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The Women's Building Herstory
Building Women’s Community: A Herstory  It all began in the decade of bell-bottom pants and antiwar demonstrations – wait a minute, that sounds like today. Well, it was actually more than 30 years ago when interest in establishing a women’s space in the Capital Region began to gel.  For a brief time in 1971, a women’s space was located at 184 Washington Avenue in Albany, New York, but for most of the early ‘70s women met in each other’s homes and formed consciousness-raising groups.

Women began to discuss ideas for a women’s center, which would alleviate the pressures of finding available homes and would free women from having to host a meeting. A women’s center would also create a larger sense of community and bring more women to the meetings.  In 1974 a group called Priorities for Women was founded and became located at 128 Lancaster Street in Albany.

Within a few months the organization became known as Tri-City Women’s Center. Unfortunately, the local neighborhood association objected to a non-residential building in its midst, and the center closed.  The search for a new, permanent women’s space began in earnest. Along the way, some tempting offers were made, and passed on. The City of Albany offered a building, but it needed too much renovation. The local Unitarian Church offered a space, but it lacked privacy. Meeting space at the Capital District Psychiatric Center was also considered by the women, but then ultimately rejected.

By the end of 1974 the group found a meeting space in the basement of the YWCA, which was located on Lodge Street at the time. Exposed water pipes were painted bright colors, and other improvements made the space a cheerful one for women to gather.  Operating in the basement space, Tri-City Women’s Center purchased an answering machine, created a full staff of volunteers, and soon began to function as a clearinghouse for information on events and services for women in the Capital District.

A coffeehouse was also run and operated by the women of the center, providing a stage for many up-and-coming feminist performers. Women audiences were happy to support the feminist poets and singers who performed at the center and who articulated in song or prose the energy, vision, and spirit of the women’s movement. The coffeehouse was also a place where women could find out about programs and services at the center and provided a way to make friends.  

In 1977 the YWCA closed on Lodge Street and re-opened in a smaller facility. Tri-City Women’s Center moved to 132 Central Avenue in Albany, where the center operated through 1979. While the coffeehouse continued, new resources for women were created such as a resource library. That library, with newer books and videos, exists today at the Women’s Building.

The lease expired later that year, and the center moved yet again, this time to Lark Street and later to 196 Morton Avenue. While at this location, a small group of women took up the challenge of organizing regular activities at the center such as dances and feminist performances. The center was still a clearinghouse of information for women, and the first issue of Women Centered News was issued.


From There to Here: Herstory Part 2
In 1982 the women’s community still, operating and utilizing the center, received a much-needed boost in their efforts to secure funding when Holding Our Own was formed with a substantial sum of money donated by a local feminist who prefers to not have her name be widely known.

Holding Our Own issued a grant to fund a group that would raise money and search for a building that would be owned and operated by women as a central meeting space.  Tri-City Women’s Center relinquished its incorporated status to this group, so that the group could petition for a name change in New York State to become the Women’s Building Project.

As news spread throughout the area that a permanent space for women was on the horizon, more women joined the group.   In 1984, a community meeting resulted in the formation of several committees, such as programming and finance, staffed by new volunteers. Women’s Building Project’s first office was in the basement of the Friends’ Meeting House on Madison Avenue in Albany. When that space proved to be too small, a storefront on Lower Madison Avenue was rented as a meeting and office space.

This was the first year that membership dues were paid by women interested in helping to defray the expenses incurred by the daily operation of the Women’s Building Project. Women also raised money through a series of brunches.  Three large conferences were held in Albany in 1985-86: Celebrating Motherhood; The Law and Women’s Choices; and Whole and Well: Women Creating Health Care Alternatives.

During the time that these conferences were organized, a “building search committee” was looking into possible sites for a women’s building. The biggest obstacle was cost, and with the rising property prices in Albany at the time it seemed that the reality of owning a space was a long way off. 

In 1987, Holding Our Own, the group that was launched by the generous donation of a local feminist, agreed to provide the capital for a down payment on a building. The deal was struck with the Women’s Building Project agreeing to make the mortgage payments and raise the money needed for renovations to the building.

The location chosen was 79 Central Avenue in Downtown Albany. The site was on a bus line, and was located in a racially and culturally diverse area. The first floor of the facility was also accessible to persons in wheel chairs.  The name of the organization was changed in October 1987 to Women’s Building. The facility was transformed from a dark, empty warehouse into an office building and community center, and in 1989 a grand opening unveiled the new facility.

Today, offices are rented at low cost to organizations that provide services to women and/or that deal with women’s issues. Our community center provides meeting space for several support programs and social gatherings for women. The Women’s Building organization also provides advocacy and referral services to women and coordinates programs and services to target a wide range of needs in many women’s communities in the Capital Region.