62 Year-Old Latham Landmark Is Damaged By Fire

An Albany area building which houses two businesses, and was considered a landmark was destroyed by fire. I saw a posting on Face Book that stated “Goodbye Handy Andy”. That raised my curiosity.

After a little searching, I found out what it was about. In story from the Times Union, the Handy Andy was on Watervliet Shaker Road in Latham (also known as Route 155) was burning. This was on Thursday afternoon, May 16, 2013. If you ever took exit 5 of The Northway and headed towards Route 9, you know exactly where I'm talking about.

Besides the convenience store, it was the home of Vintage Pizza. This was one of those businesses that many people from the Latham area either had worked there, or had been a customer to Handy Andy or Vintage Pizza. One of the former employees of Handy Andy was Joe Mahan – The husband of The Town Of Colonie’s supervisor Paula Mahan. I’m sure many Albany area people will have personal stories to share about both businesses.

Hopefully, both businesses will be able to start over. There was a lot of damage to the building, but luckily, no one was injured. The cause of the fire is still being investigated.