NEW ALBANY

city, seat (1819) of Floyd county, southeastern Indiana, U.S. It lies along the Ohio River (bridged) opposite Louisville, Kentucky. It was founded in 1813 by Joel, Abner, and Nathaniel Scribner, who named the settlement for their hometown, Albany, New York. By the 1840s and early '50s, New Albany had become the largest city in Indiana and an important steamboat-building centre (the famous riverboats Robert E. Lee and Eclipse were built there). The modern city's diversified manufactures include plywood, veneer, prefabricated houses, furniture, electronic equipment, fertilizer, and clothing. Indiana University Southeast (1941) is in the city. The boyhood home (c. 1850) in New Albany of poet-dramatist William Vaughn Moody is preserved, as are the Scribner House (1814) and the Culbertson Mansion (1868), the former home (now a state historic site) of William F. Culbertson, a wealthy citizen of New Albany. Inc. city, 1839. Pop. (1990) 36,322; (1998 est.) 38,265.