Albany County, New York
The city of Albany was the first municipality within this large county, founded as the village (dorp in Dutch) of Beverwyck by the Director-General of New Amsterdam, Pieter Stuyvesant, who also established the first court in Albany. Albany was established as a city in 1686 by Governor Dongan through the Dongan Charter after the English took over the colony. Schenectady to the west was given a patent with some municipal rights in 1684 and became a borough in 1765.
Broadway–Livingston Avenue Historic District
At the time of its founding in 1686, and throughout most of the 18th century, Albany was a small area coterminous with its present-day downtown, encircled by a stockade. Its charter extended its corporate limits a mile (1.6 km) north along the Hudson River from the stockade, to the vicinity of what is today Clinton Avenue. The land to the north was owned by the van Rensselaer family, the area's colonial "patroons" since it was settled by the Dutch.