Hoping to make the list
A Schenectady building at a prominent intersection that’s been at the center of a long-running codes battle, and the only 19th-century textile mill in Lansingburgh are among the five properties in the Capital Region being recommended for inclusion on the State and National Registers of Historic Places.
According to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office, the state Board for Historic Preservation has recommended adding 21 properties statewide for the registers. A listing can open the way for owners to revitalize properties, making them eligible for public preservation programs and services, such as matching state grants and state and federal historic rehabilitation tax credits.
The properties, and descriptions provided by the state, are: Wedgeway Building. The Schenectady office and retail building at the corner of State Street and Erie Boulevard first opened in 1885 in the heart of the commercial downtown of the city. Reflecting the city’s economic boom related to the General Electric Co., the building was expanded in 1912 and 1922 and was the city’s largest office building. It is currently vacant, with its last tenant departing in 2021.
Albany Perforated Wrapping Paper Company.
Located in Albany’s
Warehouse District, this facility was once one of the world’s largest makers of toilet paper and paper towels, making more than 30,000 miles a day of such products in the mid-1920s. The plant was developed by Columbia County native Seth Wheeler, who is credited with inventing modern rolled, perforated toilet paper, for which he obtained a federal patent in 1871. Constructed in stages between 1918 and 1922, the mill closed in 1964 and was vacant for some two decades before being redeveloped for its current use as a retail furniture and home goods outlet.
Lion Factory. The manufacturing plant opened in Lansingburgh in 1884 to make detachable shirt collars and cuffs; it was one of numerous local factories engaged in that enterprise, which helped give the adjoining city of Troy its nickname, the “Collar City.” Lansingburgh was later incorporated into Troy.
Company owner James K. P. Pine was one of the city’s leading citizens and was president of the People’s Bank of Lansingburgh, founder of the Troy Record newspaper, and a co-founder of Samaritan Hospital. Operated by the Standard Manufacturing Company since 1970, this 246,000-square foot building is the sole such factory in the city that has continuously remained in use as a textile manufacturer.
Steamboat Square Historic District.
Located in Albany’s South End Neighborhood, the area includes 49 buildings spread across 10 acres that were developed as a city public housing project between 1959 and 1983. The buildings embody local and national themes of urban demographic change, neighborhood decline and urban renewal, segregation, tenant organization, collective bargaining and changing conceptions of the design and role of public housing. The complex is exceptionally significant in civil rights history because tenant activism over deteriorating conditions in the original towers led the city to redesign the buildings and add surrounding townhomes in the 1980s. The retooling garnered the complex a national award for rehabilitation of existing public housing stock.
Downtown Albany Historic District Boundary Expansion.
The district reflects three centuries of growth in Albany and is the city’s current financial and political heart. This area was first listed on the State and National Registers of Historic Places in 1980. This listing is being amended to include buildings, primarily in the Art Deco and Modern styles, that were constructed after 1928 through the early 1970s, as well as to include a small expansion of the district.
Once recommendations are approved by the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation commissioner, who serves as the State Historic Preservation Officer, the properties are listed on the New York State Register of Historic Places and nominated to the National Register of Historic Places, where they are reviewed and, once approved, entered on the National Register.