Governor Hochul Announces 19 Nominations for State and National Registers of Historic Place

Governor Kathy Hochul today announced recommendations by the New York State Board for Historic Preservation to add 19 properties and districts to the State and National Registers of Historic Places. The nominations include an office building with a pioneering design in energy efficiency in Buffalo, an Arts and Crafts church on Staten Island, a new historic district in Essex County, and the Cortland home of a leader in New York's Women's Club Movement.

"The history of the people of New York is imprinted in the architecture and places around us," Governor Hochul said. "These nominations to the State and National Registers show our commitment to preserving New York's rich and diverse story and making it accessible for future generations. By recognizing these landmarks and the people behind them, we are strengthening our communities, boosting local pride and ensuring that history remains a living part of New York's future."

The nominations were reviewed on December 3, 2025, at a meeting of the New York State Board for Historic Preservation.

New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation Acting Commissioner Kathy Moser said, "Identifying and nominating historic resources for the State and National Registers is a key step in preserving our shared past. As stewards for New York's history, we recognize the positive impact listings in the registers have on communities throughout the state. From recording local history before it is lost to unlocking access to grants and incentive programs, the State and National Register programs create opportunities to inspire pride of place, encourage investment, and catalyze collaborations."

State and National Register listings can assist owners in revitalizing properties, making them eligible for various public preservation programs and services, such as matching state grants and federal and state historic rehabilitation tax credits.

New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation Deputy Commissioner for Historic Preservation Daniel Mackay said, "The Division for Historic Preservation works to ensure that the State and National Registers of Historic Places continue to grow and reflect New York's remarkable history. With this goal, we are expanding our understanding of our past and providing access to incentive programs that can help preserve and revitalize our historic assets for the future. By connecting property owners with resources, historic preservation becomes a shared, statewide effort. We're proud to be part of this impactful work."

New York State continues to lead the nation in the use of historic tax credits, with $7.17 billion in total rehabilitation costs from 2018-2024. Since 2009, the historic tax credit program has stimulated over $16.4 billion in project expenditures in New York State, creating significant investment and new jobs. According to a report, between 2019-2023, the credits in New York State generated 91,386 jobs and over $1.79 billion in local, state and federal taxes. 

The State and National Registers are the official lists of buildings, structures, districts, landscapes, objects and sites significant in the history, architecture, archaeology and culture of New York State and the nation. There are more than 128,000 historic properties throughout the state listed in the National Register of Historic Places, either individually or as components of historic districts. Property owners, municipalities and organizations from communities throughout the state sponsored the nominations. 

Once recommendations are approved by the Commissioner, who serves as the State Historic Preservation Officer, the properties are listed in the New York State Register of Historic Places and then nominated to the National Register of Historic Places, where they are reviewed by the National Park Service and, once approved, entered in the National Register. More information, with photos of the nominations, is available on the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation website. 

Capital Region

Dr. Jay McDonald Towers, Albany County - Constructed in 1972, this ten-story senior housing tower is the City of Cohoes' first example of senior apartments. The building is located in the central business district, anchoring the north end of Remsen Street as a mid-rise, red brick building with an exposed concrete structural system. The design embodies a restrained modern aesthetic with an emphasis on form, materials, and structure. Inside, the apartments follow standard recommendations for senior housing, featuring bathtubs with grab bars, non-skid floors, and wider door openings. The McDonald Towers are associated with the Cohoes Housing Authority's Model Cities Program, authorized by the Demonstration Cities and Metropolitan Development Act of 1966. In addition to funding new, improved housing, the Model Cities program also endeavored to provide additional community services, such as job training, code enforcement, and improved public education. In 1970, Housing and Urban Development (HUD) approved a $13 million Model Cities grant to Cohoes, and McDonald Towers was among the most significant of the projects proposed.

Roulier Heights Historic District, Albany County - This small complex of ten apartment buildings and one community center in the City of Cohoes was the Cohoes Housing Authority's first completed project. Built in 1961, the complex was designed around an elliptical drive just west of Cohoes's central business district. The rows line both sides of the street, face each other, and there are paved paths in front of and behind the buildings. Each apartment block comprises a row of six to ten two-story townhouses, with individual entrances, interior wood floors, and dedicated storage space. Established in 1952 with support from state legislation and federal funding, the Cohoes Housing Authority was formed to respond to post-World War II housing shortage pressures in the city, which was felt even more severely with the significant downsizing of Cohoes' nation-leading textile manufacturing mills which also happened after the war.

Central New York

Benton-Sherwood House, Cortland County - The house at 79 Central Avenue in Cortland is significant for its association with Jeannette Benton Sherwood (1863-1938) and the Women's Club Movement of the early twentieth century. A key organizer of women's clubs in Cortland County and later a leader in statewide roles with the New York State Federation of Women's Clubs, Sherwood hosted numerous meetings at her childhood home, which she occupied from 1899-1921. Sherwood's father, lumberman and one-time village president Henry F. Benton, built the substantial brick Second Empire style house in 1874. The largest and most elaborate of its type in Cortland, the house features a French-inspired mansard roof, a central tower that contains both the front entrance and spiraling cantilevered stair, as well as fine doors, moldings, and parquet floors. Many architectural details may have been manufactured at Benton's nearby planing mill. The house's parlor was a popular meeting space for groups connected with Sherwood; it served as the location of the founding meeting of the Tioughnioga Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1900. In addition to her women's clubs activities, Sherwood was also chair of the Cortland Fresh Air committee, chair of the statewide Victory War Fund during the First World War, participated in the Women's Suffrage Movement, served as the founder and first president of the Cortland County Historical Society, and served on the board of the New York Historical Association.

Lustron House Westchester Deluxe Model 02, Onondaga County - Located in the city of Syracuse, the house showcases important developments in post-World War II prefabricated houses. It is an excellent example of the Lustron Corporation's Westchester two-bedroom "Model 02" and includes "deluxe" features such as a pass-through cabinet dividing the kitchen and dining area, a living room bay window, and a built-in vanity in the master bedroom. The Lustron Corporation, located in Columbus Ohio, used an assembly line to produce all-steel building components that could be shipped in pieces across the country and assembled on-site. The technology was an advanced prefab solution to the severe housing shortages in the post-war era.

Mohawk Valley

West Winfield Historic District, Herkimer County - Located in the Town of Winfield, the historic district consists of 315 resources at the intersection of the historic Great Western Turnpike (State Route 20) and County Route 51. The district embodies a community that developed because of these transportation routes and the local mills along the North Winfield Creek and the East Branch of the Unadilla River. The built environment in West Winfield represents its development from ca. 1790 through 1970. Architectural styles convey popular trends from the 1800s to the mid-1900s.

New York City

Bay View Houses, Kings County - Bay View Houses is a large public housing complex for middle-income tenants in the Canarsie neighborhood of Brooklyn. It was built in 1955-56 under New York City Housing Authority's City IV program, the last phase of city-funded public housing before legislation such as the Mitchell-Lama law of 1955 shifted the responsibility for building middle-income housing onto private developers and away from city government. It reflects ideas about public housing, methods of financing, siting, and design at a time when the nation as a whole was grappling with the proper role of government and private capital in developing affordable housing, especially for middle-income residents.

Northwest Bronx Scatter Site Housing, Bronx County (Three Nominations: Bailey Ave-West 193rd St Houses; East 180th St-Monterey Ave Houses; Fort Independence St-Heath Ave Houses) - These three public housing developments in the Bronx, all completed in the early 1970s, are the bricks-and-mortar embodiment of the long, often messy, and ultimately imperfect work of implementing the Civil Rights Act of 1964. They were built under New York City Housing Authority's (NYCHA) scatter site program, a federally mandated attempt to enforce Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. That law prohibited discrimination based on race, color, or national origin in any federally funded program, including public housing. The federal government's solution was to require local housing authorities to disperse (or scatter) a portion of new housing developments throughout the city, particularly in middle-class neighborhoods on the periphery, away from areas of racial concentration. New York City's scatter site program launched in early 1966 during the first months of Mayor John Lindsay's administration, with NYCHA completing its first scatter site developments in the early 1970s. In developing the scatter site housing program, federal and local housing officials implicitly acknowledged that decades of earlier policies had actively contributed to racial discrimination and residential segregation. Reactions to New York's scatter site program revealed deep divisions among city residents, as well as persistent prejudice and racism. The first of NYCHA's proposed scatter site developments met with significant resistance in many of the neighborhoods for which they were proposed, including those in the Northwest Bronx.

Richard Mott House, Queens County - The Richard Mott House is locally significant as a rare, unique, and intact example of Shingle-style architecture in the Bayswater neighborhood of Far Rockaway. Richard Mott, a hotel owner and member of a well-established Far Rockaway family, refashioned a barn or outbuilding into a two-story beachside cottage in 1909 to use as his art studio. After his retirement in 1915, he lived full-time in the house until his death in 1925. With the demolition or alteration of many other Shingle homes in the neighborhood, the Richard Mott House stands as a remnant of a style which was common among coastal vacation towns such as Far Rockaway in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Moreover, the house is significant as an idiosyncratic, vernacular labor of Richard Mott. Mott was a hobbyist landscape artist and builder who customized the house as his personal refuge, studio, and gallery of his work and tastes. The house is replete with Mott's own murals of Far Rockaway's scenic marine landscapes, built-in wood furniture, custom wood molding, and stained-glass windows.

Unitarian Universalist Church of Staten Island, Richmond County - The Unitarian Universalist Church of Staten Island (UUCSI) is locally significant as an example of the application of Arts and Crafts principles to a suburban church complex. Designed by Brooklyn-based architect, Quaker, and social reformer Frank Haviland Quinby, UUCSI's buildings incorporate Tudor Revival, Queen Anne, and Shingle style references in an eclectic mix. Quinby's choice of Arts and Crafts principles is notable because of their alignment with Unitarian faith's social and political aims, placing UUCSI's campus in a tradition of late-1800s Unitarian "Church Home" buildings emphasizing warmth, functionality, natural materials, and modest, residential scales.

North Country

Au Sable Forks Historic District, Essex County - Au Sable Forks Historic District is in the far northern reaches of Essex County and is uniquely positioned on a peninsula where the western and eastern branches of the Saranac River meet. The region's abundant lumber, waterways, and proximity to iron deposits made it an ideal location for logging and iron ore processing in the 1800s, and it later became a hub for the pulp industry. The J.&J. Rogers Company was the primary driver of industrialization, with Au Sable Forks as their headquarters. The district, which is roughly bound by the branches of the river, essentially developed as a company town for the Rogers Company and remained as such until the early 1970s. The town is notable as one of the few intact company towns in this part of the Adirondacks. Additionally, Au Sable Forks suffered a tragic fire in 1925 that wiped out its entire commercial corridor. The resulting architecture in the wake of the fire was entirely fireproof and provides a good representative example of a Main Street almost entirely composed of 1920s and early 1930s commercial architecture. There are 80 resources within the district, including two properties that are already individually-listed on the National Register: the Graves Mansion and the Tahawus Masonic Lodge.

Hamlet of Schuyler Falls Historic District, Clinton County - The proposed district is located at the intersection of NY Route 22B (Pleasant Street) and Felton Road in the Hamlet of Schuyler Falls and comprises twenty-two resources. After the Turner Grist Mill was established on the Salmon River in 1827, the area developed as a largely residential neighborhood for mill owners, managers, and working-class employees. The extant grist mill and remaining homes express the ways in which residents created a tight-knit rural community that was collectively focused on both industry and agriculture throughout the 1800s. Buildings range from the 1820s to approximately 1900 and include a variety of architectural styles.

Western New York

Buffalo Envelope Company Building, Buffalo, Erie County - The Buffalo Envelope Company Building, at the corner of Michigan Avenue and Seneca Street, derives its significance from industrial history for its association with envelope manufacturing and sales between 1909 and 1959. The Buffalo Envelope Company, founded at another location in 1888, moved into the six-story portion of this building (built for speculative purchases in 1899) in 1899. Multiple additions to the building were built during the twentieth century until it occupied an entire city block, attesting to the growth and success of the industry. A spiraling chute is still intact in the tall portion of the building, showing how envelope production started at the top and then step by step the envelopes worked their way down through the building as part of the assembly process. Buffalo Envelope Company was bought by Ohio-based Champion International in 1959, and they in turn sold the building in 1989, when it ceased to be used as a production facility.

Burton H. Hurd House, Erie County - The Burton H. Hurd House in Elmira is locally significant as an early-1900s suburban residence with Colonial Revival style features. The house was built for Burton H. Hurd, a descendent of one of Elma's earliest families and a regionally prominent business figure in Buffalo's lumber industry. In 1912, he commissioned architects Harris & Merritt to design a secondary residence for use in the summer months. As a member of a wealthy and prominent family, Hurd desired a space to entertain guests and demonstrate his social status while also allowing servants to discretely perform domestic labor. The emphasis on separation of utilitarian space is evident in Harris & Merritt's plan, with all such areas housed in the north wing, offsetting the facade's design. The separation of service space is further emphasized by features such as the small first floor pantry that connects to the kitchen and dining room, and a set of stairs that provides direct access to the maids' room, kitchen, and laundry room in the basement. These design choices allowed staff to remain virtually hidden while serving the family or guests. Essential elements, including the front and rear porches, balustrades, and windows have all remained largely intact to the building's original design. While some alterations have occurred, the primary spaces retain the majority of their materials, finishes, and configuration, reflecting their contemporary use and patterns of living.

Center and Pearl Streets Historic District, Chautauqua County - The Center and Pearl Streets Historic District is part of the former village of Forestville in the town of Hanover. Situated between Forestville's commercial Main Street and the railroad depot, the district encompasses an area that evolved from a collection of mills and houses in forested land in the early 1800s, into a vibrant tree-lined streetscape that was the home to some of the community's most prosperous families. The district grew in the sparsely developed land between the town center and rail depot following the arrival of the New York & Erie Railroad in 1851. The Center and Pearl Streets Historic District preserves a rare residential enclave that experienced continued changes and expansion over the course of a century as passenger and freight use of the railroad gave way to automobiles and trucks. The residents of the historic district directly contributed to and benefitted from access to railroad, ranging from railroad employees, local business owners, farmers, and locally significant professional lawyers, all who settled along for convenient access to both a major regional transportation route and the nearby town business district. This broad pattern of development was unique to Forestville, providing a rich study in the development of an isolated rural agricultural community into one connected to the larger world through the railroad.

Norstar Building, Erie County - Downtown Buffalo's Norstar Building, conceived by Mark Mendell of Cannon Design and constructed in 1981-1982, is architecturally significant for its pioneering design in the realm of energy efficiency. In the wake of the energy crisis of the late 1970s and early 1980s, the office building's design utilizes multiple elements that enabled cost-saving systems, including its dramatically angled site orientation that incorporates passive solar design and wind screening, an emphasis on natural lighting using light shelves and a skylit atrium, and roof-mounted phase change solar collectors for heat transfer. Many of these elements were the first of their kind in downtown Buffalo and represent their first appearance together to provide an innovative approach to energy efficiency. Despite being less than fifty years of age, the building has exceptional significance as an early experiment in what is now recognized as sustainable design.

The Saint Mary of the Angels Complex, Cattaraugus County - Nestled on a small hill rising from the Allegany river in a shady residential neighborhood in the City of Olean, the Saint Mary of the Angels Complex encompasses five buildings: the Roman Catholic Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels, the former Saint Mary's convent, former rectory and carriage house, and the parish life center/former Saint Mary's Academy. Built in 1915, the basilica of Saint Mary of the Angels is a magnificent twin-spired three-story Gothic Revival stone church, renowned not just for its exterior beauty but also the magnificent Munich-style windows and interior art. The former Academy building and convent, built together in 1924, are themselves stately red brick Tudor-style buildings with limestone trim, and the former rectory and carriage house form a well-preserved example of a Victorian residence. The Saint Mary of the Angels complex has long been a significant part of the spiritual and educational fabric of the Olean community and the basilica - one of only 93 so designated in the United States - is widely regarded as an architectural and artistic gem.

Smith-Henry Building, Erie County - Originally built in 1855 as a two-story single-family residence with a rear extension for hatmaker Samuel Smith, the Smith-Henry Building in Buffalo is an exemplary example of early 1900s adaptive reuse that demonstrates the impact of commercial real estate development on 1800s domestic architecture in an evolving urban setting. In 1914 the brick building was altered and enlarged by lawyer and real estate developer John J. Henry to accommodate two ground-floor storefronts and several apartment units upstairs. Henry's unorthodox alteration of the building involved enveloping the front of the house with a new three-story portion that expanded the building's potential to meet the changing rental needs of the neighborhood. The result is a building that contains both mid-1800s details in what otherwise appears as a 1910s two-part commercial block.

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