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During Pride Month, Additional
Documentation is Being Added to the National Register-listed Greenwich
Village Historic District in New York City Recognizing its Significance
in LGBTQ+ History
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Sites Include a Casket Company
Building in Syracuse, Commercial Row in Buffalo’s African American Heritage
Corridor, Tuberculosis Research and Treatment Resources in Saranac Lake,
and a Reinforced Concrete Building in Albany
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Albany,
NY – June 2024 / NewsmakerAlert: Governor
Kathy Hochul has
announced recommendations by the New
York State Board for Historic Preservation to add 17 properties and
districts to the State and National Registers of Historic Places and an
additional district to the State Register of Historic Places. The nominations
include industrial buildings, public housing sites, and houses of worship.
During Pride Month, the Board is recommending additional documentation
be added to the National Register-listed Greenwich Village Historic District,
which was originally added to the Register in 1979 but now includes extensive
information about the district’s significant LGBTQ+ history.
“The
first site to be recognized for LGBTQ+ history in the National Register
of Historic Places was Stonewall Inn here in New York State,” Governor
Hochul said. “Since 1999, we have been adding and expanding LBGTQ+ significant
sites to the National Register so that we can tell a more complete history
of our state. During Pride Month, we come together to reflect on our shared
history and remember the people and places that have impacted us as New
Yorkers.”
New
York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation Commissioner
Pro Tempore Randy Simons said, ”Through new research, collaboration, and
the agency’s Our Whole History initiative, we are telling more complete
histories of communities throughout New York State. We are proud to partner
on these projects which amplify the stories that have been hidden, expand
our understanding of the past, and reinvigorate discussions of the future.
Recognizing these sites through listing in the State and National Registers
of Historic Places is an opportunity to share this history through honorific
designations and also opens up their eligibility for various public preservation
programs and incentives, such as matching state grants and federal and
state historic rehabilitation tax credits. With increased awareness and
opportunities for support, historic resources can continue to contribute
to the economic vitality and vibrancy of their communities now and in the
future.”
New
York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation Deputy
Commissioner for Historic Preservation Daniel
Mackay said, “At the Division for Historic Preservation, we’re committed
to highlighting and expanding our shared understanding of the state’s historic
resources, to expanding our inventory of listings in the State and National
Registers of Historic Places, and to connecting historic property owners
and advocates with resources to help preserve and promote these remarkable
assets. These projects are transforming communities, restoring pride of
place, and reinvigorating underutilized spaces. We’re proud to be part
of this ongoing and dynamic work.”
New
York State continues to lead the nation in the use of historic tax credits,
with $3.96 billion in total rehabilitation costs from 2018-2022. Since
2009, the historic tax credit program has stimulated over $13 billion in
project expenditures in New York State, creating significant investment
and new jobs. According to a report, between 2018-2022, the credits
in New York State generated 72,918 jobs and over $1.47 billion in local,
state, and federal taxes (PDF file).
The
State and National Registers are the official lists of buildings, structures,
districts, landscapes, objects, and sites significant in the history, architecture,
archaeology, and culture of New York State and the nation. There are more
than 118,000 historic properties throughout the state listed on the National
Register of Historic Places, either individually or as components of historic
districts. Property owners, municipalities, and organizations from communities
throughout the state sponsored the nominations. Once recommendations are
approved by the Commissioner, who serves as the State Historic Preservation
Officer, the properties are listed on the New York State Register of Historic
Places and then nominated to the National Register of Historic Places,
where they are reviewed by the National Park Service and, once approved,
entered on the National Register. More information, with photos of the
nominations, is available on the Office
of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation website.
Capital Region
Neemes
Foundry, Rensselaer County – The Neemes Foundry is a rare surviving
artifact documenting Troy’s prolific iron operation, which made the city
a top iron manufacturer in the United States in the 1800s. The building
was constructed in 1886 for the Neemes Brothers company, which was established
in 1873 and manufactured a wide variety of specialized iron products. These
included the company’s own automatic stoker, which mechanically fed coal
into locomotive boilers, as well as iron stove grates that were used internationally
in an array of industries, such as sugar mills, the rail industry, and
bakeries. The firm also provided castings for area textile manufacturers
and ironworks. The Neemes Foundry bears a strong physical resemblance to
other foundries and small industrial buildings of the period; for instance,
the building has an open interior underneath a massive wood truss system
used to provide for a wide, open workspace free of internal supports.
Selfridge
& Langford Building, Albany County – Erected in 1911 and designed
by noted Albany architect Charles G. Ogden, the Selfridge & Langford
Building in the City of Albany is an excellent example of an early reinforced
concrete building designed with a distinguished Neoclassical façade.
The building was originally occupied by the firm of John Selfridge and
Edward Langford, who operated a furniture retail and storage business from
this location for more than half a century. The first floor originally
contained a furniture showroom; after the company ceased retail sales in
1918, it was converted to office space. The upper floors were originally
unfinished and could be partitioned off into individual units for its storage
customers. Serving two distinct purposes, the architecture was designed
to convey the appearance of fireproof construction while also being stylish
and appealing to the customer. The Selfridge & Langford Building was
completed by the Turner Construction Company, one of the early pioneers
in the use of reinforced concrete for industrial buildings. It is one of
only seven reinforced concrete buildings in the city.
Central New York
National
Casket Company Building, Onondaga County – The National Casket Company
was the largest twentieth-century manufacturer and distributor of caskets
and funeral supplies in the United States, and this building in the city
of Syracuse is a distinctive, intact example of the company’s customized
sales showroom, office, and warehouse space. National Casket Company grew
from its origins as a local manufacturer founded in Oneida, New York, in
1876 into the largest supplier of caskets in the United States. The company
had showrooms in more than thirty cities and offices throughout the northeast
and Midwest, as well as in New York’s major cities. National Casket operated
a sales office with showrooms in Syracuse about 1902 and constructed this
building in 1930. The new building offered rapid transportation of its
product from nearby Oneida, and a dignified and comfortable showroom; it
played a pivotal role in the city’s funeral industry until the early 1980s.
The building is also an elegant and highly intact example of the sales
office typology developed by the National Casket Company in the early twentieth
century. This typology combined “selection rooms,” offices, and warehousing
in a single multi-story building that was replicated with stylistic variations
throughout the 1920s and 1930s in several of the company’s northeast markets.
The Syracuse building was designed by local architect Gustavus A. Young,
who designed at least one other local showroom for National Casket, that
in Albany, which was nearly identical to the Syracuse building.
Finger Lakes
Oakfield
High School, Genesee County – Located at a key intersection in the
Village of Oakfield, Oakfield High School educated the local school children
as the high school from 1927 until 1956 and then as an elementary school
until 1971. Designed by Carl Ade, a Rochester architect who specialized
in school architecture, the school building represents educational design
standards of the 1920s, such as purpose-built classrooms, improved lighting
and ventilation, and use of fire-proof materials. An important part of
Ade’s design was the auditorium, which was used by community members when
not in use by the school. The building continues to serve the local community
as the School House Manor Apartments, which was converted in 1981, but
still retains the original layout and much of the historic fabric.
Mid-Hudson
Black
Walnut Island 2, Orange County – The Black Walnut Island 2 site consists
of roughly seven acres of high ground within the marshy region known as
the “Black Dirt” or “Drowned Lands” of the Wallkill River Valley – an area
historically rich with natural resources, including various species of
fish and migratory birds. The Black Walnut Island 2 site provided an ideal
habitation site for Indigenous groups taking advantage of the surrounding
natural bounty and remains a well-preserved archaeological site representing
over 4,000 years of human occupation. Limited excavations have revealed
a variety of archaeological features and artifacts from repeated Indigenous
use of this location. Pottery, hearths, projectile points, stone tools,
and other artifacts have been recovered across the site representing three
different eras: the late Archaic period (3000 BCE–1500 BCE), the Middle
Woodland period (200 BCE–800 AD) and the Late Woodland period (800 AD–1600
AD). Today the Black Walnut Island 2 Site is mixed forest and fields surrounded
by low lying farmland and wetlands. The site retains a high potential for
further archaeological research.
Mohawk Valley
Dolgeville
Universalist Church, Herkimer County – Located in the Village of Dolgeville,
the Dolgeville Universalist Church was in built in 1895. Designed by Frederick
H. Gouge, a prominent architect in Utica, the church displays elements
of the Tudor Revival style (just becoming popular in the United States
at the time) as well as elements from the widely used Queen Anne style.
The church is an example of the period’s growing popularity for understated
ecclesiastical style and the divergence away from the high Victorian Gothic
Revival and Romanesque church styles.
New York City
Audubon
Park Historic District, New York County – The Audubon Park Historic
District, located in Manhattan, was the site of a rural retreat for the
family of John James Audubon. The area later experienced intense land speculation
fueled by the creation of several transportation routes between 1872 and
1926, including the extension of Broadway to W 155th St, the Boulevard
Lafayette, a new subway station, and Riverside Drive, along with its subsequent
extension. These projects prompted a flurry of development, with firms
quickly erecting new apartment buildings. The atypical shape of the district’s
blocks presented a challenge to architects and builders, which resulted
in the creation of innovative building plans and forms. The creation of
the Audubon Terrace (1904-1932), a collection of institutions dedicated
to the study of Spanish and Portuguese history and culture, set the visual
tone for the neighborhood. The Neo-Renaissance Revival Style complex allowed
architects to capitalize on a number of revivalist styles for their nearby
apartment buildings, which range from Italian and French Renaissance to
Gothic and American Colonial.
Boston
Road Plaza, Bronx County – Boston Road Plaza was built in 1970-72 in
the Allerton neighborhood of the Bronx. It was designed by well-known modern
architect Norman Dorf of Davis Brody & Associates, with a landscape
design by Paul Friedberg Associates. The striking design was an attempt
to demonstrate that bold architecture was possible even within the limited
budgets of public housing. The twenty-story Brutalist-style tower features
bold cantilevers that allowed the architects to vary the interior plans
of the 236 apartments. An adjacent one-story community center is distinguished
by a dramatic sawtooth roof and clearstory windows that provide ample light
to the spaces within. Developments like Boston Road Plaza were the result
of successive rounds of national legislation that expanded the ability
of seniors to qualify for public housing and increased the funding provided
for the construction of senior housing. They are also exemplary of the
New York Housing Authority’s (NYCHA) “scatter-site” public housing program,
which comprised smaller projects located within established middle-income
communities where they could ostensibly “foster economic and ethnic integration
and stable balanced communities.”
Boston-Secor
Houses, Bronx County – Boston-Secor Houses is located in the Eastchester
neighborhood, on the northeastern edge of the Bronx, and consists of four
high-rise towers, a maintenance building, and a landscaped site. The New
York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) complex was built in 1967-69 and designed
by the architectural firm Ames Associates, with a landscape design by Leo
A. Novick. Originally planned in 1950 as low-scale garden style apartments
in the character of the community, the project was opposed by local groups
who were against racial inclusion, then stymied by increasing costs. A
revised design, which consisted of high-rise towers, was opposed again-
this time by almost all groups: those who didn’t want any public housing,
those who didn’t want Blacks and immigrants in the neighborhood, and those
who opposed the “tower in the park” design. By the time the development
of the towers was complete in 1969, White flight was in full force, and
both the neighborhood and even the Williamsbridge branch of the NAACP opposed
the project, the latter believing that its proximity to other increasingly
segregated developments would lead to blockbusting. The Boston-Secor Houses
illustrates significant themes in the history of public housing, including
the impacts of racism, design, and city planning efforts.
Bush
Terminal Historic District, Kings County (State Register only) – Bush
Terminal in Brooklyn was a groundbreaking industrial complex that integrated
railroad and water transportation with industrial warehousing and manufacturing.
It was the first integrated industrial complex to combine all of these
elements under one owner, and it became the largest multi-tenant industrial
property in the United States. Its success also greatly impacted how future
industrial complexes were designed. Construction of the terminal began
on the Brooklyn waterfront in 1895, with two major expansions in 1902 and
1905. The architecture of Bush Terminal reflects the rapid change in style
and construction methods of industrial buildings around 1900. The earliest
buildings were of traditional industrial architectural design: interiors
of mill construction distinguished by massive wood beams and posts that
were slow to burn in case of fire; exteriors designed in what has come
to be known as the American round-arch style, characterized by flat brick
façades punctuated by a regular rhythm of segmental- or round-arched
window openings. Around 1905, the architecture of Bush Terminal made a
rapid transition towards the use of reinforced concrete framing, which
in turn allowed for novel exterior designs, particularly the abstracted
Industrial Neoclassicism. The reinforced concrete buildings at Bush Terminal
were the product of an innovative design team led by architect William
Higginson and the Turner Construction Company. The historic district has
been added to the New York State Register of Historic Places. However,
as a majority of property owners in the district objected to the designation,
it was not advanced to the National Park Service for the purpose of listing
in the National Register of Historic Places.
Greenwich
Village Historic District (Additional Documentation), New York County –
The Greenwich Village Historic District was listed on the National Register
of Historic Places in 1979 in the areas of Architecture, Art, and Literature
at the national level of significance. The nomination drew directly from
the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designation report,
which had been prepared in 1969, the same year as the Stonewall uprising.
Although this report was a pioneer in documenting the cultural history
of the district, discussion of LGBTQ+ place-based history was still some
thirty years away- not recognized in the National Register of Historic
Places until 1999, when the Stonewall Inn became the first site to be listed
on the National Register for LGBTQ+ significance. This additional documentation
adds significance to the Greenwich Village Historic District in the area
of Social History: LGBTQ+, recognizing the district as one of the first
neighborhoods in New York City that tolerated and gradually accepted an
open gay and lesbian presence, which resulted in its emergence as an early,
nationally significant, and widely recognized LGBT+ enclave. It also documents
the numerous gay-related establishments and spaces that characterized the
Village as a safe and welcoming place for LGBTQ+ people, recognizes the
hundreds of notable LGBTQ+ individuals who lived or worked in the Village
and found fame in various branches of the arts, woman’s history, social
history, LGBTQ+ civil rights and other fields, and acknowledges the devastating
impact of the AIDS epidemic on the Village’s substantial gay population.
Funded by an Underrepresented Communities Grant from the National Park
Service, this survey and nomination project also identified 283 specific
resources within the existing district that have documented associations
with LGBTQ+ history. The period of significance for LGBTQ+-related themes
has been extended to 1996 to recognize the exceptional significance of
the AIDS era.
Middletown
Plaza, Bronx County – Middletown Plaza was built in 1970-73 in the
Pelham Bay neighborhood. Its outstanding Brutalist design was executed
by renowned modern architect Paul Rudolph and its complementary landscape
design by George F. Cushine. The project features a single fifteen-story
tower with 177 apartments and an attached one-story community center, all
executed with a cast-in-place béton brut concrete frame and split-ribbed
concrete-block cladding. Rudolph’s design was based on his belief that
even in a small apartment “areas of different activity should be articulated,
separated,” along with the desire to have as many windows as possible,
which led him to a design with a well-articulated exterior wall of windows
and an irregular interior plan. Middletown Plaza is among the most sophisticated
in New York City Housing Authority’s (NYCHA) public housing catalogue.
Developments like Middletown Plaza were the result of successive rounds
of national legislation that expanded the ability of seniors to qualify
for public housing and increased the funding provided for the construction
of senior housing. They are also exemplary of NYCHA’s “scatter-site” public
housing program, which comprised smaller projects located within established
middle-income communities where they could ostensibly “foster economic
and ethnic integration and stable balanced communities.”
North Country
Hale
Cemetery, St. Lawrence County – Some of the first New England settlers
to this region established this burial ground in Norfolk in the 1820s,
and its continued use for over 200 years makes it an archetypal example
of a rural homestead neighborhood cemetery in northern New York. It is
particularly notable for its exemplary stone wall and arch and evolution
of funerary art from the early 1800s to the present.
Berkeley
Square Historic District (Boundary Increase and Additional Documentation),
Franklin County – In 1988, the original Berkeley Square Historic District
nomination began the work of documenting some of the Village of Saranac
Lake’s commercial buildings dating from 1867 to 1932. With the passage
of several decades and additional research, a broader perspective has prompted
a boundary increase and additional documentation. The new boundary encompasses
twenty-eight additional resources that more fully illustrate Saranac Lake’s
important role as a center for Tuberculosis research and treatment and
expands the period of significance to 1954.
Western New York
Austin
Street Police Athletic League (PAL) Center, Erie County – Initially
constructed as a firehouse in 1894, the building is significant for its
function as the first Police Athletic League (PAL) Center in the City of
Buffalo. Between 1955 and 1993, the Austin Street PAL Center provided Buffalo
youth with recreational, educational, cultural, environmental, and juvenile
delinquency prevention programming in a structured and supervised setting.
In the 1950s and 1960s, the PAL operated several community centers throughout
the city. The Austin Street PAL Center offered a variety of programs and
spaces for city youth, including game rooms, arts and crafts classes, cooking
classes, various lounge spaces, and a boxing program exclusively at the
Austin Street site. The Austin Street PAL Center served as a social anchor
for the neighborhood, reducing juvenile crime and increasing community
connections amongst Black Rock neighborhood youth.
Commercial
Row at Broadway and Michigan Avenue, Erie County – Initially constructed
as separate buildings, the Commercial Row at Broadway and Michigan Avenue
in the heart of Buffalo’s African American Heritage Corridor, is significant
as a collection of resources that span the development of Broadway from
a fringe residential area of the 1840s to a thriving commercial corridor
by the 1890s. Initially, the parcel was developed as the residence and
carriage house of Dr. Frederick Dellenbaugh around 1840. By the 1880s,
Dr. Dellenbaugh constructed a large Commercial Italianate-style building
at the corner of his property, reflecting the area’s increasing development
due, in part, to the horse-drawn streetcar line that ran down Broadway
starting in 1885. The property remained in the family after he died in
1891, and a storefront addition was added to the house in 1899, further
reflecting the changing neighborhood. In 1922, an auto garage was constructed,
completely filling the remainder of the former Dellenbaugh tract. After
a period of neglect and partial collapse, the buildings were rehabilitated
beginning in 2020 for use as commercial space and apartments, including
housing the NAACP Buffalo chapter offices.
Nies
Block, Cattaraugus County – The Nies Block is an excellent example
of a large Commercial Italianate-style mixed-use building located in the
City of Salamanca. Constructed in 1891, the building was owned by Charles
Nies, a prominent pharmacist and business leader in the community. It housed
Nies’s pharmacy and saloon, plus other commercial and retail operations,
and had apartments and housing on the upper floors. The building is a notable
local landmark for its prominent cornice and chamfered corner with a decorative
arched pediment reading “Chaz. Nies.” Historically, the building was the
site of pivotal negotiations between the Salamanca citizen’s committee
(including Charles Nies and other Salamanca businessmen) and the Seneca
Nation of Indians council in 1892. This meeting limited Seneca control
over non-native development in the area through intentional manipulation
methods by the committee and led to increased construction in the city.
Sacred
Heart Roman Catholic Church and Convent, Erie County – Located in Buffalo’s
Emslie neighborhood, Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church and Convent are
notable examples of two specific building typologies. Built in 1914 to
the designs of notable local architect Carl Schmill, the Sacred Heart Church
is an example of a late Gothic Revival style and has structural trusses
which allow for a broad nave without the use of side aisles; this is an
uncommon design for Roman Catholic churches in the area. The Sacred Heart
Convent reflects typical features of urban convents, dating back to the
work of A.W.N. Pugin, including parlors and public spaces on the first
floor, and smaller, private cells on the upper level. Closed in 1973, the
church complex was abandoned since 2008, when it faced significant storm
damage, leading to the demolition of the related school and rectory. Local
advocacy efforts to save and renew the remaining Sacred Heart buildings
have spurred a commercial tax credit rehabilitation project.
Wimbledon
Road Historic District, Monroe County – The district in the Town of
Irondequoit consists of thirty houses and one individually listed house
that were all designed and marketed by Fred P. Tosch. The district represents
residential development and the need for affordable housing in the Rochester
area in the early 1900s resulting from an increase in workers and managers
in local industries. The district is also significant for its use of Tudor,
Colonial, and Dutch Colonial architecture with all houses sharing identical
footprints but varying on the exterior so that no two adjacent houses were
the same. Tosch also used a Master Model home that was co-sponsored by
the Democrat and Chronicle newspaper to show the latest in technology and
improvements that a prospective home buyer could expect with a Tosch-built
house on Wimbledon Road.
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New
York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (OPRHP)
oversees more than 250 parks, historic sites, recreational trails, golf
courses, boat launches and more, which saw a record 84 million visits in
2023. For more information on any of these recreation areas, visit parks.NY.gov,
download the free NY State
Parks Explorer app or call 518-474-0456. Join us in celebrating our
Centennial throughout 2024, and connect with us on Facebook,
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the OPRHP Blog.
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Contact:
Dan
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Information Officer
518-486-1868
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