Albany, Texas

Albany is a city in Shackelford County, Texas, United States. The population was 1,854 at the 2020 Census. It is the county seat of Shackelford County.

History

Established in 1873, Albany was named by county clerk William Cruger after his former home of Albany, Georgia.

Lieutenant Colonel William Dyess, survivor of the Bataan Death March in the Philippines and namesake of Dyess Air Force Base, was born in Albany on August 9, 1916.

Major General Robert B. Williams, who led the World War II aerial bombing raid on Schweinfurt, Germany, was born in Albany on November 9, 1901.

Geography

Albany is located northeast of Abilene, the seat of Taylor County.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 1.5 square miles (3.8 km<sup>2</sup>), all land.

Climate

Demographics

2020 census

As of the 2020 census, there were 1,854 people, 760 households, and 405 families residing in the city. The median age was 41.9 years, 24.8% of residents were under the age of 18, and 22.0% of residents were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 86.3 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 84.0 males age 18 and over.

0% of residents lived in urban areas, while 100.0% lived in rural areas.

Of those households, 30.4% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 52.0% were married-couple households, 15.1% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 28.9% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 28.4% of all households were made up of individuals and 13.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.

! Race !! Percent

| White || 86.6%

| Black or African American || 0.7%

| American Indian and Alaska Native || 0.4%

| Asian || 0.5%

| Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander || 0%

| Some other race || 5.7%

| Two or more races || 6.1%

| Hispanic or Latino (of any race) || 14.0%

2000 census

As of the census

Albany Junior/Senior High School (Grades 7–12)

Transportation

Highways

30px U.S. Route 180
30px U.S. Route 283
30px Texas State Highway 6
30px Farm to Market 601
30px Farm to Market 1084

Air

Albany Municipal Airport is a city-owned public-use airport located two nautical miles (3.7 km) east of the central business district.

Fort Griffin Fandangle

Since 1938, Texas' oldest outdoor musical, the Fort Griffin Fandangle, has been presented during the last two weekends of June in the Prairie Theater about historic Fort Griffin, a military outpost established in 1867 near Albany and now a state park. The program, the content of which is different each year, attempts to recapture the theatrical charm of the American West.

The show offers covered wagons and buggies, a stagecoach, a replica of the first Texas Central Railroad train, an oil derrick, and cowboys whose ancestors pushed Longhorn herds up the nearby Great Western Cattle Trail. The Dallas Morning News describes Fandangle, accordingly: "as professional as a multimillion dollar Broadway musical, with sets and costumes to match, with a cast of three hundred". The Abilene Reporter-News calls the program "Frontier history served up with genuine earthiness, spiced by rare humor."