NY Governor Kathy Hochul announced recommendations by the New York State Board for Historic Preservation to add 36 properties to the State and National Registers of Historic Places and one property to the State Register of Historic Places. These nominations include a new historic district in Harlem, an industrial manufacturing complex in Poughkeepsie, a grange hall in the North County town of Westport, a medical building in Buffalo, historic districts tied to Rochester’s horticultural roots, a light station on Long Island, and an automobile sales garage in Syracuse.
“These nominations reflect generations of community building, planning, and activities that give us a glimpse into our collective past as New Yorkers,” Governor Hochul said. “Identifying these resources and adding them to our historic registers expands our ongoing understanding of our shared history and are important reminders of the innovation, passion, and lived experiences of New Yorkers who came before us.”
New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation Commissioner Erik Kulleseid said, “State and National Register listing can assist owners in revitalizing properties, making them eligible for various public preservation programs and incentives, such as matching State grants and federal and state historic rehabilitation tax credits. Nominations to the State and National Registers of Historic Places are opportunities for us to pause and recognize that every day we live with historic infrastructure that not only has a past but can and does have a future. In addition to the stories these places can tell, they are also valuable resources to consider for today, especially since communities throughout the state are interested in investing in their historic resources for revitalization projects, housing initiatives, and economic development.”
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 work on projects throughout the state, including designations to the State and National Registers, and we’re passionate about bringing new stories forward, updating our inventory of existing listings, and connecting communities with resources to help preserve and promote these assets. State and National Register of Historic Places listing is the first step in connecting historic property owners with incentives and programs that will aid them in stewarding this history.”
New York State continues to lead the nation in use of historic tax credits, with $4.5 billion in total rehabilitation costs from 2017-2021. Since 2011, the historic tax credit program has stimulated over $12 billion in project expenditures in New York State, creating significant investment and new jobs. According to a report, between 2017-2021 the credits in New York State generated 69,769 jobs and generated over $1.3 billion in local, state, and federal taxes.
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 120,000 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
Catholic Central High School, Rensselaer County – Originally built in 1947 as a textile research laboratory for the Cluett Peabody & Company shirt manufacturer and acquired by the Albany Diocese in 1952, Catholic Central High School was a key regional provider of Catholic secondary education for almost seventy years. Located in the Lansingburgh section of Troy, the 75,000 square-foot H-shaped building, along with its gymnasium and athletic fields, represents regional and national patterns in Catholic education during the second half of the twentieth century. With its plain but expansive tan brick edifice and interior features such as double-loaded corridors, terrazzo stairs and floors, and built-in lockers, the building reads as a typical school from the period. The school saw peak enrollment in 1965, and diminished enrollment in the years that followed. The school closed due to a merger in 2021 and there are plans for the site to be reused for apartments.
Copake Railroad Depot, Columbia County – Located in the Town of Copake, the Copake Railroad Depot is a small, one-story wood-frame 1876 passenger station connected to a one-story 1913 freight house. It is an intact and increasingly rare example of a small, rural railroad station building in the Hudson Valley that illustrates the distinguishing characteristics of the rural depots built throughout the region into the early twentieth century. Built for the Rhinebeck & Connecticut Railroad Company, the no-frills passenger and freight station is one of only three of the company’s surviving depots and the only one that has not been moved or substantially altered. It has wood-frame construction, original board siding, a gabled roof with deep overhanging eaves, Gothic-inspired motifs, and a strong association with its setting. The interior follows the classic plan for a railroad station by incorporating both passenger waiting and baggage storage areas, and many historic finishes survive. The Rhinebeck & Connecticut Railroad was an important means of transporting Hudson Valley farm products and other commodities to urban markets and it significantly bolstered the local dairy industry; it was also widely used by tourists for passenger service.
Griswold Heights Historic District and Corliss Park Historic District, Troy, Rensselaer County – These two separate historic districts are significant as examples of the Troy Housing Authority’s response to housing shortages caused by returning veterans and college students after World War II and as intact, fully developed examples of post-World War II public housing projects illustrating the garden apartment type, which was made popular by housing reformers in the early twentieth century. The Troy Housing Authority (THA) was established in 1945 and over more than seventy years developed thirteen housing projects scattered throughout the city. The first ones were prompted by severe housing shortages after the war; however, the THA soon expanded its mission to include low-income and elderly populations as well as those displaced by urban renewal and demolition. Griswold Heights (1950) and Corliss Park (1952), located near the south and north ends of the city, respectively, were the THA’s first two projects, both federally funded, and are two examples that attempted to fully realize the planning goals of housing reformer, especially those that advocated for large sites, parklike settings, a close relationship between buildings and landscape, and tenant privacy. For Griswold Heights, which occupied an especially generous thirty-five-acre parcel, the architects developed widely spaced clusters of buildings, with each cluster forming a U-shaped form around a landscaped courtyard. Rectangular buildings were relatively plain but consistent in form and materials, and each tenant had a private front and rear entrance. The district retains a very high level of integrity of plan. At the smaller site of Corliss Park, architects used a serpentine roadway and varied placement of buildings to create as much open space and privacy as possible. Buildings were similar, long and rectangular, with private entrances for each tenant. Corliss Park also retains a high level of integrity of plan. Both projects were designed by NYC architects Reisner and Urban – while at Griswold they partnered with Midwest modern architects Lankton and Ziegele.
Papscanee Island Historic District, Rensselaer County – (State Register only) Papscanee Island Historic District is an extraordinary cultural and historic landscape located on the east side of the Hudson River just south of the current city of Rensselaer. The district encompasses nearly the entire historic boundaries of Papscanee and Cuyper Islands as they would have appeared in the early 1600s, when they were a principal settlement area of the powerful Muh-he-con-ne-ok, or Mohican Nation, the Hudson Valley’s predominant Native people, and the Sachem Papsickene, an influential Mohican leader. The Mohicans, today recognized as the Stockbridge-Munsee Community Band of Mohican Indians, own the largest tract of land on Papscanee Island for the purpose of preservation and as a testament to the island’s importance in Mohican history and its central location within their traditional homeland. The Stockbridge-Munsee Community consider Papscanee Island to be a historic resource of utmost historic, spiritual, and cultural significance based on its association with events that are significant to Mohican history, its direct association with the Sachem Papsickene, its connection to Mohican ancestors, and as one of many important historic sites in the Mohican Traditional Homeland.
The Papscanee Island Historic District provides important evidence about the culture and lifeways of the Mohicans as an independent, sovereign nation in the Late Woodland period, documents some of the earliest settlement in the Hudson Valley by Dutch colonists, and provides evidence of the many changes promulgated as a result of the early contact between the Mohicans and Dutch explorers and settlers, as well as by continued contact with the Dutch, as they settled on Mohican lands. The district’s history is documented in twenty known archaeological sites representing both Mohican and Dutch history, an early New World Dutch house, (Joachim Staats House), and a settlement-period cemetery (Staats Family Cemetery) that span the Late Woodland (c. AD 1000-1550), Contact (c. 1550-1700), Early Dutch (ca. 1609-1700), and post-contact Dutch (1700-1800) periods. Information about the house and cemetery, which were previously listed on the National Register, has been updated and discussed within the context of the entire district. 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.
Philmont Historic District, Columbia County – The Philmont Historic District in the Town of Claverack is an important representation of New York’s factory-built villages of the nineteenth century. Access to water power from the Agawamuck Creek and later the power canal plus the proximity to the railroad made the district an attractive location for straw paper and hosiery manufacturers for several decades. These factories were the economic backbone of the community until the 1950s. While most of the shuttered mill buildings have been lost, many mill-era residences survive. Workers’ housing tended to be smaller, wood-frame houses that may have been built as early as the 1820s, and many of them were designed to accommodate multiple households per building. Early millowners built their homes near their factories, but later trends dictated that they be located further away with a more suburban feel created by lush lawns and deep setbacks. During the 1910s and 1920s, residents often added Craftsman style details and finishes to update their older homes.
Thomas S. and Mary K. Fagan House, Rensselaer County – The Fagan House in Troy’s Eastside neighborhood is an excellent example of Colonial Revival architecture in a new residential subdivision. The home was built for the siblings Thomas and Mary Fagan in 1909 on a corner lot of the newly developed Whitman Court. The Fagan siblings were prominent members of local society, partially due to Thomas’ position as Corporation Counsel for the City of Troy from 1900 to 1903. The C.P. Boyd Company, a building company known for constructing other locally significant structures including the Emma Willard School and the Ilium Building in Troy and Proctor’s Theater in Schenectady, was tasked with building the house. The Fagan House exemplifies the Colonial Revival style, mixing Georgian and Federal elements in a building characterized by a sense of order. Both the interior and exterior of the home remain largely unchanged since its construction.
Thomson District No. 10 School, Washington County – Built in 1915, the former Thomson District No. 10 School in the town of Greenwich is a three-story, hipped-roof, brick masonry school building with Craftsman detailing that embodies both local civic aspirations and the standardized public-school designs of the Progressive Era. The Progressive Era focus on public health and education reform led New York State to implement new design standards and regulations for school buildings that emphasized the importance of the physical environment for learning and incorporated best practices for sanitation, heating, ventilation, lighting, and fire safety. This is an early, intact example of public schools built during this period and one of the only surviving public buildings in the hamlet from that time. The school served children from the rural Hudson River valley milling and manufacturing communities of Thomson, Clark Mills, Northumberland, Schuylerville, and Victory Mills until 1968. The site then functioned as private schools through 2018 and has recently been rehabilitated as a private residence.
Central Region
H.A. Moyer Factory Complex (Boundary Increase and Additional Documentation), Onondaga County – The H.A. Moyer Factory Complex, featuring several buildings designed by architect Ward Wellington Ward between 1883-1909, was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2022. The purpose of this amendment is to revise the description of 301 Wolf Street and to expand the boundary and period of significance slightly to include 1920 Park, an attached ca. 1883 building that was unaccounted for in the original nomination. This group of historic factory components represents the development of one of Syracuse’s most important industries- carriage and automobile manufacturing- from the late nineteenth through the early twentieth century.
J. F. O’Connor Sales Company Garage, Onondaga County – The J.F. O’Connor Sales Company Garage, located in the Near Eastside neighborhood of Syracuse, was one of the largest automobile distributors in the region in the late 1920s. Capitalizing on the growing use of personal automobiles, the O’Connor Sales Company identified a need in Central New York and became the main distributor of first Jordan, and then later Pierce-Arrow and Studebaker cars. The company remained successful through the Great Depression due in part to its sale of used vehicles. At its height, the J.F. O’Connor Sales Company was a distributor for 45 counties in Central New York and Pennsylvania. The garage itself is a two-story cast-stone building that retains several features illustrating its function, including a spacious first-floor showroom, an automobile ramp connecting all three floors of the building’s eastern volume, overhead garage doors, a painted ghost sign, and historic storefronts on the façade. The O’Connor company later relocated to a new location in 1934, and the building was subsequently used by many small businesses, including food, flooring, and home goods stores. The last business to operate out of this building closed in 2019.
Kemp and Burpee/Brown-Lipe Company Factory Buildings, Onondaga County – This complex of buildings represents two important industries located in Syracuse’s West Fayette Street industrial corridor that are significant for their contributions to Syracuse’s industrial history and for their catalog of industrial design types. The three components were constructed in the same year for different companies and they were later combined in 1916. The Kemp and Burpee Company was founded by Joseph S. Kemp, who patented a manure spreader, an essential piece of farm equipment, in 1874. He moved to Syracuse in 1880, partnered with William Kemp, and constructed a large factory complex in this location in 1906. Kemp and Burpee remained in Syracuse until relocating to the Midwest after the turn of the century. The Brown-Lipe Company grew out of a machine shop established by Charles E. Lipe and developed with Alexander Brown into a thriving business making gears and transmissions related to the auto industry. Brown-Lipealso built its first factory here in 1906. By 1916, Kemp and Burpee had left, while Brown-Lipe had grown and diversified, prompting Lipe to purchase the remaining Kemp and Burpee buildings and connect them all with different kinds of skybridges. Architecturally, the three sections present an interesting variety of industrial types. The Kemp and Burpee office illustrates traditional mill construction, while its woodworking shop has a brick veneer over poured-in-place concrete. The Lipe building, however, was designed by renowned industrial architect Albert Kahn and is the earliest example of reinforced concrete construction in Syracuse. Together these buildings represent contemporary industrial practices and the history of innovation and manufacturing along the West Street corridor.
Marshall & Son Warehouse, Onondaga County – One Webster’s Landing, historically known as the Marshall & Son Warehouse, is a five-story brick Romanesque Revival-style commercial building in downtown Syracuse. Constructed in 1893 to house the hide and wool business of Jacob Marshall, a Jewish Bavarian immigrant, it included ample space leased to other businesses over the generations, including a tobacco dealer, wholesale grocer, and a dealer in electrical and mill supplies. The site was ideally located, with ready access to the canal and rail systems and a short walk to Syracuse’s financial center. It is a rare surviving example of prolific Syracuse architect Archimedes Russell’s commercial work and is a notably intact late-nineteenth-century warehouse of “slow-burning” construction in Syracuse. In part to the success of their business, the Marshall family became leading philanthropists in Syracuse’s vibrant and multifaceted Jewish community.
Finger Lakes
Azalea-Highland Park Terrace Historic District, Monroe County – The Azalea-Highland Park Terrace Historic District is a residential district in the City of Rochester. It is historically associated with the development of the Ellwanger and Barry Realty Company, with construction spanning 1924-1970 and the bulk of construction happening in the first five years following World War II as demand for the single-family, working-middle class homes rose significantly. All buildings in the nominated district have driveways and most have garages, reflecting the rise in automobile ownership as the neighborhood was developed. The variety of architectural styles reflects the middle-class tastes and preferences for housing styles in the decades surrounding World War II, and include Colonial Revival, Tudor Revival, Dutch Colonial, Craftsman, twentieth-century modern, Cape Cod, Split-Level, and Ranch. It became known as the Azalea neighborhood due to the several azalea shrubs planted in Highland Park across from the nominated district.
Ellwanger & Barry-Highland Park Historic District, Monroe County – The Ellwanger and Barry-Highland Park Historic District is located in the City of Rochester and is situated on land once owned by the Ellwanger and Barry Botanical and Pomological Gardens (Mount Hope Nurseries), a world-class nursery and orchard business. Buildings within the district reflect the rapid development of the Highland Park neighborhood as Rochester expanded beyond the city center, and include Colonial Revival, Dutch Colonial Revival, Tudor Revival, and American Foursquare architectural styles. The district is notable as an intact collection of examples of late-nineteenth to mid-twentieth-century middle and working-class residential buildings, many of which were built by builder J.D. Sullivan. The influence of the district’s horticultural roots can be seen in the tree-lined streets, careful grading, and purposefully designed small parks found throughout the development.
Four Corners-Genesee Crossroads Historic District, Monroe County – The Four-Corners Genesee Crossroads Historic District is representative of the historical changes, architectural trends, and community development experienced in downtown Rochester from 1821-1977. It is located at the geographic and historic center of the city of Rochester. The buildings in this district are more diverse than in any other area of Rochester and represent different periods of growth and development of the city from a frontier settlement to a regional commercial, political, and transit hub to a professional center today. The district’s architecture includes early nineteenth-century churches, Brutalist buildings, and sleek glass and steel high rises, but it also reflects the dramatic impact of Urban Renewal on downtown Rochester and the subsequent push by historic preservation advocates to adaptively reuse historic buildings.
Mount Hope-Highland Historic District (Boundary Increase and Additional Documentation), Monroe County– Located in the City of Rochester, the Mount Hope-Highland Historic District was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. This amendment identifies the district’s areas of significance as Community Planning and Development, Architecture, and Landscape Architecture. Properties in the listed district and the expansion areas are directly associated with the Ellwanger and Barry Nursery, a world-renowned and major commercial venture in Rochester. They also relate to the development of Highland Park, which was gifted to the City of Rochester by Ellwanger and Barry for the purpose of creating a park and was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted. The district includes residences utilized by the Ellwanger and Barry families for personal use and those that were part of residential developments on former nursery lands subdivided by Ellwanger and Barry. The revised period of significance for the district is 1840-1963. Updating the listed Mount Hope-Highland Historic District’s information and expanding the boundary underscores the full development history of this area as it related to the Ellwanger and Barry companies, the realty company, and their impact on Rochester.
South Farmington Friends Cemetery and Meetinghouse Site, Ontario County – The South Farmington Friends Cemetery and Meetinghouse site consists of two discontiguous properties in the Town of Farmington that are significant to the early development of the Town of Farmington and its affiliation with the Quaker community. The cemetery, which has roots to 1823, reflects how Quaker burial practices changed from unmarked graves to having simple, unadorned markers. The small public park, now named Meetinghouse Park, was originally the site of the 1823 Quaker Meetinghouse that was dismantled in 1928. The collective landscape not only features the layout of a settlement-era cemetery, but also includes historic iron cemetery fencing, an 1895 chapel, an 1898 Romanesque Revival stone vault, and a 1928 historic marker. The 1895 chapel reflects the plain style of the Quaker tradition and while it sustained damage from a tornado in 2015, the interior has been stabilized and still has original features such as hand-hewn wainscoting on the interior walls, pine floors, and double oak doors with original hinges and metal door handles.
Third Methodist Episcopal Church of Sodus, Wayne County – The Third Methodist Episcopal Church of Sodus, now known as the United Third Methodist Church, is an excellent example of a late nineteenth- century Romanesque Revival-style church in the Village of Sodus. Constructed 1887-1889, the nominated church is cruciform shaped and was designed by the well-known Rochester architectural firm of Jay Fay and Otis W. Dryer. An addition was added in 1963 for classroom and office space. There is also a ca. 1846 two-story wood frame vinyl-sided parsonage. Romanesque Revival features include round-arched stone lintels and door surrounds, stone corner buttresses, and narrow paired or single windows in the towers or flanking a large rose window on the facade. The interior of both buildings retains several historic features that include the layout, historic stairs, wainscoting, and wood doors and trim. Today, the space is shared with other congregations, community groups, as well as the Sodus Farmers’ Market.
Long Island
Old Field Point Light Station, Suffolk County – The Old Field Point Light Station, located in Setauket, represents both the efforts undertaken by the federal government to enhance maritime safety as well as the evolution of lighthouse construction. The first light tower was built on this location in the early nineteenth century, as well as the original keeper’s dwelling which was built around 1824. The building of a fire tower and separate dwelling is representative of this first era of federally funded maritime safety measures. Between 1868 and 1869, the existing light house was constructed following a newer standardized model that favored the keeper’s dwelling and the light itself being housed in the same structure. This model of light station was developed by the United States federal government following the Civil War and was in use until the 1930s. While Old Field Point Light Station is now unmanned and relies on electricity rather than oil, it remains an active lighthouse and works to ensure the safety of boaters on Long Island Sound today.
Mid-Hudson
Main Mall Row Historic District (Boundary Expansion and Additional Documentation), Poughkeepsie Multiple Resource Area, Dutchess County – The Main Mall Row Historic District was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1982 as part of the Poughkeepsie Multiple Resource Area, a very early multiple property nomination that was based on a survey of the city of Poughkeepsie. This nomination is intended to add one building, 317 Main Street, to the Main Mall Row Historic District. The row is a striking grouping of stylish commercial buildings that stand within the central business district and illustrate the important role that merchants played in the city’s economic history. The building at 317 Main is similar in period, scale, massing, materials, design, and function to the other buildings in the district and contributes to the architectural and historical significance of the listed district. In addition to adding information for 317 Main Street, this submission also includes an updated building list and new photos for the entire district.
Standard Gage Company Plant, Dutchess County – This large, multi-section former industrial manufacturing complex is located in Poughkeepsie. Tenants included the internationally recognized Standard Gage Company, which made precision blocks and gauges and occupied the site for almost 80 years. The property consists of interconnected building sections, extensions, and additions, with the earliest construction dating to 1905. Its architecture represents best practices of industrial manufacturing building design and technology at the time for dealing with fire resistance, structural strength, vibration, natural light, and ventilation. The plant had a broad-reaching impact on the industrial growth and development of Poughkeepsie as the headquarters of several early twentieth- century industrial enterprises and served as an economic base for generations of residents.
William H. and Mary M. Romeyn House, Ulster County – The 1853 William H. and Mary Romeyn House is an excellent example of an intact mid-nineteenth century Gothic Revival cottage that is strongly associated with the Picturesque Movement which swept much of the nation in the decades before and after the Civil War. This architectural movement marks a departure from earlier Neoclassical styles. Originally built by noted local architect Edward Brink, the cottage was expanded in 1870, 1889, and 1911 to better suit the needs of its inhabitants. These changes included the addition of rooms that were used by the Romeyn family to entertain guests and additional exterior architectural ornamentation, such as distinctive Neo-Grec style window surrounds. The front wraparound porch and an additional side door were also added in 1911 to enable Dr. E.E. Little, a well-regarded physician who owned the home, to admit patients easily into his home office. This cottage is an excellent example of mid-nineteenth-century domestic architecture and is the only surviving example in Kingston with such intricate features.
New York City
Building at 287 Broadway, New York County – Located in one of the earliest parts of New York City, this 1872 six-story transitional Italianate/French Second Empire style cast-iron commercial building was designed by prolific architect John B. Snook and includes work by major cast-iron manufacturer Jackson, Burnet, & Co. Situated on a corner lot on Lower Broadway, the Broadway façade is three bays wide and the Reade Street façade is twelve bays wide. The building’s imposing and rare two cast-iron facades, slate mansard roof with iron cresting above a modillioned cornice, and intact ornate decorative details such as keystone-arched windows make it architecturally significant. It is also significant as the first cast-iron office building. The building illustrates lower Broadway’s transformation from a residential boulevard into the city’s commercial center spine in the nineteenth century and expresses the historical feeling of the post-Civil War era in New York City.
Central Harlem North Historic District, New York County – The Central Harlem North Historic District is an urban residential district approximately ten city blocks in size in Manhattan’s Central Harlem neighborhood, featuring late nineteenth and early twentieth-century brick and stone row houses, tenement houses, and apartment houses, as well as churches, playgrounds, retail and restaurants, library, and a school. The period of significance dates from ca. 1893, the date of the earliest known construction within the district, to 1952. The district illustrates the historic development patterns of Harlem as a Black working-class residential neighborhood, which was heavily tied to the growth of New York City’s public transportation systems and the real estate efforts of Philip Payton Jr.’s Afro-American Realty Company. In addition, the district comprises an excellent, intact grouping of late nineteenth century single-family row houses and new law tenements. Long-standing community anchors include the West 135th Street Branch of the New York Public Library (now known as the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture), Mother AME Zion Church (designed by George W. Foster Jr., one of America’s first African American architects), and the West 135th Street YMCA (an integral center of New York’s Black community and one of the most important locations of the Harlem Renaissance). The district also includes the house of one of the Harlem Renaissance’s and early twentieth century’s most important civil rights leaders: writer, lawyer, and diplomat James Weldon Johnson. Johnson was National Executive Secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and was co-author of what has become the Black National Anthem, “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”
Edenwald Houses, Bronx County – The Edenwald Houses, a mid-century public housing complex in the Bronx, represents a unique period of housing development in New York’s history. Following World War II, there was an unprecedented need for housing throughout New York City, especially for veterans and working families. The Edenwald Houses project was developed by the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) in 1953 as part of a city-wide attempt to solve this housing shortage. This marked a pronounced shift in government involvement in the community planning process, although it did not fully address the ongoing issue of housing inequity. The Edenwaldcampus includes 40 residential structures designed to house families of all sizes within an airy and open greenspace. These brick-clad buildings include three- and fourteen-story units which have been in continuous use as residences since their construction and embody the simplified, functional design favored by the NYCHA during this period. These housing units were intended to preserve open spaces, providing light and air for residences as well as open green spaces for recreation. This design is unique to the Edenwald Houses, as they were one of the only NYCHA projects built on already vacant property. Edenwald is also home to a Community Center that was designed to serve as a social hub for those who lived in these apartments. The Community Center provided, and continues to provide, programming for children and seniors, classes, meeting spaces, and recreation opportunities.
Manhattanville Houses, New York County – The Manhattanville Houses, located in the Manhattanville neighborhood of New York City, were built as a public housing project by the New York City Housing Authority between 1958 and 1961. These buildings and the superblock on which they are located are representative of mid-century public housing projects, which included the demolition of multiple blocks of earlier tenement-style housing and the reconfiguration of roads and walkways. Unlike other New York City Housing Authority housing projects, the Manhattanville Houses was intended as housing for middle-income families and did not rely on federal funding support. Built in a true modernist design, these six red brick-clad buildings are shaped like a Y and are 20 stories tall. Each building is centered around a communal balcony space clad in blue brick, with colorful metal panels to add visual interest. These spaces were designed as spaces in which residents could engage in outside activities, and to let fresh and light into the housing units. An important part of the housing project’s design was its landscape, which community development specialists believed would create attractive and functional greenspace for residents to use. The site is also home to an active Community Center and Children’s Center which serves residents of the Manhattanville Houses.
Talmud Torah Atereth Israel, Kings County – Now known as Ninth Tabernacle Beth El, Talmud Torah Atereth Israel (Study of the Torah, Crown of Israel) was built in 1923 for an Orthodox Eastern and Central European Jewish congregation in the East New York neighborhood of Brooklyn. Designed by Brooklyn architect William Winters in the Renaissance Revival style, it is a fine example of early twentieth-century American synagogue design. Talmud Torahs were popular in the early twentieth century as they allowed immigrant children to attend public school during the day and religious school in the afternoon, allowing for an eased assimilation into American life as well as retention of traditional Jewish values. In 1974, the synagogue was purchased by the Ninth Tabernacle of the Church of God and Saints of Christ, a Black Hebrew Israelite congregation that had been displaced from its long-term home in Bedford-Stuyvesant. Much of the Judaica remains intact, including stained glass windows and a large Star of David in the sanctuary, and the building retains much of its original façade design and architectural features.
Tanker Mary A Whalen, ex S.T. Kiddoo Additional Documentation, Kings County – The Tanker Mary A Whalen, ex S.T. Kiddoo, was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2012 as a rare example of an early twentieth-century steel, lap-welded coastal oil tanker. Built in 1938, the tanker retains the original configuration, original alternating strake shell plating, original direct reversible diesel power plant, and a rare surviving “bell boat” arrangement supplementing the telegraph for wheelhouse-engine room communications and as such is a highly representative example of 1930s shipbuilding practices and technology. This amended nomination updates the tanker’s location from Pier 9b at the Red Hook Container Terminal in Brooklyn to nearby Pier 11, Atlantic Basin in Brooklyn. In addition, this amendment adds information about its significance at the national level due to its role in the 1975 Supreme Court case Reliable Transfer v. United States– which established a new precedent in maritime collision law that liability should be determined in proportion to fault– and extends the period of significance through 1975.
William Ulmer Brewery Complex, Kings County – Located in the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn, this complex embodies nearly fifty years of beer brewing history and represents several significant periods of the brewery’s history and important periods of the history of beer brewing itself. Dating to 1872, the operation and expansions of the William Ulmer Brewery reflect the popularity of lager brewing in Brooklyn that accompanied the influx of German immigrants to the New York metropolitan area in the 1800s. The surviving intact buildings directly reflect the architectural and technological approaches that brewers used to produce cold temperatures required for the brewing and aging of lager beer, which, unlike the ale process, requires near-freezing temperatures for a sustained period. These include large cellars beneath the main brew and cold storage house (1872), a cold storage house addition (ca. 1881), and spaces for mechanical refrigerating equipment (1885). The brewery closed in 1920 and has since been used for light manufacturing, retail, and residential space.
North County
Malone Residential Historic District, Franklin County – The Malone Residential Historic District, near New York’s northern border, represents the historic and physical growth of the town of Malone. This region of the state was originally part of the Old Military Tract which was land set aside as compensation for Revolutionary War veterans. When the land was deemed to be too unprofitable to farm, though, land speculators began purchasing and selling plots. By the beginning of the 1800s, Malone was the seat of Franklin County. Later in the 1840s, access to railroads dramatically expanded the region’s increasingly important dairy industry. By the twentieth century, Malone was home to several manufacturing firms including paper and cloth mills. The architecture in the district represents these many phases of Malone development, including Greek Revival, Gothic Revival, Second Empire, Queen Anne, Folk Victorian, Colonial Revival, Craftsman, American Foursquare, and Minimal Traditional styles. These buildings are all representative of architectural trends across the nation, with local variations embedded into their design. Through these buildings, the Malone Residential Historic District chronicles the prosperity, growth, and development of Malone over a 120-year period.
Wadhams Grange Hall, Essex County – Located in the Town of Westport, this two-story, gable-roofed building with a long rectangular footprint was originally built as a store ca 1830, enlarged in 1874, and renovated in 1911 to accommodate grange activities. The building is an intact example of a grange hall, with the first floor containing a kitchen and dining room for preparation and serving of meals plus a large meeting room with a stage for grange meetings and other events, and the second floor consisting of two large meeting rooms. The Hall was the former home of Wadhams Grange No. 1015, which was a chapter of the National Grange, and was an important local ritual-based organization for more than ninety-five years that brought farm families together for education, empowerment, entertainment, and social gatherings. In addition to its importance to the farming community, the building was the most important public meeting place in the community.
Southern Tier
John Creque House, Tompkins County – The John Creque House in Trumansburg is an example of an early nineteenth-century style home that was updated and expanded in 1868 in a way that reflects the economic development of the village and the change in architectural tastes among upwardly mobile homeowners. The home was first built in the Federal Style around 1815 by John Creque, a blacksmith who had recently relocated to the area from New Jersey. Creque and his family witnessed the massive growth of Trumansburg following the opening of the Erie Canal. As Trumansburg became an important manufacturing center, Creque expanded and diversified his blacksmithing business to become a dealer in hardware, paints, building materials, and more. After Creque died in 1866, the home was sold, expanded, and modernized with Italianate architectural elements including a bracketed roof, a decorative tripartite window, and front porch complete with Italianate columns. This expansion and remodel were successful, as the property sold four months later for more than double its original sale price. The home remains today as an important example of an early settlement house that was remodeled and revisioned during a historical period of prosperity and changing architectural tastes.
State Street-Henry Street Historic District Boundary Expansion, Broome County – Originally listed on the State and National Registers of Historic Places in 1986, the State Street-Henry Street Historic District in the city of Binghamton identified an intact and cohesive enclave of commercial, industrial, and institutional buildings from 1877-1935 that was associated with the development of the nearby railroad and reflected the impact of economic growth. The expanded district, which extends the district’s period of significance from 1840-1968, includes examples of civic and multi-unit residential buildings that tell a fuller story of the impact that the railroad economy had on the neighborhood’s built environment, including several prominent social buildings that were designed by notable architects, such as Binghamton’s own Isaac Perry. It expands the story from the public-facing commercial and governmental structures of the original district to include the private apartment blocks and clubs that contributed to the social life of the district.
Western New York
Building at 1389 Delaware Avenue, Erie County – The Building at 1389 Delaware Avenue, formerly known as the E.L. Smith & Company Building and McDonnell and Sons Company Building, is a rare example of a late nineteenth-century pressed-metal commercial building in Buffalo. The two-story building was designed in 1895 in a commercial Italianate style with a retail storefront on the first floor and manufacturing space on the second floor. Its elaborate pressed-metal façade features decorative window surrounds, arched hoods, and a cornice with dentils and modillions. The building was originally home to a Vermont monument manufacturer and was centered within a community of funeral-related industries that emerged surrounding the historic Forest Lawn Cemetery. The intricate exterior was intended to demonstrate that the business within was suitably dignified for those in mourning who were seeking memorials. Later, the building housed several taverns and nightclubs. The building at 1389 Delaware Avenue appears to be the only identified example of a building with a decorative pressed-metal façade remaining in the city of Buffalo.
Childs Historic District, Orleans County – The Childs Historic District represents the critical relationship between rural and commercial that characterized the nineteenth century in New York. The hamlet of Childs developed at the intersection of two new state routes during the 1800s which later developed into major thoroughfares. The community’s proximity to the Erie Canal catapulted it onto the global stage in the 1820s, as Orleans County became the national center of wheat production as a result of being able to cheaply and efficiently ship wheat eastward. Suddenly, rural subsistence farmers were plugged into massive markets and quickly became cash crop farmers. This resulting economic stability led to an increase in building and infrastructure, and locals were able to construct buildings that reflected their wealth and prosperity. The architectural resources in this historic district collectively represent the hamlet’s commercial development due to its prominent location from 1820 until 1960. The district includes Federal, Greek Revival, Colonial Revival, and even one Craftsman-style building. The several Greek Revival structures built using cobblestones present a unique regional building material and method of construction. Taken together, these buildings retain their character-defining features and integrity of design, materials, workmanship, and feeling while their proximity to roadways evoke a mid-nineteenth to early twentieth-century community feel. They also highlight efforts to preserve the hamlet’s architectural heritage which dates back to the 1960 founding of the Cobblestone Society.
Gates Circle Medical Building, Erie County – Built between 1967 and 1968 in Buffalo, the Gates Circle Medical Building is significant as a representative example of a modestly designed mid-twentieth- century medical office. This type of facility developed in the post-World War II era to accommodate multiple medical offices and specialties in one centralized location, and this one was designed to be flexible and adaptable to the changing organizational and technological needs of its tenants. Designed by architect Richard B. Maides from nearby North Tonawanda, this three-story concrete and steel frame building reflects a minimalistic aesthetic intended to convey the modernity of the medical practices which was essential to attracting clients and establishing a professional reputation. The building includes a simple flexible interior plan, with a central circulation core flanked by office space on either side. This maximized flexibility in use and allowed ample windows and natural lighting for tenants.
Winspear Extension Historic District, Erie County – The Winspear Extension Historic District, located in the University Heights neighborhood of Buffalo, is a significant example of an early twentieth-century suburban style of development in the city. Developed in 1920 and offering access to the streetcar network, new roads, and proximity to the growing State University of New York at Buffalo, the District was rapidly settled by White working and middle-class residents by the 1930s. The district contains significant examples of popular architectural styles of the period, including bungalow, American Foursquare, Colonial Revival, and Craftsman styles. These houses, which are uniformly placed on small, grassy parcels with paved sidewalks, are typically paired with small one-car garages that were built at the same time. Today, the neighborhood is primarily Black, and residents are active members of block clubs and community-led efforts to improve the quality of their houses through architectural repairs. Overall, the housing and landscape of the Winspear Extension District are largely unchanged from the 1920s and 1930s, maintaining both the historical appearance and character of the neighborhood.
