Albany Trolley Pole Project

The electric streetcar system of Albany for over half a century carried citizens to work, school, church and home, beginning in 1890 and ending its duties on August 31, 1946. The electric streetcars were scrapped, its tracks were paved over and its overhead electric wires were taken down. The only visible reminders of the streetcar systems infrastructure have been an iron lattice-type girder pole on Hamilton St., which was preserved by a small group of citizens in 1990 (restored pole shown in photo above), and a second pole of the same type on Quail St., which was removed because of an Albany Water Department sewer infrastructure project during 2016. Fortunately, the Water Department placed the pole in safe storage and agreed to reinstall it if a citizens' group first restored the pole. This project is being carried out with the cooperation of Albany City Historian Tony Opalka and the City of Albany Water Department.

Estimated restoration costs are about $2,000. Funds are needed by July 30th. Any donations received above and beyond the $2,000 restoration costs will be used for interpretive signage and educational materials.

We have an oppoirtunity for a small grant to help with the expenses of this project, but we have no organization to sponsor the grant application. If you know of an organization which would be willing to do this, please let us know.

Here is your chance to help preserve a small piece of Albany transportation history. No donation is too small or too large. All donations are appreciated!

Since we have nearly reached our original $2,000 goal ($2,000 minus 8.5 percent in fees to GoFundMe), we'd like to try to raise just a little bit more money to pay for interpretive signage. Therefore, we raised our goal to $2,500. We hope you can help us reach our new goal.

(This is not a political project. Any donations citing political candidates will be returned.)