I've often compared Troy to a natural Geode. Many of the exteriors of our buildings are varied and unusual looking, but the real gems can be found on the inside. Many interiors of Troy's buildings can take your breath away.

It's difficult to promote Troy's interior space because most buildings are privately owned. However, allow me to serve a sample of Troy's interior delights.

It's easy to appreciate the early use of marble, plaster, decorative wood, and the use of art in the interiors of public and private buildings in Troy.

When Troy's Lincoln, Troy, and Proctor's theaters were alive, you sat in grandeur. Even today, above the water stained interior of Proctor's, you can view the detailed painting of Lafayette visiting Troy in 1824-25. On the side exits, above the doors, are paintings of Hamlet and a Court Jester.

For almost 80 years, you viewed an artist rendition of two of Troy's Vanderheyden homes in a Jewelry store in the Cannon Building (now gone). On the western wall, above the jewelry cases, you can still see a hand painted view of the Hudson Valley from Mt Ida.

During the peak years of the Hendrick Hudson Hotel, the bar was graced with original paintings of various war battles, including the Revolution and the skirmish between the Monitor and Merrimac.

Next time you visit the post office on Broadway and Fourth, look up and see the Headless Horseman and other Knickerbocker inspired paintings.

Many of Troy's "Halls" provided galas, performances and special events and were quite elegant. While you can still patronize the Troy Music Hall, there were others like the Rand or Griswold Opera House.

Visit the third floor of the former Masonic Temple (Senior Citizens Center) on Third Street and admire the Mason's Art Deco meeting hall. I keep waiting for Fred and Ginger to pop from a corner and start dancing.

The Ballroom at the Hendrick Hudson, where John Kennedy and Richard Nixon spoke in 1960, is now office space but still intact.

More simpler halls like the Harmony and Kennedy Halls on Third Street are waiting to be restored.

For elegance in the use of marble, visit the old bank building on the corner of Grand and Fourth. Once a cornerstone of Franklin Square, this building contains the restored office that was used for signing the contract to build parts of the Civil War Ironclad Monitor.

A trip to the Pioneer Savings Bank and Troy Public Library will also give you an appreciation of the interior use of marble.

Tiffany Windows, famous as art, grace many of Troy's churches, but the Troy Public Library has a Tiffany window above the circulation desk for all to view.

My favorite place to visit is Frear's. Once the busiest department store in Troy, most of the elegant brass and iron stairway, with the overhead glass ceiling, still exists in the restored Atrium. All that remains that it was a department store is Frear's famous policy statement (now universally used) on a tablet: "Satisfaction Guaranteed, or your money cheerfully refunded."

A little more difficult is admiring interiors of Troy's stately homes. Many have elaborate plaster work on the ceilings, beautiful marble fireplaces, hand carved wood used in moulding, stairways, and even ceilings.

One home on Washington Park has a second floor ballroom. There are Victorian Brownstones on Fifth Avenue with interiors that remind you of the Age of Innocence. A visit to the restored Hart Mansion (Rensselaer County Historical Society), will give you a sense of what it was like to live in Troy if you were wealthy.

Finally, a three-story brick Greek Revival row house on First Street was once owned by Charles S. Heartt, a member of a prominent Troy hardware family.

In 1872, he added a 15 foot by 25 foot Eastlake style dining room in the rear. It includes an eleven foot high paneled wood ceiling, elaborate wood brackets with carved wood cornice mouldings, ornate brass chandelier and wood paneled wainscoting. The focal point of the room is a highly detailed 10 foot high multi-level wood fireplace surround with extensive wood carving work and Victorian tile. There's a beautiful multi-paneled sliding wood door and a parquet floor of unusual design.

Eastlake is a forerunner of the Stick style with rich ornamentation and heavy brackets. It was named after the English architect Charles Lock Eastlake (1833-1906), a pioneer of the Tudor Revival. He wrote "Hints on Household Taste," in 1866 (reprinted in America in 1872).

Fortunately, the home is owned by preservation architects Donald B. Windelspecht and Sandra L. Daigler.

Troy has it all, but as the Greek playwright Sophocles said, "Look and you will find it - what is unsought will go undetected."