Doolittle Library Photograph Collection. 

1895 image of businesses at 334 South Centre Street. Image from Grems-Doolittle Library Photograph Collection. 

Broadway just south of State Street, looking south. This photograph was taken in 1966. Image from Grems-Doolittle Library Photograph Collection. 

Undated photograph of the public market bounded by Broadway, Hamilton Street, and Van Guysling Avenue. The public market space was established in the mid-1910s. The large white building at left is the Schenectady County Coal Company. Image from Grems-Doolittle Library Photograph Collection. 

Blacksmith shop of Julius Zemke at 402 Broadway in 1918. Image from Grems-Doolittle Library Photograph Collection.