The area of Downtown Schenectady was built shortly after a fire in 1819 destroyed 169 buildings in what is now the
Stockade neighborhood. The Stockade neighborhood was the original extent of settlement in Schenectady from the 17th century, and settlement had barely begun on the north side of State Street. Shortly after the fire however the
Erie Canal was being built a few hundred yards east of the city and therefore the commercial interests of Schenectady began to move east to what is now Downtown Schenectady, this left the Stockade to develop as a residential community separate from the business district. Downtown Schenectady includes
Union College, which is a private 4-year college established in 1795. In July 1806, the college determined to acquire a large tract of land to the east of the main settlement in Schenectady, on a gentle slope up from the Mohawk River and facing nearly due west. This tract was not promisingly described by college president
Eliphalet Nott some years later as “pasture grounds, scarred by deep ravines, rendered at once unsightly and difficult of access by an alternation of swamp and sand hill…”. Due to the fact that the Erie Canal from Schenectady to Albany was long compared to by land an alternative to the canal was proposed by
George Featherstonhaugh. With the support of the
Patroon of
Rensselaerswyck Stephen van Rensselaer the
Mohawk and Hudson Railroad was built. Opened for service in 1831 this was the first steam passenger locomotive running regularly scheduled service in the United States. The present railroad right-of-way from Hamburg Street to the present-day
Amtrak station opened in 1843.
Thomas Edison moved his Edison Machine Works to Schenectady in 1887, and in 1892 it became the headquarters of the
General Electric Company (GE). The location chosen was at the western end of Erie Boulevard at the edge of Downtown. The GE Plant along with
American Locomotive Company's (ALCO) plant (1848–1970) and headquarters (1901–1970) at the east end of downtown along the Mohawk River gave fuel to downtown's commercial activities as thousands of workers at the two plants would patronize the establishments along State Street and Erie Boulevard. ALCO was a pioneer in many different industrial fields, beginning with steam locomotion and progressing through electric and
diesel-electric. From ALCO's plant several historic products came from Downtown Schenectady including the first diesel-electric locomotive in 1924 (also- 1929 first of that type for passenger use), the largest locomotive at the time in the world in 1941, M-36 tanks and all 3,314 M-7s built, 1,000 of which were present at
El Alamein during
World War II, and boilers and turret rollers for the
US Navy, including those on the
USS Missouri. In the late 1940s roughly 80% of all diesel-electric locomotives in service in the US were built at ALCO's Schenectady plant. It was thanks to these industries at opposite edges of Downtown that Schenectady earned the nickname
"The City that Lights and Hauls the World". Another failed attempt at
urban renewal was the $11 million Canal Square shopping plaza next to Proctor's Theatre in the 1980s. This was praised by then-
President of the United States Ronald Reagan as an example of the good that could be done by the smart use of urban renewal money. The shopping plaza, however, failed due to suburban competition. Another proposal that never got off the ground was to level Proctor's for a shopping mall. In the 1980s, thousands of GE jobs were downsized in Schenectady, and when GE moved the headquarters for its Power Systems division with the hundreds of high paying white-collar jobs with it to
Atlanta, Georgia, Schenectady County took action with the creation of the Metroplex Development Authority. Originally envisioned as a way to fund a
convention center, it developed into a mechanism for funding private projects through grants and low-interest loans. Created in 1998 one of the earliest large-scale projects funded by Metroplex was the headquarters for MVP Health Plan, a seven-story building in 2001, Metroplex paid for the adjacent $11 million parking garage. Metroplex was also involved in giving a $1 million loan that renovated 411 State Street originally intended to lure the Big House
brew pub from near-by Albany, when that fell through however
Paul Mitchell took over the loan payments and a Paul Mitchell retail store and training school took the space; and a $250,000 grant and $400,000 loan to John D. Marcella Appliances for a $2.4 million retail store and distribution center on Broadway. branch, Parker Inn (a
boutique hotel), and renovated
Proctor's Theatre The renovation and expansion of
Proctor's Theatre in 2007 has been seen as the catalyst for the revival and renewed interest in Schenectady's downtown. The renovation cost $30 million and involved building two new theaters including an
Iwerks screen, an expanded backstage area that allowed it to attract larger
Broadway plays, and a power plant to produce electricity, heat, and air conditioning to the theater and sells excess to the surrounding properties. Prior to the renovation Proctor's had an annual attendance of 150,000 in 2004, five years later Proctor's attendance was 500,000 in 2009. The aging city-owned Center City Sportsplex was completely rebuilt as a new
YMCA branch along with office space and a bank branch in 2010. Also in 2010 the State Employee Federal Credit Union's (SEFCU) commercial lending, business banking, and insurance operations moved to Downtown Schenectady into a new building, Clinton Square which was renamed SEFCU Square. The block the new building occupies was once home to several pizza parlors and had earned the nickname of
Pizza Block. The redevelopment has led to a better business environment and a better image of the downtown by residents throughout the county with 80% of county residents reporting they visit Downtown and 82% saying they have an improved view of Downtown according to a
Siena Research Institute survey commissioned by Metroplex in 2008. On January 8, 2007, however,
U.S. News & World Report published an article in which the author discussed the city's industrial past, as home to General Electric and the American Locomotive Company, and then the city's steady loss of thousands of GE jobs and the closure of the locomotive plant in the late 1960s as emblematic of
Upstate New York's urban decline. Schenectady Mayor
Brian Stratton responded in a letter to US News that was published in the January 29 – February 6 edition citing that the article failed to note the $150 million invested in downtown over the previous three years, including the new movie theater, hotel, restaurants, offices, and Proctor's expansion. Redevelopment of Downtown Schenectady continues, especially along State Street near Proctor's Theatre, with the Metroplex Development Authority's purchase of the
Foster Building at 508 State Street along with the neighboring parcels of 510 and 512 State Street and 204 Lafayette Street. The Foster Building is a former hotel on the
National Register of Historic Places. ==Demographics==