Schenectady

Once known as “the city that lights the world,” Schenectady enjoys a long history of industrialization dating to when Thomas Edison moved his Edison Machine Works here in 1887. Today that company is known as General Electric (GE) and Schenectady is the world headquarters for it. Union College, founded in 1795, features Jackson’s Garden, eight acres of spectacular gardens and woodlands. Central Park contains miles of hiking and walking trails, Iroquois Lake — a prime fishing spot — and the award-winning Rose Garden with three hundred varieties of roses. Admire Queen Anne, Tudor and Spanish Colonial architecture on a walking tour of the ...

Once known as “the city that lights the world,” Schenectady enjoys a long history of industrialization dating to when Thomas Edison moved his Edison Machine Works here in 1887. Today that company is known as General Electric (GE) and Schenectady is the world headquarters for it. Union College, founded in 1795, features Jackson’s Garden, eight acres of spectacular gardens and woodlands. Central Park contains miles of hiking and walking trails, Iroquois Lake — a prime fishing spot — and the award-winning Rose Garden with three hundred varieties of roses. Admire Queen Anne, Tudor and Spanish Colonial architecture on a walking tour of the General Electric Realty Plot, a park-like neighborhood of houses designed for General Electric executives in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Golf has been big here since 1935 when renowned golf course designer A.F. Knight designed the Municipal Golf Course, which is ranked by Golf Digest as one of the best places to play in the U.S. Take in a performance by the Schenectady Symphony a concert or play at Proctors Theater, a restored vaudeville theater.

About the Expert

Frances Folsom is the author of CitySpot Palermo, a contributor to the Reiskits guides to Milan and Italy's Lakes Region, and Thomas Cook's Independent Traveller USA.