Governor Cuomo Announces 27 Properties Recommended to the State and National Registers of Historic Places

LongIsland.com

The nominations build on Governor Cuomo’s commitment to recognizing New York State’s diverse history.

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Suffolk Theater.

Photo by: Lks.mith, via Wikimedia Commons.

Albany, NY - July 28, 2016 - Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced that the New York State Board for Historic Preservation has recommended the addition of 27 properties, resources and districts to the State and National Registers of Historic Places. The nominations reflect the remarkable breadth of New York’s history, ranging from the nationally significant home of the 1904 Democratic candidate for president to the birthplace of the first African American collegiate fraternity, and the summer cottage of the businessman who brought Jell-O to the market.

“The history of New York is the history of our nation,” Governor Cuomo said. “These landmarks are integral to New York’s rich heritage and placing them on the State and National Registers of Historic Places will help ensure they are maintained and preserved for generations to come.”

Rose Harvey, Commissioner of the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, said, “These nominations celebrate New York’s rich and diverse history. Adding them to the State and National Registers of Historic Places can help them continue to be part of the fabric of their communities for years to come.”

The nominations build on Governor Cuomo’s commitment to recognizing New York State’s diverse history. Recently, the Governor created a new LGBT Memorial Commission to provide recommendations on the establishment of a new monument in New York City honoring the LGBT community, those lost in Orlando and all victims of hate, intolerance and violence. The Governor also designated the legendary Stonewall Inn, the birthplace of the modern LGBT rights movement, a New York State historic site. The extraordinary Greenwich Village bar and tavern, and the riots that occurred there in the late 1960s, sparked a national movement that later led to marriage equality in New York, first-in-the-nation executive action to protect transgender individuals, and regulations to ban conversion therapy.

State and National Registers of Historic Places

State and National Register listing can assist property owners in revitalizing buildings, making them eligible for various public preservation programs and services, such as matching state grants and state and federal historic rehabilitation tax credits. Spurred by the state and federal historic rehabilitation commercial tax credits administered by the State Historic Preservation Office, developers invested $550 million statewide in 2015 to revitalize properties listed on the National Register of Historic Places, while homeowners using the New York State Historic Homeowner Rehabilitation Tax Credit invested more than $12 million statewide on home improvements to help revitalize historic neighborhoods.

The State and National Registers are the official lists of buildings, structures, districts, landscapes, objects and sites significant in the history, architecture, archeology and culture of New York State and the nation. There are more than 120,000 historic buildings, structures and sites 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 the recommendations are approved by 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 and, once approved, entered on the National Register. More information and photos of the nominations are available on the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation website.

New York City

Bronx County

Fort Independence Historic District, Bronx –The district is notable for its collection of early twentieth century residences, many of which are architect-designed, along an unusual serpentine street plan laid out over hilly terrain in 1877 by noted landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted.

Kings County

The Bushwick Avenue Central Methodist Episcopal Church, Brooklyn – Completed between 1900 and 1912, the Italian Renaissance Revival-style church was built and expanded during a prosperous period in the Bushwick neighborhood’s history, when a great diversity of churches were built to cater to the equally diverse growing population.

Long Island

Nassau County

The Church of Our Lady of Kazan, Sea Cliff – The church was established and constructed in 1942 by a group of 35 Russian families displaced by World War I and World War II who immigrated to Sea Cliff and the nearby communities of Glen Cove, Locust Valley, Great Neck and Little Neck.

Suffolk County

The Benner-Foos- Ceparano Estate, Poquott – Built 1893-95, the Shingle-style home with a novel bowed design was built as the summer estate for prominent New York City lawyer Charles Benner.

Hudson Valley

Dutchess County

Haxtun-Tower House, Hopewell Junction – The distinctive Greek Revival home was built ca. 1850 for successful farmer William Haxtun and expanded circa 1870 for Albert Tower, an executive in the region’s iron ore industry.

Ulster County

Alton B. Parker Estate, Esopus – The 1860 estate known as Rosemount is nationally significant for its association with Alton B. Parker (1852-1926), chief judge of the New York State Court of Appeals and Democratic Party candidate in the 1904 presidential election, which was won by Theodore Roosevelt.

Capital Region

Albany County

St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church (Helderberg Evangelical Lutheran Church), Berne – Completed in 1835, the transitional Federal-Greek Revival style church remains the rural hamlet’s most impressive work of 19th-century architecture, as manifested in its overall scale, brick construction, and tall bell tower.

Columbia County

Ancram Hamlet Historic District, Ancram – The district’s buildings, sites and landscapes retain much of their rural crossroads character and sense of place, reflecting the district’s development during the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Rensselaer County

The Newton-Taber-Marvin Farm, Nassau – The architecturally and historically significant farmstead has a continuous history of farming activity and occupancy that dates back to at least 1788, when it was farmed by Abner Newton, a native of Worcester, Massachusetts, and a veteran of the American Revolution.

Saratoga County

Calvary Episcopal Church, Burnt Hills – this early example of Gothic Revival ecclesiastical architecture was first used for religious services on Christmas Eve 1849.

Schenectady County

The James M. and Eleanor Lafferty House, Niskayuna – the 1948 Modern home was designed by architect Victor Civkin, the head of the General Electric Kitchen Institute – who helped revolutionize the design of the American domestic kitchen – for GE Research Center physicist James M. Lafferty, an inventor who earned 67 patents and helped develop the color television.

North Country

Lewis County

The Old Lowville Cemetery, Lowville – One of the earliest cemeteries in Lewis County, its burials reflect the social structure of the community from 1810 through 1933; it holds the graves of many of the first settlers in the area, as well as Revolutionary War, War of 1812, and Civil War veterans.

St. Lawrence County
The Hepburn Library, Lisbon – The library was constructed 1917-20 as part of a program of philanthropy undertaken by Alonzo Barton Hepburn, a successful banker born in Colton, who gifted seven libraries and a hospital to the people of St. Lawrence County.

Southern Tier

Delaware County

The Second Walton Armory, Walton – Home of the 33rd Separate Company of the 17th Battalion of Walton, the armory was constructed between 1895 and 1897 in a fortress-like style intended to inspire pride and patriotism amongst law-abiding citizens and fear and awe amongst the so-called “dangerous lower classes.”

Tompkins County

The Dennis-Newton House, Ithaca – Built about 1869, the home is regarded by the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, the first Greek letter African American collegiate fraternity in the United States, as the birthplace of its organization.

Finger Lakes

Monroe County

Maplewood Historic District, Rochester (boundary increase) – Originally listed in 1997, the boundary increase adds 432 structures built in the late 19th and early 20th century to the architecturally significant district of American Foursquare, Queen Anne, Colonial Revival and Craftsman bungalow homes.

Webster Grange No. 436 (Harmony House), Webster – The 1899 structure is significant as the home of the local Grange chapter when Webster was primarily an agricultural community, serving an important role in bringing farm families together for education, entertainment, and social gatherings.

Austin R. Conant House, Fairport – The late Gothic Revival house was constructed in 1876 as part of a building boom in the village made possible by the lumber and wood milling industries that grew up around the Erie Canal and the railroad, and it was home to a succession of Fairport’s prominent residents.

Wyoming County

The Orator F. Woodward Cottage, Silver Lake – The rustic Queen Anne-style cottage was built in 1894 as a summer residence for successful entrepreneur Orator F. Woodward and his family; it is known as “The JELL-O House,” as that food product was the most well-known of Woodward’s products.

Western New York

Erie County

The Rae Flats and Raleigh Apartments, Buffalo – Constructed in 1892 and 1896, respectively, the apartment buildings reflect the evolution of apartment living around the turn of the 20th century.

The Ascension Roman Catholic Church Complex, North Tonawanda – Founded to serve the growing immigrant population that came to North Tonawanda at the turn of the 20th century, the first Roman Catholic Church built in the city served the community for over 100 years before closing in 2007.

Buffalo Public School #63, Buffalo – The excellent example of the standardized school plan was designed in 1917 to accommodate a growing population in the northern part of the city.

Depew High School, Depew – The building, originally constructed in 1914 and significantly expanded in 1927, served as a high school until 1955 and was later used as an elementary school and administrative offices.

The Prospect Hill Historic District, Buffalo – The “streetcar suburb” is composed almost entirely of detached one- and two-family houses built between the 1860s and the 1950s and was home to many successful members of Buffalo’s Italian community.

St. Teresa’s Roman Catholic Church Complex, Buffalo – The significant collection of ecclesiastic buildings includes an 1898 Late Victorian Gothic-style church that anchors the complex, a school building built in 1907, an 1880 Queen Anne-style rectory, as well as a 1959 International-style parish hall.

The Colonial Flats and Annex, Buffalo – Originally constructed in 1890 for professionals seeking apartments away from downtown, the complex saw an annex added in 1896 to provide housing for the influx of visitors expected for the Pan American Exposition of 1901 and a commercial façade added in 1926 as commercial activity expanded north beyond the central business district.

The Karnak Flats, Buffalo – The apartment building was constructed circa 1898 in the Colonial Revival style and was designed to cater to a middle-class apartment dweller looking to move out of the city’s downtown to enjoy “suburban” living.