In visiting historic old St. Mary's on Capitol Hill in Albany, you have joined a long line of notables from the earliest settlers to the happy warrior, Al Smith, in coming to this sacred spot to pray. St. Mary's has been hallowed in many ways since St. Isaac Jogues prayerfully knelt on its soil as a prisoner of the Iroquois. The history of St. Mary's is of equal age with the first missionary work in the country and dates from the period in the 17th century when Albany was the eastern gate to the land of the Iroquois through which the martyrs of Auriesville passed to the scenes of their triumph and their death. Dr. Matthew O'Brien, O.P., who baptized St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, was once the pastor of St. Mary's. St. John Neumann offered Mass more than once on the altar of St. Mary's. Fr. Theobald Mathew, the renowned temperance leader from Ireland, preached and offered a novena here. The leader of the Oxford Movement in America, Fr. Clarence Walworth, was pastor here for many years. Fr. Walworth petitioned the American Bishops gathered at the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore and there introduced the cause of the Lily of the Mohawks, Blessed Kateri Tekawitha. We invite you to take a few minutes and to enjoy the art and architecture of St. Mary's, reflections of God's many gifts He has shared with His people, talents given to them to create beauty for His honor and glory.

In 1794, Catholics in Albany filed papers with the Vatican seeking permission to obtain land in the Chapel Street area where they would construct a church. Its official incorporation as "The Roman Catholic Church in the City of Albany", took place on October 6, 1796. The trustees of the church accepted the land as a gift, presented from the corporation of the City of Albany.

The first church was built in 1797 at the corner of Pine and Chapel Streets. Today's St. Mary's is the third and final church for which the cornerstone was laid on August 11, 1867. It was designed by Albany Architect Charles Nichols in the style of the Romanesque Revival. It cost $100,000. Historic St. Mary's, placed under the title of the Assumption, is one of the few first parishes in the original colonies to be dedicated to our Blessed Mother. St. Mary's is the second oldest parish in New York State, superseded only by St. Peter's on Barclay Street in Manhattan, which was founded in 1786. The cornerstone of the first or old St. Mary's Church, as the second and third, was laid in 1797.