“Nipper”

All along Broadway in northern Albany [1] hulk old factory buildings dating back to the city’s era of industrial activity. A highlight is the former RTA Building (991 Broadway, at Loudonville Rd.). RTA was a distributor of RCA electrical appliances and on the building’s roof sits a 25-foot-high, four-ton statue of Nipper, the canine symbol of the RCA-owned Victor Company.

Nipper’s head is cocked to the side and he wears a quizzical expression, as if to ask, what am I still doing here? The statue was built in Chicago about 1858 and shipped in five sections on railroad flat cars.