Recently, while conducting research in the Schuyler Mansion neighborhood in Albany, I noticed an anomaly on one of the streets.

The street known today as Catherine Street has one of the more curious naming histories in the Capital District.

Over the past century, the street has repeatedly appeared in public records as “Catharine Street” and “Catherine Street,” with the spelling shifting back and forth in official documents and even street signs. While the street itself dates to the early nineteenth century, the oscillation between spellings is largely a phenomenon that reflects evolving spelling conventions, municipal bureaucracy, and local tradition.

The street developed in the early nineteenth century on land that had once been part of the estate of Revolutionary War general Philip Schuyler. His Georgian mansion, now the National Historic Landmark Schuyler Mansion, stands at 32 Catherine Street and served as the anchor around which the neighborhood grew.

When the surrounding property was subdivided after Schuyler died in 1804, new streets were laid out in what became Albany’s South End neighborhood.

The name “Catherine” likely reflected eighteenth-century spelling conventions connected to the Schuyler family itself, particularly Catherine Van Rensselaer Schuyler, the general’s wife and a prominent figure in colonial Albany society. The first maps drawn when the Schuyler Mansion area was subdivided show Catherine with an ‘e,’ like the General’s wife, and an ‘a’.

During the 18th and early 19th centuries, spelling was far less standardized than it is today. Personal names such as Catherine, Catharine, Katharine, and Katherine were all considered acceptable variants derived........

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