Bulldozing the Albany Pine Bush

They paved paradise and put up a parking lot,
With a pink hotel, a boutique,
And a swinging hot spot.
Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone?

They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.
They took all the trees and put them in a tree museum.
And they charged all the people
A dollar and a half just to see ’em.

Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone?
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.

1973 Crossgates Mall

1973 Crossgates Mall

By 1973 the area around the future Crossgates Mall was much more built up but still a fair amount of open space remained and the area of the mall was still fairly heavily forested.

Crossgates 1985

Crossgates 1985

Stage 1 of the Crossgates Mall was done and open in 1985. Within 10 years, they would propose a much larger mall. The hog farm on Rapp Road art this point had been abandoned, it was starting to revert back to woods.