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Historic Preservation

Beacons To Commemorate British Departure

November 17, 2008 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

The Hudson Valley Press Online is reporting on plans to mark the 225th anniversary of the evacuation of British troops on November 25, 2008 by lighting a series of five local beacons that “replicate the original signal locations used by the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War.” The plan is a project of the Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area, Scenic Hudson, the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, the Palisades Parks Conservancy, and the Palisades Interstate Park Commission:

These vital systems summoned the militia in both New York and in neighboring New Jersey and warned residents of the approaching British Redcoats. The types of beacons varied from tar barrels on top of poles, to pyramids, to wooden towers filled with dried grass or hay that could be ignited. The beacons enabled quick and effective communication with troops throughout the lower Hudson River Valley.

Instead of lighting fires, Palisades, the Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area, and Scenic Hudson will create a symbolic Xenon light display that will light up Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area from Bear Mountain State Park to Beacon. This project is also part of the larger interstate effort with national heritage area partners in New Jersey, the Crossroads of the American Revolution National Heritage Area. Six additional Beacons will be lit in New Jersey. The total project area will stretch from Princeton, NJ to Beacon, NY.

The five locations will include:

Bear Mountain State Park, Bear Mountain, NY
Storm King Mountain State Park, Cornwall, NY
Washington’s Headquarters State Historic Site, Newburgh, NY
Scenic Hudson’s Mount Beacon, Beacon, NY
Scenic Hudson’s Spy Rock (Snake Hill), New Windsor, NY

While we’re at it, here is a story about Saturday’s relighting of the lamp on top of the Prison Ship Martyrs Monument in Fort Greene Park, Brooklyn. It has been for 87 years and commemorates those who died in the British Prison ships in New York Harbor during the American Revolution.

Filed Under: History Tagged With: American Revolution, Brooklyn, Dutchess County, Historic Preservation, Military History, Museums-Archives-Historic Sites, New York City, Orange County, Ulster County, Westchester County

5 New York Spots Become National Landmarks

November 3, 2008 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne has designated 16 sites in 11 states as new National Historic Landmarks, including five sites in New York. The designation recognizes the sites as nationally significant historic places because they possess exceptional value or quality in illustrating or interpreting the heritage of the United States.

National Historic Landmarks are buildings, sites, districts, structures, and objects that have been determined by the Secretary of the Interior to be nationally significant in American history and culture. Many of the most renowned historic properties in the Nation are landmarks. Mount Vernon, Pearl Harbor, the Apollo Mission Control Center, Alcatraz, and the Martin Luther King Birthplace in Atlanta, Ga. are landmarks that illustrate important contributions to the Nation’s historical development.

The newly designated sites range from the Aaron Copland House in Cortlandt Manor, NY where the musician worked and lived from 1960 until his death in 1990; to The Forty Acres in Delano, Calif., which served as the headquarters for the first permanent agricultural labor union in the United States, the United Farmworkers of America; to Lyceum in the Circle Historic District of Oxford, Miss. where riots and unrest accompanied the ultimately successful efforts of James Meredith to transfer from a historically black college to the previously all-white University of Mississippi.

Today, fewer than 2,500 historic places bear this national distinction. Working with citizens throughout the nation, the National Historic Landmarks Program draws upon the expertise of National Park Service staff, who work to nominate new landmarks and provide assistance to existing landmarks. Completed nominations are reviewed by the National Park System Advisory Board, which makes recommendations for designation to the Secretary of the Interior. Designation as a National Historic Landmark automatically places a property in the National Register of Historic Places, if it is not already so listed.

The new sites were formally designated on October 7, 2008. The designations also included the acceptance of additional documentation for three existing sites, a boundary change for two existing sites and a name change for one existing site.

For more information on the National Historic Landmark Program, please visit www.nps.gov/history/nhl/.

New National Historic Landmarks in New York

Aaron Copland House, Cortlandt Manor, NY

* Aaron Copland purchased this house, known as “Rock Hill” in 1960 when he was 60 years old; it was his home, studio, and base of operations for the next 30 years, until his death in 1990.

* Copland was one of the most important and profoundly influential figures in the history of American music. Copland’s compositions brought a distinctly American sound, character, and zest to the European-bred classical music tradition.

* Copland’s reputation rests on works such as Billy the Kid, Rodeo, Fanfare for the Common Man, and Appalachian Spring—a series of compositions on American subjects and lore that has few equals. By age 50, Copland had become one of the pivotal figures in American musical history. While at this property, Copland composed symphonic works, as well as ballet, chamber, orchestral, and piano works.

* This house reflects Copland’s lifestyle, values, and personal modesty.

Camp Uncas, Mohegan Lake, NY

* Camp Uncas was developed 1893 to 1895 on Mohegan Lake in what is now the Adirondack Forest Preserve.

* Camp Uncas is one of the best examples of Adirondack camp architecture, which was designed for leisure. It is of exceptional historical and architectural significance as the first Adirondack camp to be planned as a single unit by William West Durant, widely recognized as one of the most important innovators of the property type.

* At Camp Uncas, Durant developed the camp as a single cohesive unit: a “compound plan” for camps that provided for an array of separate buildings, all subordinate to the natural setting. Camp Uncas was built as an ensemble from start to finish.

* The Adirondack camp had a strong and lasting influence on the design of rustic buildings developed for national and state park systems in the 20th century.

First Reformed Protestant Dutch Church, Kingston, NY

* The Renaissance Revival First Reformed Protestant Dutch Church of Kingston, New York was designed by Minard Lafever, who is considered one of the most important architects practicing in antebellum America.

* The First Reformed Protestant Dutch Church is deserving of recognition within the larger body of Lafever’s work as a mature handling of Renaissance Revival forms and details, an eclectic mode that he helped to pioneer in America. He used a number of classical sources and precedents, including those of English architects Sir Christopher Wren and James Gibbs.

* The church is one of the most intact and most fully-developed examples of Lafevers Renaissance Revival work, a style that he was heavily involved in developing and promoting.

Frick Collection and Frick Art Reference Library Building, New York, NY

* Completed in 1912 and 1935 respectively, the Frick Collection and Arts Reference Library in New York City comprise an institution that is considered one of the great legacies of the first period of major art collecting in the United States, one of the defining activities of the Gilded Age elite.

* Among his contemporaries, Henry Clay Frick (1849-1919) stood out as both a collector and, with his superb Carrère & Hasting edifice sensitively designed for a high-profile Fifth Avenue site, architectural patron.

* Frick’s daughter’s establishment of the library was meant to encourage and develop the study of the fine arts and enhance her father’s legacy through education and scholarship.

* Frick’s vast fortune, knowledge of the arts and architecture, and desire to create a monument of the most personal sort resulted in a museum and institution with few rivals. It is one of the best examples of the arts house museum subset of the museum building type in the nation.

* The collection and arts library maintain an uncommon degree of physical integrity that conveys the exceptional importance of the Frick as a cultural institution and as an outstanding work of architecture.

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY

* The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is nationally significant as one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s most important commissions during his long, productive, and influential career.

* Built between 1956 and 1959, the museum is recognized as an icon of mid-20th century modern architecture. One of his last works, the Guggenheim represents the culmination of a lifetime of evolution of Wright’s ideas about an “organic architecture.”

* At this point in his career in the late 1940s and 1950s, Wright was experimenting with combinations of hexagons, spirals, and circles and produced designs with spiraling and circular forms. No matter what the museum and art professionals thought of the building as an art museum, they could not question the building’s power and genius as a design.

* The Guggenheim launched the great and continuing age of museum architecture, where the building is a central part of the museum experience, on par with its contents.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Architecture, Historic Preservation, National Register of Historic Places

39 Nominated for NY State-National Historic Register

October 24, 2008 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

The New York State Board for Historic Preservation has recommended the addition of 39 properties to the State and National Registers of Historic Places. Property owners, municipalities and organizations from communities throughout the state sponsored the nominations.

Well-known landmarks and districts recommended for listing, including:

Garment Center Historic District – which includes 215 structures in a 25-block section of Midtown Manhattan, an area shaped by the city’s economic history, immigrant history, zoning and planning developments, and reforms following the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire.

Woodlawn Cemetery – a vast 400-acre cemetery in the Bronx, where many of New York City’s arts, business and civic leaders are buried, including jazz trumpeter Miles Davis, Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, author Herman Melville, newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer, women’s rights movement leader Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and department store magnate Frank Woolworth. The cemetery is composed of an unprecedented collection of artistically important memorials set in the Landscape-Lawn style.

The Niagara Hotel – A product of Niagara Falls’ history of tourism, industry and commerce, the 1925 structure is the last and only surviving major hotel of those that once dominated the city’s downtown.


Washington Square Historic District
– Oswego’s historic civic and religious center that developed around a village green established in 1797.

Lustron Houses of Jermain Street Historic District – a remarkably intact Albany district of mid-20th century prefabricated steel homes manufactured by the Lustron Corporation to respond to the post-World War II housing demand.

New York Central Passenger and Freight Station – an outstanding example of an Art Deco train station built in 1936 – a style representative of the last gasp of major railroad station construction in the United States – in Syracuse, a major transportation hub in New York State.

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

The New York State Board for Historic Preservation is an independent panel of experts appointed by the governor. The Board also consists of representatives from the following state organizations: Council of Parks; Council on the Arts; Department of Education; Department of State and Department of Environmental Conservation. The function of the Board is to advise and provide recommendations on state and federal preservation programs, including the State and National Registers of Historic Places, to the State Historic Preservation Officer, who in New York is the State Parks Commissioner.

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 nearly 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.

During the nomination process, the State Board submits recommendations to the State Historic Preservation Officer. The properties may be 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 by the Keeper of the National Register in Washington, D.C.

The recommended properties listed by county are as follows:

STATE REVIEW BOARD RECOMMENDATIONS

Albany County

1. Lustron Houses at Jermain Street Historic District – Albany

Allegany County

2. Centerville Town Hall – Centerville

Erie County

3. Lancaster District School No. 6 – Lancaster

4. Annunciation School – Buffalo

5. Buffalo Tennis and Squash Club – Buffalo

6. Harlow C. Curtis Building – Buffalo

7. Sardinia Old Town Hall – Sardinia

8. The Baptist Church of Springville – Springville

9. Richmond Avenue Methodist-Episcopal Church – Buffalo

Franklin County

10. James Wilder Farmstead – Burke

Greene County

11. Methodist-Episcopal Church of Windham Centre – Windham

12. Woodward Road Stone Arch Bridge – East Durham

13. Tannersville Main Street Historic District – Tannersville

Herkimer County

14. Emmanuel Episcopal Church – Little Falls

Jefferson County

15. Hiram Hubbard House – Champion

Lewis County

16. Lowville G.A.R. Soldier’s Monument – Lowville

Livingston County

17. Engleside – Dansville

Montgomery County

18. Kilts Farmstead – Palatine Bridge

New York City

19. Garment Center Historic District – Manhattan

20. General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen – Manhattan

21. New York Congregational Home for the Aged – Brooklyn

22. The Woodlawn Cemetery – Bronx

23. Tremont Baptist Church – Bronx

Niagara County

24. The Niagara – Niagara Falls

Oneida County

25. Sylvan Beach Union Chapel – Sylvan Beach

Onondaga County

26. New York Central Passenger and Freight Station – Syracuse

Orange County

27. St. Andrew’s Cemetery – Walden

28. Milliken-Smith Farm – Montgomery

Orleans County

29. Benjamin Franklin Gates House – Albion

30. John Shelp Cobblestone House – Middleport

Oswego County

31. Historic and architectural resources in Oswego, including the Washington Square Historic District – Oswego

32. Oswego Yacht Club – Oswego

Rockland County

33. Johannes Isaac Blauvelt House – Blauvelt

34. Contempora House – New City

Ulster County

35. Saugerties Public Library – Saugerties

Warren County

36. Forward wreck site – Lake George

Washington County

37. Stoops Hotel – Battenville

Westchester County

38. Presbyterian Rest for Convalescents – White Plains

39. Soundview Manor – White Plains

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Architecture, Historic Preservation, New York State Register of Historic Places

Missle Silo Open House in Lewis, NY Sunday

October 23, 2008 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

The Australian Architect and Designer Alexander Michael is conducting tours of his restored Atlas Missile Silo (video) in Lewis, Essex County, NY this Sunday October 26th from 11:00AM to 2:00 PM. This is the first (and perhaps the only) time the silo will be open to the public. The Lewis site is the only known restored missile silo in the United States (and perhaps the world). After over 11 years of restoration the restored command control center is an amazing sight.

The silo is Boquett 556-5, an Atlas-F ICBM silo designated by the US Air Force in 1960 (local report) and also known as Lewis Missile Base.

Filed Under: History Tagged With: Architecture, Cold War, Essex County, Historic Preservation, Military History

Rochester, Buffalo Preservationists Join Forces

October 20, 2008 by Editorial Staff 1 Comment

The directors of two Buffalo area preservation groups voted to merge their organizations late last week. Both the Landmark Society of the Niagara Frontier and the Preservation Coalition of Erie County will now be merged into one organization – Preservation Buffalo Niagara.

According to Buffalo Business First, the decision comes after nine months of negotiations. Preservation Buffalo Niagara will be governed by a 21-member board; 10 of the seats will be filled from existing directors and the remaining spots will be filled anew. [Read more…] about Rochester, Buffalo Preservationists Join Forces

Filed Under: History, Western NY Tagged With: Architecture, Buffalo, Erie County, Historic Preservation, Preservation Buffalo Niagara, Rochester

Civil War Fort Montgomery Needs Preservation

October 10, 2008 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

According to an editorial in the Plattsburgh Press Republican this week, Fort Montgomery – not the Hudson River American Revolution fort, but the Lake Champlain (mostly) American Civil War one in Rouses Point – is in ruins, the victim of nothing less then neglect.


According to the Press Republican:

In April 1980, a huge portion of the northwest bastion collapsed into the moat, and cracks in the rest of the structure have raised concerns that a similar fate awaits the rest of the fort.


And there are other obstacles. Liability is an acute concern, as the unstable structure has long been used as a party spot for teens. Also, the location is surrounded by environmentally sensitive wetlands.


But the potential as a historic landmark and tourist destination — accessible by car, bus or boat — is undeniable. In fact, it can be seen by the preservation of a similar landmark, Fort Lennox, just a 20-minute drive upriver in Isle aux Noir, Quebec.

It took hundreds of stonemasons thirty years to build (1844 and 1871), according to the great Wiki:

Named for Revolutionary War hero General Richard Montgomery who was killed at Quebec City during the 1775 invasion of Canada, construction began on Fort Montgomery two years later in 1844. Fort Montgomery was one of a very few “Permanent” or “Third System” forts built along the Northern Frontier, most being constructed along the Atlantic Coast. Work on the fort remained almost continuous through 1870, with the peak of construction taking a frenzied pace during the American Civil War, amidst rumors of possible British intervention against the Union from Canada. These fears were actually proven to be not that far fetched when the Confederate led St. Albans Raid, the northernmost action of the Civil War, took place in nearby Vermont in 1864 involving an incursion by the enemy from Canada.

In 1926 the United States Government sold Fort Montgomery along with its adjacent Military Reservation at public auction. During the period of disuse which followed, as had also happened with the abandoned 1816 fortification, many locals visited the fort, carting off untold amounts of lumber, bricks, windows, and doors for use in their homes and other buildings. Ultimately the majority of the fort, aside from the gutted westward facing officer’s quarters, a small portion of the southern wall and 3 bastions, (2 of which remain today) was demolished in 1936-1937. Its massive stones were crushed and dumped into the lake for fill to construct a nearby bridge between Rouses Point, New York and Alburg, Vermont. After a number of private owners, the property was sold to Victor Podd, Sr. who constructed the headquarters of the Powertex Corporation on the adjacent “Commons” to the west of the fort. Island Point, the actual fort site, was left untouched. During the mid-1980s Podd worked with local historical societies to have the State of New York purchase the property with a view toward possible restoration of the site. Despite being offered the fort at no cost, negotiations were unsuccessful and the State declined to accept the property. Since May 2006 Podds’ heirs have attempted to sell the fort on eBay. The first auction ended on June 5, 2006, with a winning bid of $5,000,310. However, the sale was not completed, and the fort and lands surrounding it remain for sale.

There are current concerns among local preservationists that what remains of the fort today is in danger of a catastrophic structural collapse. This is in part due to the removal of iron reinforcing rods, emplaced around 1886, which were likely cut out for their scrap value during the wartime scrap metal drives of World War 2. These rods were originally devised to brace up and support the massive weight of the fort’s detached outer wall face, a defensive element of the fort’s construction which later proved over time to be a structural flaw. Previously a third remaining bastion on the northern side of the fort suffered a similar collapse and was completely destroyed in 1980, mostly falling into the moat.

Thanks in part to a National Register of Historic Places listing in 1977, the fort is often confused with “Fort Blunder,” for which construction began in 1816. Thanks to a surveyor error, it was discovered that this first fort had been accidentally built on the Canadian side of the border and the site was abandoned. Materials from the fort were taken by locals for local building projects. It was never officially named.

Filed Under: History Tagged With: Canada, Civil War, Clinton County, Historic Preservation, Lake Champlain, Military History, War of 1812

49th Annual Schenectady Stockade Walkabout

September 25, 2008 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

With a slogan that says “Party Like It’s 1662,” the Schenectady County Historical Society, the Stockade Association and the Downtown Schenectady Improvement Corporation present the 49th Annual Stockade Walkabout and Waterfront Faire on Saturday.The Walkabout showcases the oldest continuously occupied historic district in the United States, which was designated the first Historic District in New York state in 1962. During the event, from 11 a.m to 5 p.m., you can interact with historical characters from Olde Schenectady, stroll through the neighborhood, tour privately owned 18th- and 19th-century homes, visit historic churches, view the Stockade’s only archaeological dig and join an archaeological tour or an architectural tour.

The Walkabout House Tour includes: guided tours of historic homes, churches and public buildings; an archaeological dig at a historic house garden; an architectural tour; an archaeological tour; historic boats along the Mohawk River; carriage rides along the river path and through the streets; children’s activities in the park; live music and refreshments throughout the day; an antique car exhibit; guided tours of the old Erie Canal; and Colonial artisan demonstrations and fine crafts.

Tickets for adults purchased in advance are $18, and the day of the event are $25; tickets for children younger than 12 are $7. Park free at Schenectady County Community College and other public lots.

The free Waterfront Faire features arts and crafts vendors; family activities; live entertainment and music; food and refreshments; carriage rides; Schenectady County Faire — Colonial artisans and demonstrators; and an authentic bateau and turn-of-the-century launch boat.

For more information, visit http://www.stockadewalkabout.com. You can also find information or purchase tickets with credit cards by calling 374-0263. Tickets can also be purchased at the Schenectady County Historical Society, 32 Washington Ave., Schenectady, NY 12305.

Filed Under: History Tagged With: Architecture, Historic Preservation, Mohawk River, New Netherland, Public History, Schenectady, Schenectady County

Fort Drum WWII Barracks to be Demolished

September 15, 2008 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

The Watertown Daily Times is reporting that 87 World War Two era barracks at Fort Drum are going to be torn down in the next month:

Those buildings, built in 1941, are being torn down to make way for more construction to accommodate units of the 10th Mountain Division. South post will become the new home for the 91st Military Police Battalion, 7th Engineer Battalion and 63rd Explosive Ordnance Device Battalion — which is currently deployed to Baghdad, Iraq.

We want to tear them all down eventually,” said James W. Corriveau, the public works director for Fort Drum. “We are building new facilities on that space and falling in on the old infrastructure.”

The demolition of old motor pools along Gasoline Alley has been ongoing this summer.

Here’s a gem from someone with a [ahem] sense of history:

“The nostalgic value of this World War II world isn’t too much,” Mr. Corriveau said. “The Army has lots of stuff from that time period — these buildings weren’t supposed to last forever.”

Here is a little history from the Fort Drum website:

With the outbreak of World War Two, the area now known as Pine Camp was selected for a major expansion and an additional 75,000 acres of land was purchased. With that purchase, 525 local families were displaced. Five entire villages were eliminated, while others were reduced from one-third to one-half their size.

By Labor Day 1941, 100 tracts of land were taken over. Three thousand buildings, including 24 schools, 6 churches and a post office were abandoned. Contractors then went to work, and in a period of 10 months at a cost of $20 million, an entire city was built to house the divisions scheduled to train here.

Eight hundred buildings were constructed; 240 barracks, 84 mess halls, 86 storehouses, 58 warehouses, 27 officers’ quarters, 22 headquarters buildings, and 99 recreational buildings as well as guardhouses and a hospital. Construction workers paid the price, as the winter of 1941-42 was one of the coldest in North Country history.

The three divisions to train at Pine Camp were General George S. Patton’s 4th Armored Division (Gen. Creighton Abrams was a battalion commander here at the time), the 45th Infantry Division and the 5th Armored Division.

The post also served as a prisoner of war camp. Of those prisoners who died here, one Italian and six Germans are still buried in the Sheepfold Cemetery near Remington Pond

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History Tagged With: Fort Drum, Historic Preservation, Jefferson County, Military History, World War Two

America’s First Railroad Tunnel Located?

August 14, 2008 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Incredible news from the Schenectady Gazette this morning. Schenectady City Historian Don Rittner has apparently found the first railroad tunnel ever constructed buried in the historic Schenectady stockade district. The find includes a section of the original tracks:

The 15-foot-deep tunnel snakes its way across what are now a dozen or more private backyards. But in 1832, that land was a major thoroughfare — the foundation of the city’s prosperity and growth for the next century.

Hundreds of business owners and daring families rode through the tunnel on trains so experimental that they were considered too dangerous to be allowed on city streets. They could travel so fast and their engines could produce so many wild sparks that city leaders feared pedestrians would be run over and buildings burned down.

So horses dragged the trains from the Erie Canal to the Scotia bridge along a safe, deep tunnel. It was an experiment that lasted just six years, but in that time it was guaranteed a place in the history books. Not only was the tunnel the first ever constructed for a locomotive, but the entrance was the first junction of two railroad companies, according to Rittner.

Technically, the first rail road in the United States is believed to have been a gravity railroad in Lewiston, New York in 1764. The Mohawk and Hudson Railroad, of which the tunnel would have been a part, was the first modern-style railroad built in the State of New York; it was incorporated in 1826 by the Mohawk and Hudson Company and opened August 9, 1831. On April 19, 1847, the name was changed to the Albany and Schenectady Railroad. The railroad was consolidated into the New York Central Railroad on May 17, 1853. In 1867, the first elevated railroad was built in New York.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Albany County, Archaeology, Architecture, Historic Preservation, Schenectady County, Transportation

FDR Library ‘literally falling apart’

July 30, 2008 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

From the New York Times, via the History News Network:

The Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum at Hyde Park, N.Y., the nation’s first presidential library, is literally falling apart. The roof leaks, the basement floods, asbestos is flaking from old steam pipes, an ancient electrical system could send the whole place up in smoke. This sorry situation is an insult to the person the library and museum honor: the founder of the New Deal, the greatest investment in our nation’s modern development….

While the library sits high above the river, its basement lies below the water table. Sump pumps installed in 1939 are supposed to keep it dry, but don’t. Storms have caused flooding in the basement where collections are stored and in restrooms and public areas. What’s worse, storm and sewer drainage run together, which means they mingle if there’s a backup in the basement.

The electrical system, which was also installed in 1939, has outlived the suppliers of replacement parts. Archivists turn the lights on and off using the original circuit breakers. And with the electrical vault in the flood-prone basement, the library’s director, Cynthia Koch, fears that a short in the system could set the place on fire and destroy the entire collection.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Dutchess County, FDR, Historic Preservation, Museums-Archives-Historic Sites

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