Welcome Paula Lemire
New Administrative Assistant and Plaque Researcher

HAF is thrilled to announce the addition of Paula Lemie to the staff!  Paula started with us this week as our new part time office Administrative Assistant and researcher for the plaque program.   Many of you may know Paula from her recent tenure at Albany Rural Cemetery.  Paula brings a wealth of knowledge of the history of the City of Albany and beyond.  Welcome Paula!

HAF 50th Anniversary News

Save The Date!
Built 2024:  The Disco Ball
The Weekend of November 1 and 2, 2024
Washington Avenue Armory

Pull out your best 1974 polyester and platform shoes for a Saturday night disco party among the event's traditional array of fantastic art from the Capital Region.  Free gallery hours and Holiday Shop all weekend long.

More details to come!

History Corner
A look back at what we were working on 38 years ago.
We welcome members of the community to share their HAF memories, stories, photos and documents with us as well!

Programs & Events
New Lecture Series!

New Lecture Series!
Decrypting Marcus: An Intimate Evening with Marcus T. Reynolds
Walter R. Wheeler, one of the last employees of Reynolds' firm (which closed in 1992), will offer insights into the workings of the office during Reynolds' time, and his relationships with and opinions of his contemporaries and those who apprenticed under him. Motivations for Reynolds' design decisions for key projects will be discussed, and stories whispered in the drafting room and other hearsay will be shared.

Join us at the Albany Institue of History & Art located at 125 Washington Ave, Albany, Thursday, February 15th from 5:30pm to 7:30pm.

Tickets Can be purchased HERE
HAF / AIHA / SAH members - $10
Non-members - $15

This lecture is in partnership with Albany Institute of History & Art.

Matthew Bender IV Lecture
48 Hudson Avenue and the Stories it Tells

This talk will feature the Van Ostrande-Radliff House at 48 Hudson Avenue, the oldest building remaining in Albany, built in 1728.  

We will welcome Michael Lynch, retired architect, and former director at the NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation to give an overview of this building’s context locally, nationally and internationally.  The lecture will also include a panel of experts speaking on who lived and worked in the building (Cara Macri, HAF Director of Preservation Services), the archeology found during the project (Matt Krik with Hartgen Archeological Associates), and the clues that led to many discoveries of the building’s appearance from project architect Matt Scheidt of John G. Waite Associates.

Join us at the Albany Institue of History & Art located at 125 Washington Ave, Albany, Thursday, March 28th from 5:30pm to 7:30pm.

Tickets Can be purchased HERE

HAF and AIHA members - $10
Non-members - $15

This lecture is in partnership with Albany Institute of History & Art.

Sponsored by:
James Gaughan and Keith Lee
Fort Orange General Store

Great Camp Sagamore

Historian Connor Williams joins HAF and the Albany Institute of History and Art for a lecture on one of the great camps of the Adirondacks, Great Camp Sagamore.

By way of introduction, Great Camp Sagamore is a National Historic Landmark in the Adirondack mountains above Raquette Lake, NY. Built in 1897 to be perhaps the grandest of the "Great Camps," Sagamore Lodge (as it was formerly known) featured exceptional architecture, intricate infrastructure, and a stunning natural landscape that included three dozen buildings on a 200 acre private glacial lake within 1500 acres of forest preserve. It also supported enough staff and laborers to make the camp--forty miles away (round trip) from the nearest train station--entirely self-sufficient and able to cater to some of the wealthiest Americans ever in the styles that they sought.

Initially built by and for William West Durant, son of transcontinental railroad magnate Thomas C. Durant, the camp was soon sold to one of the principal Vanderbilt heirs, who--with his wife and eventual widow--maintained it for more than half a century. After twenty years of stewardship by Syracuse University, in 1975 the camp was purchased by the Sagamore Institute of the Adirondacks, a non-profit organization that continues to maintain the space today.

Mr. Williams will talk about the camp's construction and history, sharing stories and photos of the Great Camp.

Join us at the Albany Institute of History & Art located at 125 Washington Ave, Albany, Thursday, April 18th from 5:30pm to 7:30pm.

Tickets can be purchased HERE

HAF and AIHA members - $10
Non-members - $15

This lecture is in partnership with Albany Institute of History & Art.

What's New in the Warehouse?
It's Pillar Pooloza in the Warehouse!
Did you know...All pillars are columns, but not all columns are pillars. This is because all pillars must serve a structural purpose in addition to any aesthetic purpose it maintains. In contrast, a column can only serve aesthetic purposes if they are not needed for weight-bearing purposes.

We have square, we have round, we have tall and short pillars, and they are all on sale for 50% off!

You'll be having sweet dreams while taking a nap on this Empire Style 1860's couch. Could be yours for $750.

Stay tuned to this newsletter and our Instagram page for "Walk it outta here Wednesdays" and "Free Fridays."
Help us move out inventory before we move to 48 Hudson!

Advocacy

Seeking Input for Endangered Historic 2024

In 2000, Historic Albany started creating a list of endangered historic buildings in the City of Albany to guide our advocacy efforts and prioritize them based on need and the impact on the surrounding neighborhoods. Historically, big white elephant buildings like vacant churches, school buildings, factories, or campuses were on the list with a few rows of homes; St. John's Church, St. Joseph's, Wellington Row, Schools 22 and 17, the Tudors, Kenwood/Former Doane Stuart Campus, to name a few.  For the complete list, click here to see all of our past lists.  It takes about 10-15 years to really take a vacant and very endangered building and save it. Over the years, we have had many saves and also lost some dear friends. Some are still endangered and remain advocacy priorities. 

This year, Historic Albany is putting together another list of our advocacy priorities.  To do this, we would like to know what buildings you want to be saved, what buildings matters most to you. They can be the vacant house on your street, the struggling church in your neighborhood, an iconic landmark that you absolutely love, there are no buildings too big, to small, or not important enough.  If it matters to you, we want to know about it.  

From now until February 16, we want you to send us a list of the buildings in the City of Albany you care about and will select 10 buildings from all of the submissions that we will focus on for the next few years. We will be selecting buildings in mid February and releasing the 2024 list in March.  If your building(s) isn't selected, it doesn't mean it will be ignored. We will continue to do what we can, when we can for Albany's built environment.

Click the button below to submit your endangered list. 

Submit Your Endangered List HERE

NEWS

The Albany County Land Bank is Seeking Qualified Candidates to be its Next Executive Director!
Executive Director

The Albany County Land Bank (ACLB) is seeking its next Executive Director. The Executive Director is responsible for leading ACLB to further its mission and public purpose. In consultation with ACLB’s Board of Directors, the Executive Director is responsible for the overall management of ACLB’s policies, programs, and operations.  
The Albany County Land Bank Corporation was established in 2014 by Albany County to facilitate the process of acquiring, improving, and redistributing tax-foreclosed, vacant, or abandoned properties. ACLB is a nonprofit organization committed to revitalizing neighborhoods and strengthening communities throughout Albany County.  ACLB works closely with state and local government, non-profits, residents, community groups, and responsible developers and investors to return properties to productive use and support community development. ACLB has grown to become one of the largest and most active land banks in New York State.
For more information CLICK HERE.

The New Amsterdam History Center
cordially invites you to join us for

TRASH TALK

A Lively Discussion of 17th Century Refuse, Recycling, and the Reshaping of Manahatta's Shoreline

Thursday, February 8, 2024
6:00 to 7:30 PM
(on Zoom)

What was “trash” in 17th-century New Amsterdam? Who tossed it? Where was it tossed? Who collected or neglected it? How did trash change the shape and shoreline of Manahatta? What do anthropologists and archeologists make of 400-year-old shards and bones? How does the debris help interpret the story of old New Amsterdam and today’s New York? “We walk on our own history,” Robin Nagle reminds us.

Join Robin Nagle, Anthropologist-in-Residence at the NYC Department of Sanitation and Clinical Professor in Liberal Studies at NYU, and Michael T. Lucas, Curator of Historical Archeology, New York State Museum, as they help us sort through the trash.

The program will be moderated by Robert Snyder, Manhattan Borough Historian.

General public $10 - NAHC Donors - FREE
For More Information CLICK HERE.

APTNE's Annual Meeting & Symposium
Facilitating Preservation: Solving Complex Challenges Together
Friday, March 1, 2024
Amherst, MA
In-Person and Virtual All-Day Symposium

For more information CLICK HERE.

Grants Help Ensure the Future of Historic Black Churches

More:Preserving Black Churches
By:National Trust for Historic Preservation

What would America be without the Black church? For generations, historic Black churches have served as beacons of hope, progress and reform in America. To honor and protect this legacy, the National Trust's African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund has invested $4 million in grants to 31 historic Black churches across the United States, acknowledging these institutions' widespread impact on society.

In the second round of Preserving Black Churches grants, the Action Fund continues its work not only to help grantees address real and urgent preservation threats such as deferred maintenance and demolition, but also to strengthen their ability to steward, interpret, and fund these invaluable places and the people they serve.

Sign up for emails to stay connected with the National Trust and our ongoing work to protect and restore the places Black history happened.

Learn more about the 2024 grantees CLICK HERE.