State Board Recommends 17 Nominations for State and National Registers of Historic Places

LongIsland.com

The New York State Board for Historic Preservation recommended the addition of 17 properties, resources and districts to the State and National Registers of Historic Places.

Print Email

Albany, NY - June 14th, 2013 - The New York State Board for Historic Preservation recommended the addition of 17 properties, resources and districts to the State and National Registers of Historic Places.

"These are the historic resources that help shape the individuality and ‘quality of place' of our communities," said Rose Harvey, Commissioner of the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. "Listing on the State and National Registers of Historic Places is a fitting honor and will help preserve these properties for the future."

Listing these properties on the State and National Registers can assist their owners in revitalizing the structures, making them eligible for various public preservation programs and services, such as matching state grants and state and federal historic rehabilitation tax credits.

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 90,000 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.

STATE REVIEW BOARD RECOMMENDATIONS

Broome County
The West Endicott Hose Co. No.1, West Endicott – Completed in 1923, the station – which also included recreational facilities such as a bowling alley, dance hall, and gymnasium for neighborhood residents – was a gift of Endicott Johnson Shoe Company owner George F. Johnson and reflective of his belief in "welfare capitalism," which held that employers were responsible for the welfare of their employees.

Chemung County
Maple Avenue Historic District, Elmira – The vast majority of homes were built between the 1890s and the 1920s, following the opening of a streetcar line that created an easy connection with downtown and made the area described as "the garden spot of the valley" attractive to some of Elmira's most prominent citizens.

Delaware County
Sidney Historic District, Sidney – The district encompasses archeological sites where prehistoric peoples congregated on the Susquehanna River flats near its confluence with the Unadilla and also the buildings reflecting Sidney's development from a quiet agricultural center in the first half of the 19th century to its growth with the arrival of two railroad lines in the 1860s and 1870s.

Essex County
Lake View Grange #590, Westport – Erected in 1928, the building has served the community in a variety of functions, including as a Grange Hall in its early history, a roller rink, and an American Legion Post – until it was acquired in 1971 by the village and town of Westport to serve as municipal offices and a youth center.

Herkimer County
Oak Hill Cemetery, Herkimer – Organized in 1867, the cemetery embodies the features of rural cemetery design, including natural plantings, curved drives, and family plots, and reflects a 19th-century trend of moving cemeteries to rural areas, outside of the main settlement. It includes the burial site of Roxlanna Druse, who was convicted of murdering her husband and was the last woman hanged in New York State.

Monroe County
Shantz Button Factory, Rochester – One of only two surviving early 20th century button manufacturing plants from the once-thriving clothing industry in Rochester, the three factory buildings are rare surviving industrial properties built along the Erie Canal's original path through downtown Rochester.

Onondaga County
Trinity Episcopal Church, Syracuse – The impressive Collegiate Gothic stone church was constructed in 1914-1915 on West Onondaga Street, which was home to many of the prominent Syracuse industrialists, politicians and business leaders who were members of the congregation.

Otsego County
Hartwick Historic District, Hartwick – The densely developed residential center's architectural inventory is representative of its historic development, beginning with its growth around water-powered grist and saw mills on the Otsego Creek in the early 19th century and later shaped in the early 20th century as the midpoint of a trolley line joining Oneonta and Herkimer.

Old Hartwick Village Cemetery, Hartwick –The community cemetery was in use by the late 1790s, when the plot was set aside for burying residents of the community settled soon after the American Revolution by New Englanders. The largest proportion of burials dates from the 1820s through the early 1860s.

Queens
The First Presbyterian Church of Newtown – Completed in 1895 and moved a short distance in 1924 to accommodate the widening of Queens Boulevard, the high Victorian Gothic Revival church sanctuary was designed to fulfill the wish of the building's donor that it be modeled on a church in Cherry Valley, New York.

Rensselaer County
Adams-Myers-Bryan Farmstead, Valley Falls – The farmstead includes a tenant house built sometime between 1800-1825, a Greek Revival main house built ca. 1855, as well as several agricultural buildings built in the mid-19th century, all surviving in an intact rural setting.

Coletti-Rowland-Agan Farmstead, Pittstown – The farmstead is composed of two farms totaling 176 acres each with a visually cohesive assemblage of white-painted historic agricultural outbuildings with red metal roofs from the mid-19th to early 20th century.

St. Lawrence County
Watkins-Sisson House, Potsdam – Built in the mid-1860s as a residence for prominent businessman Henry A. Watkins, a critical figure in the establishment of Potsdam's Normal School (a precursor to SUNY Potsdam), and later owned by George Wing Sisson Sr., who was instrumental in the development of Potsdam's lumber trade.

Saratoga County
Packer Farm and Barkersville Store, Middle Grove – The property includes a house built ca. 1825 and moved to its present site in 1857, as well as a small frame store built ca. 1893. The store, operated by three generations of the Packer family, served the nearby rural populations before finally closing in 1978.

Steuben County
Glenn H. Curtiss Memorial High School, Hammondsport – Constructed in 1935 for a consolidated school district serving the village of Hammondsport and the towns of Dundee and Urbana, the outstanding and exceptionally intact example of Art Deco civic architecture was named in honor of aviation pioneer Glenn Curtiss, and served as an elementary school after 1958 when a larger high school building was needed.

Suffolk County
Quogue Cemetery, Quogue – Laid out c. 1750, the cemetery preserves historically significant grave monuments associated with Quogue's founding settlers and their descendants as well as excellent examples of funerary art.

Ulster County
Congregation Tifereth Yehuda Veyisroel, Kerhonkson – Constructed in 1924, the synagogue provided a place in the small hamlet for a wave of Jewish immigrant farmers and merchants, primarily from Eastern Europe, who relocated to the region in the 1910s and ‘20s to avoid persecution in their homelands.

###

For More Information, Please Contact:
Randy Simons
Dan Keefe
518-486-1868