In Troy, New York, there once stood a building that is worth learning about. For a brief period in the late 1850s, Troy University—a Methodist-backed institution that opened its doors in September 1858 with considerable ambition and closed just three years later as a casualty of inflation, foreclosed mortgages, and the general chaos of pre-Civil War America—was housed in this four-story building with four Gothic spires and Byzantine architecture rising above the Hudson Valley fog. The rest of the students moved to Wesleyan in silence. Before RPI demolished it in 1969 and replaced it with a library, the structure stood for another century.
You can learn something about this city from this odd little footnote. Serious ideas about education have always taken root in Troy, New York, where they occasionally flourished and occasionally collapsed due to timing and economics. The Methodist vision did not endure. It was something else.
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, which has been perched on the hill above the Hudson since 1824—two years before that unsuccessful university was even a proposal—is that something else. The fact that it is the oldest technological university in the English-speaking world may seem like marketing gibberish until you take a moment to consider it. established prior to the transcontinental railroad. established prior to the telegraph. The campus has witnessed Troy’s transformation from an industrial powerhouse to a post-industrial city in recovery and back toward something more difficult to describe: a place of true reinvention, supported in part by an institution that continues to produce significant alumni.
Email was created by Ray Tomlinson. At Kodak, Steven Sasson created the first digital camera. They are graduates of RPI. It’s possible that the majority of people strolling through downtown Troy are unaware that some of the most significant technological artifacts of the past century were created on the hill above them. The quiet institution carrying out vital work while the louder schools garner the cultural attention is a disconnect that feels very American.
Today, as you stroll around the 296-acre campus, you’ll notice a few things: the blend of contemporary research facilities and historic stone buildings, students who appear genuinely engaged in their work, and the subtle hum of something that doesn’t feel like a performance. According to U.S. News, RPI was ranked 64th out of all national universities, which sounds respectable without being ostentatious. Approximately 70% of undergraduates engage in research, which is a statistic that should be more frequently included in campus tour brochures. The school seems to have always been more interested in creating things than in receiving recognition for doing so.
The latest manifestation of this trend is the installation of quantum computers. A PBS-documented project called Project Chapel installed one of the few IBM Quantum Systems in the world. One computer in a campus chapel that has been around for a century. The contrast is almost too flawless. A college town in the Hudson Valley, quantum mechanics, and ancient stone. It’s difficult to ignore RPI’s talent for putting on scenes that seem both unlikely and inevitable.
Troy itself gives the narrative depth. There is a small but surprisingly dense academic presence for a city this size thanks to the operations of Russell Sage College. The larger area is served by Hudson Valley Community College. Troy is the type of post-industrial American city that is frequently described as “on the rise” and where that description is, cautiously, becoming more true. There is a genuine college-town vibe in some areas of the city, but it also has its rougher edges.
It’s unclear if RPI’s momentum will continue to propel the city upward. The host cities and universities don’t always go in the same direction. However, standing close to the location where a Byzantine-style structure once dominated the Troy skyline—where a brief Methodist university dreamed and failed—it seems as though the establishment that took its place has earned its century. Quieter than most, but also more resilient.
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