Museum Collections

This medallion was commissioned by the Albany Legislative Correspondents' Association and distributed to members at the annual dinner in 1923. The light-hearted event included "a series of vaudeville sketches dealing with the alleged Presidential ambitions of Governor Smith and ridiculing the fads, fancies and foibles of leaders in the legislative and political life of the State." The dinner began with "the investiture of all the guests with the Order of the Sidewalks of New York, a medallion suspended from a ribbon and embossed with a view of Governor Smith's Oliver Street home." The popular song "The Sidewalks of New York" was created in 1894 by composer Charles B. Lawlor (1852-1925) and lyricist James W. Blake (1862-1935). The tune became famous when Alfred E. Smith used it as the theme song for his failed 1928 presidential campaign. The medal obverse depicts 25 Oliver Street on Manhattan's Lower East Side, the home of Al Smith from 1907 to 1923.