Unattended Death and Biohazard Cleanup in Troy, NY

Troy is a city on the eastern bank of the Hudson River just northeast of Albany and the county seat of Rensselaer County, with a population of 51,401 at the 2020 census.

The settlement was renamed Troy in 1789, incorporated as a town in 1791, and chartered as a city in 1816, after its first settler, Dirck Vanderheyden, began farming there in 1707.

Powered by the Hudson River, the Wynantskill and Poesten Kill streams, and later the Erie and Champlain canals, Troy became a birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution and was reputedly the fourth-wealthiest city in America around the turn of the 20th century.

Troy is famous as 'The Collar City': after the detachable shirt collar was invented there in the 19th century, Troy's factories produced collars and cuffs worn by about 90 percent of American men.

Troy is the hometown of 'Uncle Sam': meat packer Samuel Wilson supplied barrels of beef stamped 'U.S.' to the Army during the War of 1812, soldiers joked the initials stood for 'Uncle Sam,' and in 1961 Congress officially recognized Wilson as the progenitor of the national symbol.

Troy's 19th-century industrial wealth left it with one of the finest collections of Victorian architecture in the United States, including its intact downtown of iron-front and brownstone buildings.

Troy is home to several institutions of higher learning, including Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Hudson Valley Community College, and Russell Sage College.

Troy has about 21,300 households, and only about 37% of its homes are owner-occupied, with a median owner-occupied home value of about $206,500 according to Census Bureau survey data.

Together with Albany and Schenectady, Troy anchors New York's Capital District, a region of about 1.24 million people at the junction of the Hudson and Mohawk rivers.

Troy packs about 4,963 residents per square mile into its 10.36 square miles, making it one of the more densely settled small cities in upstate New York, and its median household income is about $58,500 according to Census Bureau survey data.