Troy sits on the eastern bank of the Hudson River, about ten miles north of Albany, wearing its 19th-century industrial wealth on its sleeve. In the decades before the Civil War, the city rivaled Pittsburgh as an iron-manufacturing centre — its foundries produced stoves, bells, and the iron components that held together much of industrial America. That money built a remarkable downtown: blocks of Italianate brownstones, cast-iron storefronts, and grand civic halls that still stand largely intact, giving the place an architectural density unusual for a city of its size.
Troy also has a legitimate claim to one of America's most enduring symbols. Samuel Wilson, a local meat packer who supplied barrels of beef to the US Army during the War of 1812, was nicknamed "Uncle Sam" by workers who stamped his barrels with US — and the caricature of the tall, top-hatted patriot grew from there. The city doesn't let you forget it.
The most celebrated building in town is the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, a Victorian concert hall above the bank's main floor, with acoustics that serious musicians have rated among the finest anywhere in the world. Leonard Bernstein performed here; so did Yo-Yo Ma. The hall still hosts a full concert season.
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, founded in 1824 and the oldest technological university in the English-speaking world, occupies a hillside campus above downtown. It gives Troy a student population that sustains a bar scene and restaurant culture noticeably livelier than you'd expect from a small post-industrial city. The Saturday farmers' market at the Monument Square area is a fixture, and River Street — along the Hudson — has been steadily reviving with independent restaurants and shops. Troy is an easy day trip from Albany or the Berkshires, and a genuinely good stop on its own terms.