Lost City: Albany Edition: Lodge's

B. Lodge & Co., a old-style department store, calls itself the oldest business in Albany. As with most of these sort of ancient department stores, the interior is no great shakes. Ugly, in fact, with racks and racks of modest goods. But the exterior is a dream. And there's no mistaking it's called Lodge's, is there?

It was founded in the 1860s and run by the the founding family for nearly 100 years. The next owners bought the business in 1960 and ran the store for 37 years. After that, an employee, Jack Yonally, took over. He's still there. He smartly bought the building, renovated it, created a couple apartments upstairs for rental and bought neighboring buildings as well, renting them out to businesses. Lodge's is now the "largest provider of school-uniform clothing in the capital district."