ALBANY — Governor Kathy Hochul announced that the New York State Board for Historic Preservation has recommended adding sixteen properties to the State and National Registers of Historic Places. The nominations include a Puerto Rican casita in New York City, a historic firehouse on Long Island, a Catskills summer camp for Black children from Harlem, the Lake Champlain home of a film industry pioneer, and a new historic district featuring the Our Lady of Victory Basilica in Lackawanna.
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.
New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation Commissioner Erik Kulleseid said, “We are passionate about preserving and promoting New York’s historic fabric so that we all might have connections to the past that help ground us in our understanding of what it means to be a New Yorker. With each nomination to the State and National Registers, we are not only providing access to resources that can help these sites have a future, but we are expanding our inventory of sites that can tell a more complete story of the New York experience. This slate of nominations highlights some of the under-told stories New Yorkers want to know more about and helps remind us that there are so many more stories to be told.”
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 are committed to supporting New York’s remarkable historic resources and we work on various projects throughout the state, including designations to the State and National Registers. We have seen opportunities for state and federal tax credits drive local preservation efforts and encourage investments in communities of all sizes. Historic resources are now being recognized as cultural and economic assets, which help ensure their longevity into the future.”
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, 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
Fairview Manor, Columbia County - Also known as the Alonzo & Mary E. Flack House, Fairview Manor is a large, two-story, brick masonry house located in Claverack. Built ca. 1870, the house epitomizes the high-style architecture favored by elite New Yorkers in the Hudson Valley, is highly significant in the context of Hudson Valley Picturesque architecture and is clearly the work of a master architect. Although the architect is not documented, Fairview Manor shares many similarities with the designs of other houses associated with Calvert Vaux, such as its complex massing, asymmetrical plan, and extensive, sophisticated architectural ornament. Vaux was one of the foremost architects in the United States by 1870, due to his significant work with both Andrew Jackson Downing and Frederick Law Olmsted, and was the architect for Frederic Church’s Olana, which was being built at the same time only a few miles away from Fairview Manor. Although it was damaged by a fire in 1998, the house retains many significant features. Considering the limited resources available for the identification and documentation of Vaux’s architectural record, this discovery, identification, and analysis of Fairview Manor- another domestic design most probably by Vaux- marks a major contribution to the scholarship on this influential American architect.
The Alpine, Greene County - Located in the Catskill Mountains on a rural mountain highway in the small village of Haines Falls, this Queen Anne style lodging house was built around 1905. The building exemplifies the small, family-run summer lodging house that was associated with Catskills tourism and was an economic lifeline for many farming families. Not only did income from boarders offset seasons of poor agricultural yield, but the larger hotels in the area were also a market for eggs, butter, and meat. Numerous local families expanded their farmhouses into boarding houses while others had new ones built. Although originally built as a small boarding house, the Alpine expanded in size with additional wings and a gambrel roof, two features that were often added to accommodate more lodgers. Once able to host up to thirty-five guests, the Alpine was among the last boarding houses in operation in Haines Falls (through 1963) and is now one of a diminishing number of surviving boarding houses built during the height of the Catskills summer resort era.