Arbor Hill Historic District–Ten Broeck Triangle
During the Great Migration of the 1920s, many of the African Americans who came north to Albany from the Southern states settled in Arbor Hill, an area that had been one of the first where their predecessors had settled in the city It came to be regarded as more desirable among newcomers than their other destination, the South End. Residents of that neighborhood often moved to Arbor Hill after they had made some money. African Americans displaced by the construction of what is now the State Department of Education Building in 1912 also resettled in Arbor Hill. As early as 1922 many of the city's prominent African-American institutions and organizations, such as churches and social clubs, were located in Arbor Hill. This growth led to the name being applied to the larger area it presently refers to, extending north to the railroad tracks, west to Northern Boulevard (now Henry Johnson Boulevard) and south to Sheridan Avenue.
Arbor Hill Historic District–Ten Broeck Triangle
The northward expansion of the city envisioned by the elder van Rensselaer finally came to pass after 1825, when the Erie Canal was opened. Many new arrivals to the city, drawn by the canal and its economic opportunities, needed places to live and work. They looked north, along Broadway and North Pearl. Some found the mansion neighborhood and the blocks to its west to their liking, enough that city directories of the period show a few residents and businessmen listing "Arbor Hill" as their address. During the 1830s, they built some of the first houses in the district after the mansion. A few from this period, such as 10 Ten Broeck Place and 31 Second Street, survive. Similarly, the mixed-use Greek Revival buildings around the intersection of Second and South Swan were built in the early 1840s.