Salvaging Troy’s History

by Don Rittner

When I was the Albany City Archeologist in 1978, I became involved with a large urban renewal project called ‘The Pastures.’ This referred to an area in ancient Albany in the south end of the city that was indeed pasture land in the 17th century.

The Pastures Project was part demolition, part rehabilitation, and part new construction. It was the brainchild of the administration of Mayor Erastus Corning II. As designed, hundreds of 18th and 19th century buildings would be demolished, the rest renovated, and new ones built and sold to Albany’s citizens.

Today, the existing Pastures Project is standing testimony, although the new construction is falling apart.

When I first learned of the project it seemed a bit odd that half of the buildings would be rehabilitated and the rest would be destroyed without salvaging any of the architectural elements from the "doomed" buildings. If you are going to rehabilitate similar aged buildings why not reuse the parts from those buildings coming down, I thought?

In a meeting with Mayor Corning I laid out an idea to salvage architectural elements from the doomed buildings and use them in the rehab of the "saved" ones. He agreed and salvaging became part of the project. Most of the saved architectural elements were stored in an abandoned school building.

Unfortunately, construction workers torched the school when they began rehabbing it and everything salvaged was lost. A good idea gone up in smoke.

Shortly after, Historic Albany Foundation, a non profit preservation group in Albany asked me if I would set up a meeting with the mayor so they could present an idea of operating an architectural parts warehouse in the city. The meeting went smoothly and the rest is history. Historic Albany’s Parts Warehouse has been successfully operating for more than 25 years.

Recently, a story in the Record reminded me of the Pastures Project, though not on the same scale. The Commission on Economic Opportunity wants to demolish 7 or more buildings on 5th Avenue to build a new Family Resource Center. Several of those buildings on Fifth Avenue look restorable. Shortly after reading that story, the original 5th Avenue Baptist Church in Columbus Square was lost to the wrecking ball.

It seems we need an architectural salvage operation in Troy!

Here’s how it would work. The city should mandate in their demolition contracts that an organization that specializes in architectural salvage be given the opportunity to get into a "soon to be razed" building and remove what they can by hand. Other parts like cast iron window sills, store fronts, cornices, or hard to remove items will then be identified by the architectural salvage staff for the demolition contractor to try and remove without damaging. Moreover, if there are any one of a kind artifacts salvaged the city gets to keep them. They can be displayed at the RiverSpark Visitor Center on River Street.

The saved items will be cleaned and stored in a parts warehouse and identified as being from Troy. Those items that were made by Troy industries will also be identified. The items will be offered for sale for a nominal price to anyone who wants to reuse the material.

Troy residents will automatically get a 10% discount off the price of the item.

A catalog of Troy parts will be available on paper and the Internet thanks to the Hudson-Mohawk Industrial Gateway. You will be able to log onto their Web site and see what is available.

This cooperative venture would solve a couple of problems. First, the city of Troy does not have to create a parts warehouse nor staff it. This will be done by the organization chosen by the city that has the most experience in this kind of operation.

Additionally, the loss of so much of our architectural history is curtailed somewhat in that we are salvaging items that are not produced anymore and are important to the overall historic fabric of the city. Finally, and more importantly, we are reusing the material and it is staying in the city.

Now this effort is no excuse to tear a building down, but buildings do get demolished for a variety of reasons. Salvaging what we can and reusing it is better than the current model which is watching irreplaceable pieces of Troy’s history going to the demolition landfill.

I encourage the city administration to more forward in making this a reality.

Go History? Send email to don at drittner@aol.com or PO Box 50216, Albany, NY 12205. Thanks to all who identified places to buy Beeman’s gum and Skybars!