Albany Warehouse District Historic Resources Survey: Intensive Level Survey Report
Easton Architects. 2022. Albany Warehouse District Historic Resources Survey: Intensive Level Survey Report. City of Albany Planning & Development Department; New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation
From the Executive Summary: "The City of Albany Planning and Development Department retained Easton Architects to undertake an intensive-level architectural survey of the historic resources within the Albany Warehouse District. The survey was funded by a Certified Local Government grant awarded by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (grant identifier PRK01-CLG20-2020-00008). The goals of the Albany Warehouse District Historic Resource Intensive-Level Survey are to record the architectural heritage of the neighborhood and to provide the City of Albany, the City’s Planning and Development Department and its residents with a tool to inform future planning decisions. The neighborhood known as the Albany Warehouse District is a comprised of small and large industrial structures dating from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The area contains industrial building fabric and context that is integral to the development of the city of Albany and is a testament to the city’s rich industrial past establishing Albany as an epicenter of commercial and political significance. Industrial trades including lumber, various types of manufacturing and brewing all contributed to the vitality and importance of this district. The intensive-level survey included an evaluation of eligibility for listing on the New York State and National Registers of Historic Places. Buildings were evaluated for individual eligibility and as contributors to a potential historic district. A recommended historic district was identified as potentially significant under Criteria A and C for its associations with 19th and 20th centuries industries and manufacturing and transportation-related themes that influenced Albany's historic development, and for its representations of 19th and 20th century industrial architecture. The neighborhood’s industrial character and surviving buildings merit recognition as the last physical embodiment of the neighborhood’s significant role in Albany’s history. The recommended historic district could be termed the Albany Lumber and Industrial District or could continue to use the neighborhood’s common name of the Albany Warehouse District. The recommended period of significance begins in 1853, when the oldest existing industrial building was constructed (the Boardman & Gray Piano Factory at 883 Broadway), and ends in 1972 when the majority of demolition and construction for Interstate-787 was complete and Schaefer Brewing's historic brewery complex was demolished. The recommended historic district unites the individually listed resources and eligible resources already recognized in the survey area; each has its own significance founded in the same significant transportation and industrial themes of the district." Project funding was provided in part by a Historic Preservation Fund grant to the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, administered by the State, Tribal, Local Plans and Grants division, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior (grant number P20AF00037).
- Type
- Generic Document
- Authors
- Easton Architects
- Date of Issue
- 2022-10-31
- Publisher
- City of Albany Planning & Development Department; New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation
- Units
- HPF
- Keywords
- Historic Resource Surveys (Neighborhood)