There are 78 properties listed on the National Register of Historic Places in Albany, New York, United States. Six are additionally designated as National Historic Landmarks (NHLs), the most of any city in the state after New York City. Another 14 are historic districts, for which 20 of the listings are also contributing properties. Two properties, both buildings, that had been listed in the past but have since been demolished have been delisted; one building that is also no longer extant remains listed.
The listed properties represent approximately 250 years of the city's history, from its 17th-century Dutch colonial origins to its suburban expansion in the mid-20th century. Reflecting Albany's position as New York's state capital are the main buildings of all three branches of state government. City Hall, the main offices of the city's school district, and the diocesan cathedrals of both the Episcopal and Roman Catholic churches are also included.
Some properties are recognized at least in part for unique attributes, such as the possible grave of the only British peer buried in the United States, the only destroyer escort still afloat and the only fireplace in that style remaining in the country. Others recognize historic firsts such as the discovery of electrical inductance, the first state government building in the country to house an educational agency and the first basketball game played outside Massachusetts, where the sport was invented. Prominent architects represented include nationally prominent figures such as Henry Hobson Richardson, Richard Morris Hunt, Richard Upjohn and Stanford White, as well as local ones like Marcus T. Reynolds. In addition to the architects and many state politicians, historic personages associated with the listed properties include George Washington, John McCloskey and Legs Diamond.
Overview
The National Register of Historic Places, the U.S. national heritage register, was established by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966. It is administered by the National Park Service (NPS). Properties to be listed are usually first approved by the state historic preservation offices for listing on their state-level heritage register and then nominated to the National Register. Sometimes they are nominated directly to the National Register. In New York the board is under the auspices of the state's Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.
A separate NPS program has jurisdiction over properties nominated for National Historic Landmark status, which must be formally granted by the Secretary of the Interior. There is no requirement that a property nominated for NHL status previously have been listed on the Register, although many were. NHLs that were not previously listed on the Register are listed administratively when they are designated NHLs. The NHL program predates the Register by a few years, and NHLs that had been designated prior to the establishment of the Register were administratively listed when the latter was established.
Geographical distribution
Outside the city, Albany County has another 148 listings. One listing, the Albany Felt Company Complex, is shared with the neighboring town of Menands. Two of the listings, the USS Slater and Whipple Cast and Wrought Iron Bowstring Truss Bridge, were moved to Albany from other locations.
Most of the listed properties are located in central Albany, close to the Hudson River and the original boundaries of the city, an area today largely coterminous with one listing, the Downtown Albany Historic District. The south end of the Albany Felt Company Complex in the city's northeast corner is its easternmost listing. Near the city's southern boundary, overlooking Interstate 787, is Nut Grove, the southernmost entry. The Rapp Road Community Historic District, in an area rural for much of its existence until the development of Crossgates Mall nearby, is at the western and northern extreme.These can be verified by clicking on the OpenStreetMap or Google Maps links below.
The downtown historic district takes those boundaries from the stockade built by the Dutch as part of Fort Orange in 1624. The mostly buried remnants of the fort are one of the city's NHLs,Huey, Paul; , National Park Service; May 5, 1993; retrieved August 27, 2011. and the oldest of its Register listings. Until the late 19th century, downtown and its neighboring areas was the entire developed city.
Historic districts
Historic districts are groupings of properties, usually under different ownership, that share a common historical background. They are sometimes recognized by local zoning codes. Not all are actually called historic districts—in Albany, the small "Broadway Row" of four townhouses is officially listed as Buildings at 744–750 Broadway. There are 14 historic districts listed on the Register in the city.
All but twoThe Lustron Houses of Jermain Street is further southwest, closer to the Harriman State Office Complex, and Rapp Road is near the Albany Pine Bush preserve in the city's western extension. of them districts are clustered, contiguously in some areas, in this same section of the city along the river. The districts range in size from Washington Park to Broadway Row, Knox Street and the Lustron Houses of Jermain Street, all less than an acre (4,000 m2).The nomination form for the Broadway Row does not give any area, but the four rowhouses, all depicted in the photo with the listing, have a combined footprint of less than half the small city block they occupy.
Combined, the historic districts equal , about 4% of Albany's total land area. They have over 2,000 buildings, structures, objects or sites within their boundaries. Over 90% of those are considered contributing properties to their districts' historic character.With one exception, these figures are derived from the numbers given in their nomination forms, at the time of those nominations, which date back as far as 1980. Some districts, particularly the South End, have lost some of their significant properties to neglect in the meantime. In particular, the small Broadway–Livingston Avenue Historic District north of downtown, had 20 buildings and a railway bridge as contributing properties when listed. , 11 of the buildings have been demolished, so this very small district was counted as having the nine buildings it actually does. Also, the nomination form for Center Square/Hudson–Park, does not include an enumeration of the total properties in the district, much less distinguish between contributing and non-contributing properties, so it was not included in this count.
Most of the districts are primarily residential enclaves, with some other uses scattered throughout. They reflect different stages of the city's growth, from onetime neighborhoods of the city's wealthy like the Ten Broeck Triangle to immigrant-settled areas like the Mansion District and South End. The two exceptions are downtown, primarily commercial,Harwood and O'Brien, 8. and the government buildings, monuments and parks that make up most of the Lafayette Park Historic District.
Property types and use
Of the remaining 43 extant listings, all but three are buildings or complexes of buildings. Those other three include one structure (the Whipple Cast and Wrought Iron Bowstring Truss Bridge), one maritime site (the USS Slater) and one archeological site (Fort Orange). The historic districts include some other structures, such as the parks that give two of them their names,Lafayette and Washington parks. Some smaller parks are included in the other historic districts. and objects like the statues near the state capitol and one of the city's remaining trolley poles, among their contributing properties. Five listed buildings are vacantAlbany Union Station, Church of the Holy Innocents, Stephen and Harriet Myers Residence, Old Post Office and the United Traction Company Building and one, the Abrams Building, remains listed despite its demolition in 1987.
Government and military
Reflecting Albany's status as New York's capital, 17 of the 41 extant buildings listed individually, more than one-third of that total, have been used for governmental purposes at some point.Six—City Hall, Hook and Ladder No. 4, the State Education Department Building, the New Scotland Avenue Armory, Court of Appeals Building and state capitol—are purpose-built government structures still in use by the governments that built them. The Delaware and Hudson Building, governor's mansion and Schuyler Mansion were privately built and later acquired by the state. Albany Academy's former building was acquired by the school district for use as its main office in the 1930s; it has also annexed the James Hall Office to one of its elementary schools. In the other direction, the city has sold the Harmanus Bleecker Library and Quackenbush Pumping Station, while the state no longer owns the Washington Avenue Armory. Two of the non-building listings, Fort Orange and the Slater, were also originally built by governments. The city government is responsible for three of those, its school district for two and the federal government one (the Old Post Office), with the rest accounted for by state government. Among the latter are the main buildings of all three branches of state government: the governor's mansion (executive), Court of Appeals Building (judicial) and the state capitol (legislative). In only three other states is this so.Minnesota, Ohio and South Carolina.
Among the contributing properties to the historic districts are two buildings representing the federal and county governments, both courthouses. The 1934 Art Deco James T. Foley United States Courthouse, in the downtown district, houses the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York as well as the local office of some other federal law enforcement agencies. When built it also replaced the Old Post Office. It is the only building used by the federal government among the Register listings in Albany. In 2020 it was listed on the Register individually.
Albany County government does not account for any individually listed properties. However, in the Lafayette Park district, the county courthouse is a contributing property.Brook and Spencer-Ralph, 8. At that time it was used for all county governmental functions, but since then most non-judicial departments have moved to a 1920s 13-story office building on State Street. that contributes to the downtown historic district.Harwood and O'Brien, 24. The building has been renumbered to 112 State Street since the listing.
A prominent state government office, the Alfred E. Smith Building, also contributes to the Center Square/Hudson–Park Historic District. Some former police and fire buildings are contributing properties to that and other districts.Elsewhere in Center Square is the city's former police and fire signaling station, and a former firehouse also contributes. A former police station is among the contributing properties to the Clinton Avenue Historic District, and likewise the South End has another former firehouse.
Four of the properties listed have, or have had, a military purpose. The original Fort Orange, built by the Dutch colonial authorities of New Netherland, defended the fledgling settlement. In the late 19th century, the state built the two armories for the National Guard. The Slater was commissioned by the Navy for service in the Pacific theater of World War II; it was later sold to the Greek Navy, where it was rechristened the Aetos.
Education, arts and sciences