Giving Tuesday 2021 - $2,500 Match!

We are thrilled to announce that we have a match for this year's #GivingTuesday fundraiser. Kyle Neiswender (volunteer, members, and supporter) is helping to launch 2021's giving season by matching all donations over the next week (until Friday 3rd Dec).

For each dollar donated, Kyle will match your contribution up to $2,500!

All proceeds from #GivingTuesday will go to our annual fund, which helps us continue our mission of preserving and protecting the city’s architectural heritage. Want to know where your dollars go? Find out here. If you'd like to donate, you can do so on Facebook or through our website below.

We are incredibly thankful to Kyle for choosing not only to donate his money, but also his time and expertise. Kyle has helped out in our Parts Warehouse and assisted us with tech at both 'A Moveable Feast', and at the Restoration Faire this year. We are a small organization, and it's because of our volunteers that we can do big things.

With that sentiment in mind, we also want to say a huge THANK YOU this #GivingTuesday to all our supporters, volunteers, and members. Each time you share a Facebook post, take a tour, volunteer at an event, renew your membership, or tell a friend about our organization, you're making a difference.

Donate on Facebook

Donate on the website

Take the Self-Guided Greek Revival Tour

The Tour

We have created a Greek Revival architectural tour in Albany with the help of one of our volunteers, Olivia Simard. It is a drivable and virtual tour, although some portions can be walkable. The tour includes eight stops throughout Albany, beginning in the Pastures Historic District and ending on Whitehall Road. Many of the stops encompass more than one building, so be sure to read descriptions carefully. If you ever have any questions about architectural terms, check out the architectural dictionary we have linked at the bottom of each entry.

There are many more examples of Greek Revival architecture in the Albany area, so it would be hard to highlight them all. Be on the lookout for more examples, and comment if you think you may have found one!

Take me on the tour already! >>

Or read more about Greek Revival Architecture below…

631 Clinton Ave - have you seen this temple-front home?

trinity place - another stop ont the tour

The History of the Greek Revival Architectural Style in America

There are many factors that contributed to the American interest in Grecian architectural forms. These include the Greek War of Independence (1821-1830) which prompted widespread sympathy in the United States, Greek’s long association with democracy and the diminishing affection of British styles among the American populace. The Grecian interest truly came at an opportune time: Americans wanted to distance themselves from their colonial roots and create a culture of their own. One of the most popular architectural styles of the time, Federal, was of British origin, so the United States was looking to embrace new architecture and move away from British-inspired styles. The Greek Revival style’s popularity can also be attributed to the growing global interest in Classical Antiquities that began in the mid-eighteenth century with the excavation of ruins, such as Pompeii, in Italy and Greece. 

Greek Revival was one of the predominant styles of architecture in the country during the 1830s, 40s, and 50s. It occurred in every region that was settled by 1860, but its presence was particularly large in areas that were being rapidly settled during this time. The largest concentrations of Greek Revival buildings that still stand today are found in states that had major population growth during the period from 1820 to 1860. New York’s population grew by around 2.5 million during those decades, making it one of the hubs for this type of architecture. Albany, as a city, was also in the throes of a major transformation during this time, thanks to the completion of the Erie Canal in 1825. The canal inlet and the Albany Basin were in very close proximity to the area of Broadway and Livingston Ave, and because of this, there was an increase in commercial, industrial, and residential development following it’s completion. Look out for the stops on both Broadway and Livingston during the tour! Albany grew rapidly during the height of Greek Revival’s dominance, and the buildings decorated in that style that still stand today are proof of that.

The Characteristics of Greek Revival Architecture

The easiest way to recognize the Greek Revival style is the entryway to the building - on many of the homes you will see throughout the tour, the entryway is a major giveaway. Some characteristics to look out for in the entryway include a recessed entrance, transom windows above the doorway (or maybe even around the whole door), and doric columns or pilasters that frame the entrance. Other characteristics to look out for on the building as a whole are simple cornice lines with a wide band of trim beneath it, window sashes with six-pane glazing, and simple window lintels and sills. 

Pilaster

Photo:

Caption: “Pilaster: a flat column that is attached to a wall for decoration rather than support; often found at corners and doorways.” 

Source: https://buffaloah.com/a/DCTNRY/p/pilas.html 

Dentils

Photo:

Caption: “Dentils: small square blocks in a series that are often found on cornices, moldings, and pediments”

Source: https://buffaloah.com/a/DCTNRY/d/dent.html 

Transom

Photo:

Caption: “Transom window: a window or pane above a door”

Source: https://buffaloah.com/a/DCTNRY/t/transom.html 

Entablature

Photo:

Caption: “Entablature: assemblage of moldings and bands located immediately above the columns”

Source: https://study.com/academy/lesson/ionic-entablature-definition-architecture.html 

By Olivia Simard

Sources
McAlester, Virginia Savage. A Field Guide to American Houses: The Definitive Guide to Identifying and Understanding America's Domestic Architecture. Town: Knopf, 2015.

Tilly, Stephen, "Historic Structure Report, Stephen and Harriet Myers Residence, Albany, New York." Dobbs Ferry, NY, February 5, 2009.

Additional reading

http://www.askthearchitect.org/architectural-styles/greek-revival-houses-architecture 

https://www.brownstoner.com/guides/architectural-styles/greek-revival-architecture-brooklyn-history/ 

BUILT Art Pick up for Winners and Unsold Work

BUILT 2021

Winners - if you have won your bid we should have notified you via email. Please check your bidding profile to see if you have won. Pick up for the pieces is on Tuesday 9th between 10 am and 6 pm from the Argus Hotel (8 Thurow Terrace, Albany).

UNSOLD ART PICKUP - Artists

If your work does not sell, please be prepared to pick up the artwork from The Argus Hotel on Tuesday 9th between 10am and 6pm. HAF staff will only notify you on Monday 8th if your piece has NOT been sold, you can also check on the bidding site here. Please note that HAF cannot be responsible for any damages to artwork that is transported after the event.

Annual Fund 2021

Dear Friends in Preservation, 

At 48 Hudson Avenue, a building sits amid the vast emptiness of Albany’s so-called “parking lot district.”  Thirty-two years ago, the oldest remaining Dutch building in our city was “discovered” underneath nearly 300 years of additions and new facades, adjacent to newer neighbors that were collapsing or being torn down.

Last week I listened as Historic Albany Foundation’s staff member Cara Macri led a tour of the building, relating how its discovery started filling in some blank spots in what we know about Albany’s past and where its people lived and worked.  As she spoke, I heard the stories of real people emerge, stories that are as familiar as my own family’s and those of my friends and neighbors.  They are Albany’s stories.

Historic Albany Foundation is a keeper of Albany’s stories and a fierce advocate for preserving Albany’s built environment. For nearly fifty years, with the financial help of our members and supporters, we have provided technical assistance to homeowners, salvaged elements from buildings that can’t be saved and brought our city’s history alive with walking tours and other programming. We do this because people like you are here to support it.

“Historic Albany Foundation is a keeper of Albany’s stories and a fierce advocate for preserving Albany’s built environment…”

The need for the services that we provide continues to grow.  Albany continues to lose buildings to neglect and to the developers’ wrecking ball.  As these buildings come down, we not only lose our old stories, we lose the ones that are still to be written. The neighborhoods stricken by neglect are those that, for hundreds of years, provided that first shot at homeownership or the bigger apartment to a growing family.   We have to advocate for those buildings like we have for those with grander proportions or more illustrious tales.

I became involved with Historic Albany Foundation during the sixteen years I served on Albany’s Common Council. We were working to find innovative ways to keep older, two-family homes viable and available to new generations, especially in neighborhoods like ours, along Delaware Avenue.

While serving in public office, I heard a lot of stories -- about people who grew up here, who moved here from other countries and other states, who played politics, danced in jazz clubs and ran bootleg whiskey.  They worked long hours in the railyards and factories so they could build the churches, schools and homes that form our communities.

We continue to save those stories when we save their context, when we save the streets, parks and homes where they lived.  And we save the space for the stories yet to come.

Can I count on you to join me in supporting these efforts?

Thank you,

Shawn Morris, Board Member

Preservation and Advocacy Chair

Give to the Annual Fund >>