Between 1970 and 2010, my high school, the Street Academy of Albany / Harriet Gibbons High School, made its home in several different buildings. Beginning in ad hoc locations in South Pearl Street, spending a couple of years on Columbia Street, then over a decade in Arbor Hill at the intersection of Clinton Avenue and North Hawk. One of their residences, at the former Albany High School Annex, is now a luxury apartment complex. Another residence, at the former Our Lady of Angels School, was razed a few years ago.
The school’s final home was in a reconverted grocery store on 75 Watervliet Avenue. Today, that building is still in use as an administrative building for the Albany City School District.
Remember, I said that once upon a time, that place was a local grocery store.
And therein lies a tale.
Carnevale’s. The newspaper advertisements showed a smiling, hat-tipping clown, framed with a big round “C”. And check out the prices at Carnevale’s – okay, this ad was taken in 1970, but come on, turkey for 69c/pound? Yes please…
According to my research, Carnevale’s began in 1925 when Antonio and Francesca Carnevale relocated from Sicily to the Capital District. They opened up a grocery store that year; in 1938, their son John took over the family business. The store at 75 Watervliet Avenue opened in 1957, and stayed open for many years after that. A fire destroyed the building in 1963; the store was rebuilt and the community was still served with its local grocery store. John Carnevale passed away in 2002.
In a time when the Capital District’s shopping choices were increasingly tailored toward chain stores like Grand Union, Albany Public and Central Markets, Carnevale’s Superama was not only able to survive as an independent grocery store, it thrived. The last advertisement I have for Carnevale’s was in early 1974. After that… I have nothing.
The building was later used in 1987 as a temporary location for Taxation and Finance workers while their original office, Building 9 at the Harriman Office Campus, was being renovated. Nearly two decades later, Harriet Gibbons High School relocated into the former grocery store.
The Gibbs remained there until the Albany City School District shut the school down in 2010. Today, the building is part of the administrative complex for the School District.
But I’m focusing now on the store itself. Did you ever shop at Carnevale’s? If so, what do you remember about it? Post your memories in the comments section below.
And maybe if I get a chance, I’ll find some more vintage Carnevale’s advertisements.
Chuck The Writer 
My mother and father shopped at Carnevale’s for years and then I did as a young married lady who needed to save money. They ran good sales, had employees who knew where everything was and it was well worth the drive from Schenectady.
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“Superama” is a nice word. We should revive that.
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Wow! What memories you brought back, Chuck! My parents did some shopping in the Handy Andy around the corner from us (Delaware Ave near Ten Eyck/Second Ave, now a rental center), some in the long defunct Trading Port on New Scotland Ave (roughly where Sheehy Optician is) and later some in Albany Public Market in Delmar–opposite Elsmere Plaza, but a great deal of it in Carnevale. My maternal grandmother would shop nowhere else. She’d drive through a blizzard to shop at Carnevale. Indeed, the price was always right, the Associates (whatever they were called) knew where everything was, would help you carry your groceries to your car & always refuse a tip. I think the advent of Albany OPublic Market and Central Markets cum Price Chopper killed of Carnevale, Trading Port etc. (The first PC in Albany was on Ten Eyck Ave near Delaware, part of which is now the successor to Wings and Things and medical offices). There will, alas, never be another Carnevale. The era of an independent, family owned/operated grocery is gone forever. Price Chopper, Shop Rite & Hannaford etc., rule, like it or not.
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another blast from the past!!!! Growing up in Albany, our grocery store was Grand Union on corner of Central/Lexington….did go to Carnevale’s too…..
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Chuck-I totally shopped at Carnevale’s! Not only that, but my mother had a company that cleaned offices at back of the store, so I saw the action behind the scenes.
If any of you remember that long line of mirrored windows at the back on top near the ceiling, those were indeed one-way security mirrors. Other companies, like Big Doms and an Italian Ice company also had offices at the back of the store.
It was a big store, even by today’s standards.
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Funny, I was just talking about Carnevale’s on Saturday. My Grandmother lived around the corner and when I visited her we would walk to Carnevale’s. She would always buy my brother and I a Matchbox car. Loved shopping there and Kings Dept. Store. What a place, especially as a kid! Fun times.
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I remember the clown puppet game at the front of the store. We lived a few blocks away on Third. I also remember Kings! my aunts would take me there all the time for toys and to get my pictures taken.
good memories..
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OMG–another buried memory! I hadn’t thought of Kings in centuries! (Central Ave roughly where Shop Rite & OTB are now)
BTW, I think this Shop Rite is NOT the previous one. I think it’s been bought & sold 2-3 times over. The original Shop Rite was headquartered in Florida NY. There was one where Price Chopper is in Menands, opposite accesses to 378. And there was a Two Guys and Albany Public Market where Bank of America is now in Menands in back of Broadway Diner–I understand its 3rd incarnation as a diner. (Broadway cum Menands Diner cum Broadway again).
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That was a frequent stop back then. There use to be decent sized markets in different communities growing up. Trading Port’s on Central Ave. between Lake & Quail and on the corner of Third and Quail. Carnevale’s on Watervliet Ave. Albany Public at Westgate and A&P & Shop Rite’s (before the return to the area)and growing amounts of Price Chopper’s in different areas. Now they’re all grouped near Everett Rd. And unless I’m missing something, not a decent sized market in the city except for the Chopper’s on Lark near Hackett M.S. and New Scotland near St. Rose.
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Thank you! I had forgotten about the Trading Port on Central Ave–and another on Colvin almost to Washington that was the last of them to close. (I assume the Tabachnek family wanted nothing more to do with Trading Port. The one on New Scotland & Ontario became “Traditional Market” at one point, owned & operated by a gentleman & his son. No relation, I believe to the Tabachnek family who owned Trading Port &, I believe, STAR Markets.
We did sometimes shop at the Albany Public in Westgate but my dad liked the one in Delmar–now Albany Med finance office–better. Sometimes we would go to thwe Westgate APM so we could also patronize the JC Penney there. I “got lost” in that JCP just after it opened. I was indignant, though. With all the outrage only a 12 yo could muster, I insisted my GRANDMOTHER was lost. I was right there (taking a nap) in men’s coats!
The Albany Price Choppers are on Delaware bet. Elm & Myrtle aka the “Ghetto Chopper” (if the shoe fits….) and Madison & West Lawrence, the Student Chopper (ibid).
Few other notes: The convenient store on Delaware & 2nd was originally Dyer Brothers then Leonard Brothers–they were newsstands but very much convenient stores of today, ditto Salernos on Madison where the newsstand used to be. They made a killing selling cigarettes & beer to VI, Albany High & School 16 kids!
Thanks for the memories, guys! (Where is Bob Hope when I need him!)
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As a young gal in the 70’s we lived on Washington Ave, next to the Y, I think an apartment complex is still there, that’s where we lived. We used to drive there after mom got home from work, I don’t really remember anything about it, but do remember that it was always a fun time. Thanks for the memories!
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@Pk, after growing up on Elk St., in the 60’s-70’s…..moved to the Delaware Ave area and played little league for Leonard Bros!!!!
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I grew up on Garfield Place where the original Carnevale’s was just a corner store on Garfield and Watervliet Avenue. My sister worked in Carnevale’s right until it closed whereas I worked at its competition at the A&P across from Blessed Sacrament Church on Central Avenue. Carnevale’s was not only the local supermarket it was a part of the neighborhood where they knew you and your family and they treated you as a neighbor, not a customer.
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Carnevales was my first job and I worked part-time after school. My father was good friends with Mr. C (John) so I probably had a little in to getting the job. lol I worked many years after graduating from high school and grew up and loved working there. It was the best of times.
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