Alms House nominated for historic registers
Three other sites in Ulster County and one in Dutchess also are among the 23 in New York to be picked.
ALBANY, N.Y. » The New York Board for Historic Preservation has recommended adding 23 properties, resources and districts — including the former Alms House in Kingston — to the state and national Registers of Historic Places, Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office announced Friday.
The recommendations also include three other sites in Ulster County and one in Dutchess County.
“These nominations will help communities across this great state preserve the historic landmarks and sites that shaped New York’s rich heritage,” Cuomo said in a prepared statement.
Being listed on the historic registers makes sites eligible for various public preservation programs and services, such as state grants and state and federal historic rehabilitation tax credits.
“This designation is an important step in helping the owners and caretakers preserve and improve these assets,” said Rose Harvey, commissioner of the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.
Once a state-level recommendation is approved by New York’s historic preservation officer, a property is listed on the state Register of Historic Places. It then is nominated for inclusion on the national register.
There are more than 120,000 historic buildings, structures and sites in New York state that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, individually or as components of historic districts. Property owners, municipalities and organizations from communities sponsor the nominations.
The former Alms House, at 300 Flatbush Ave. in Kingston, was nominated by the affordable housing agency RUPCO when it was seeking to create apartments in the unused building.
RUPCO wanted to buy the Alms House and establish supportive housing for senior citizens, veterans and the homeless. The agency said the historic designation would allow it to secure state and federal tax credits for the project.
The proposal proved controversial, however, especially in the surrounding neighborhood, and the Kingston Common Council ultimately rejected RUPCO’s request for the property to be zoned for “multifamily residential” use.
RUPCO later sued the city over the rezoning denial. There has yet to be a ruling in the case.
Constructed in the 1870s as a place to care for the city’s poor, the Alms House later was used as a tuberculosis ward in the 1950s and then housed the county’s Department of Health offices.
RUPCO planned to buy the property from the Ulster County Economic Development Agency or $950,000.
The other local sites nominated for historic designation, Cuomo’s office said, are:
• The George W. Bellows House in Woodstock. The house, on Bellows Lane, off Lower Byrdcliffe Road, was built in 1921 as a summer residence by George Bellows (1882-1925)a member of the Ashcan School of art.
• The John H. and Sarah Trumbull House in Kingston. Built in 1876, the house, on Marius Street, was designed by architect Arthur Crooks, who blended Gothic features with the Stick style.
• The Vernooy-Bevier Stone House in Wawarsing. The property, off U.S. Route 209 in the Kerhonkson area, includes a limestone house likely dating to the mid-18th century, as well 19th-century farm outbuildings.
• The New Guinea Community Site in Hyde Park. The historic site within Hackett Hill Park was the location of an early free black community, active from about 1790 to 1850. The community existed at a time when rural settlements in or near established towns attracted recently freed black migrants who were looking for work, searching for family members separated during slavery or hoping to find havens away from their former masters.