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is a city in Benton and Linn Counties in the western part of the U.S. state of Oregon. It is located in the Willamette Valley and is the county seat of Linn County. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 40,852 making it the 12th largest city in Oregon; the unofficial estimated population was 48,770 in 2008.
The city is located at the confluence of the Calapooia River and the Willamette River.
Up until the 19th century, the area was inhabited by Kalapuya, a Penutian-speaking Native American people who lived in the middle Willamette Valley.
, from a word describing the "deep pool where the Calapooia River meets the Willamette River" (and could humorously be translated to "hole in the ground"). The name may have referred to a location near the confluence of the Calapooia where the current had cut a hole near the bank. A variation of the place name can also be written as
The first European settler inside the current city limits of Albany arrived in 1846. Albany was founded by the brothers Walter and Thomas Monteith, a family of early prominence in the area, in 1848, when they bought the claim to the townsite from squatter Hiram Smeed for $400 and a horse. They named the city "Albany", after their hometown in New York.
The Monteiths built the first frame house in Albany in 1849. The Monteith House was considered the finest house in Oregon at the time. They opened a general store in their parlor the same year. The first school was built in 1851, and in 1852, the first steamboat arrived and the first flour mill was built.
In 1849, the town of Takenah was established near Albany, and in 1854, the Oregon Legislative Assembly gave the name Takenah to both towns. The name Albany was restored by the legislature in 1855.
Albany post office was established on January 81850 and renamed to "New Albany" on November 41850. The name was changed back to Albany in 1853.
Although Albany replaced the community of Calapooia near Sweet Home as the county seat in 1853, it was not until 1864 that Albany was incorporated as a city.
Albany was the headquarters for the Mountain States Power Company from its establishment in 1918 until its merger into Pacific Power & Light (now PacifiCorp) in 1954.
In the 1970s Albany attempted to extend its city limits to cover the land to include a zirconium processing plant of Wah Chang Corporation. Wah Chang responded in 1974 by sponsoring a vote to incorporate the desired properties as Millersburg.