Northern River Street Historic District
Encyclopedia
The Northern River Street Historic District is located along River Street (southbound US 4
at that point) north of Federal Street, one block east of the Green Island Bridge
, in Troy
, New York, United States. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places
in 1988, as the Northern River Street District, to distinguish it from Troy's previously existing River Street Historic District, which had been one of five superseded by the Central Troy Historic District
to the south two years earlier.
Its two acres (8,000 m²) include 13 brick industrial and commercial buildings erected from the mid-19th to early 20th centuries. They were cut off from the rest of downtown due to the construction of the Rensselaer and Saratoga Railroad
, and as a result became a production center for the city's major industries, primarily textile
s. When those industries declined in the mid-20th century, they were further isolated from the city's center by expansion of Federal Street to provide access to the bridge, and various urban renewal
efforts. As a result they have not seen much redevelopment and remain mostly intact.
: 403-429 River Street on the west side, and 420-430 River Street on the east. The resulting district
is irregularly shaped, taking in all of the west side between Federal and Jacob streets but only the northern half on the east side.
The west side is dominated by 409-415 River Street, a four-story six-bay
former warehouse
that dates to the 1840s, making it the oldest building in the district. The brownstone
pilaster
s on the storefronts attest to the lingering influence of Greek Revival architecture
at the time it was built. Nest door, 417-419 River Street is as tall but only three bays wide, built a decade later with similar design. Next to it is 421-423 River Street, the 1885 Cleminshaw Building of the H.C. Curtis Collar Co. At six bays and five stories, it is the largest building in the district. It boasts an ornate
pressed metal cornice
with a pediment
reading "1868 REBUILT 1884".
At the north end of this row is 425 River Street, a narrower 1892 five-story building showing later influences, with a corbel
ed brick cornice and molded
pediment. The top floor windows are arch
ed; a brick pilaster comes up from beneath to create a rounded arcade
. A decorative brick course
as well as molded string runs around the building. To its north are two smaller buildings, dating to around 1910, the newest buildings in the district.
To the south of the large warehouses are smaller buildings. At 403 River Street is a three-story building dating to the same period as the warehouses, but 405-407, originally built as the Gaiety Theatre in 1888 and rebuilt with Dutch [[Colonial Revival architecture
stepped gables after a fire twenty years later.
The west side is dominated by three large three-story brick warehouses all built around 1885. To their north, at 428-430 River Street, is a two-story brick building from ten years later.
in the 1830s, which ran into Troy on a route paralleling Federal Street from a now-demolished bridge. This, and the river's nearby water power, made it a more desirable location for the commercial detachable-collar
factories and warehouses that were opening up as what had been a local cottage industry became the mainstay of the local economy and the product that gave the city an enduring nickname.
Space in the area was limited, and later expansions and additions to the industry found even better facilities available in the city's long northern extension. The railroad tracks were eventually removed when that industry declined along with the collar factories in the 20th century, but the road was expanded to include their right of way. Some of the properties were expanded for different purposes
in the 1950s. Local urban renewal
efforts in the next two decades also further isolated the area from downtown, but left the remaining River Street buildings intact, preserving them as a transitional block between commercial Troy to the south and industrial Troy to the north.
Today it is not only on the Register, but included as part of the city's Riverfront Historic District. Special zoning
ordinances
are in place to protect its historic character. It has been redeveloped with small retail outlets and restaurants, such as the River Street Café, upstairs in 429 River Street overlooking the river.
U.S. Route 4 in New York
U.S. Route 4 is a part of the U.S. Highway System that runs from East Greenbush, New York, to Portsmouth, New Hampshire. In the U.S. state of New York, US 4 extends from an intersection with US 9 and US 20 in East Greenbush to the Vermont state line northeast of Whitehall...
at that point) north of Federal Street, one block east of the Green Island Bridge
Green Island Bridge
The Green Island Bridge crosses the Hudson River in New York, connecting Green Island with Troy. It opened September 12, 1981.-History:The original Rensselaer and Saratoga Railroad bridge was a wood-truss covered bridge built in 1832. On May 10, 1862 it caught fire from the sparks of a passing...
, in Troy
Troy, New York
Troy is a city in the US State of New York and the seat of Rensselaer County. Troy is located on the western edge of Rensselaer County and on the eastern bank of the Hudson River. Troy has close ties to the nearby cities of Albany and Schenectady, forming a region popularly called the Capital...
, New York, United States. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
in 1988, as the Northern River Street District, to distinguish it from Troy's previously existing River Street Historic District, which had been one of five superseded by the Central Troy Historic District
Central Troy Historic District
The Central Troy Historic District is an irregularly-shaped, area of downtown Troy, New York, United States. It has been described as "one of the most perfectly preserved 19th-century downtowns in the [country]" with nearly 700 properties in a variety of architectural styles from the early 19th to...
to the south two years earlier.
Its two acres (8,000 m²) include 13 brick industrial and commercial buildings erected from the mid-19th to early 20th centuries. They were cut off from the rest of downtown due to the construction of the Rensselaer and Saratoga Railroad
Rensselaer and Saratoga Railroad
The Rensselaer and Saratoga Railroad was chartered on April 14, 1832. It completed between Troy and Ballston Spa on March 19, 1836. The Delaware and Hudson Canal Company leased the line on May 1, 1871, and it was consolidated into the Delaware and Hudson Railroad effective January 30, 1945....
, and as a result became a production center for the city's major industries, primarily textile
Textile
A textile or cloth is a flexible woven material consisting of a network of natural or artificial fibres often referred to as thread or yarn. Yarn is produced by spinning raw fibres of wool, flax, cotton, or other material to produce long strands...
s. When those industries declined in the mid-20th century, they were further isolated from the city's center by expansion of Federal Street to provide access to the bridge, and various urban renewal
Urban renewal
Urban renewal is a program of land redevelopment in areas of moderate to high density urban land use. Renewal has had both successes and failures. Its modern incarnation began in the late 19th century in developed nations and experienced an intense phase in the late 1940s – under the rubric of...
efforts. As a result they have not seen much redevelopment and remain mostly intact.
Geography
The district is defined by building addressesAddress (geography)
An address is a collection of information, presented in a mostly fixed format, used for describing the location of a building, apartment, or other structure or a plot of land, generally using political boundaries and street names as references, along with other identifiers such as house or...
: 403-429 River Street on the west side, and 420-430 River Street on the east. The resulting district
Historic district
A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries, historic districts receive legal protection from development....
is irregularly shaped, taking in all of the west side between Federal and Jacob streets but only the northern half on the east side.
Buildings
Bay (architecture)
A bay is a unit of form in architecture. This unit is defined as the zone between the outer edges of an engaged column, pilaster, or post; or within a window frame, doorframe, or vertical 'bas relief' wall form.-Defining elements:...
former warehouse
Warehouse
A warehouse is a commercial building for storage of goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial areas of cities and towns. They usually have loading docks to load and unload...
that dates to the 1840s, making it the oldest building in the district. The brownstone
Brownstone
Brownstone is a brown Triassic or Jurassic sandstone which was once a popular building material. The term is also used in the United States to refer to a terraced house clad in this material.-Types:-Apostle Island brownstone:...
pilaster
Pilaster
A pilaster is a slightly-projecting column built into or applied to the face of a wall. Most commonly flattened or rectangular in form, pilasters can also take a half-round form or the shape of any type of column, including tortile....
s on the storefronts attest to the lingering influence of Greek Revival architecture
Greek Revival architecture
The Greek Revival was an architectural movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in Northern Europe and the United States. A product of Hellenism, it may be looked upon as the last phase in the development of Neoclassical architecture...
at the time it was built. Nest door, 417-419 River Street is as tall but only three bays wide, built a decade later with similar design. Next to it is 421-423 River Street, the 1885 Cleminshaw Building of the H.C. Curtis Collar Co. At six bays and five stories, it is the largest building in the district. It boasts an ornate
Ornament (architecture)
In architecture and decorative art, ornament is a decoration used to embellish parts of a building or object. Large figurative elements such as monumental sculpture and their equivalents in decorative art are excluded from the term; most ornament does not include human figures, and if present they...
pressed metal cornice
Cornice
Cornice molding is generally any horizontal decorative molding that crowns any building or furniture element: the cornice over a door or window, for instance, or the cornice around the edge of a pedestal. A simple cornice may be formed just with a crown molding.The function of the projecting...
with a pediment
Pediment
A pediment is a classical architectural element consisting of the triangular section found above the horizontal structure , typically supported by columns. The gable end of the pediment is surrounded by the cornice moulding...
reading "1868 REBUILT 1884".
At the north end of this row is 425 River Street, a narrower 1892 five-story building showing later influences, with a corbel
Corbel
In architecture a corbel is a piece of stone jutting out of a wall to carry any superincumbent weight. A piece of timber projecting in the same way was called a "tassel" or a "bragger". The technique of corbelling, where rows of corbels deeply keyed inside a wall support a projecting wall or...
ed brick cornice and molded
Molding (decorative)
Molding or moulding is a strip of material with various profiles used to cover transitions between surfaces or for decoration. It is traditionally made from solid milled wood or plaster but may be made from plastic or reformed wood...
pediment. The top floor windows are arch
Arch
An arch is a structure that spans a space and supports a load. Arches appeared as early as the 2nd millennium BC in Mesopotamian brick architecture and their systematic use started with the Ancient Romans who were the first to apply the technique to a wide range of structures.-Technical aspects:The...
ed; a brick pilaster comes up from beneath to create a rounded arcade
Arcade (architecture)
An arcade is a succession of arches, each counterthrusting the next, supported by columns or piers or a covered walk enclosed by a line of such arches on one or both sides. In warmer or wet climates, exterior arcades provide shelter for pedestrians....
. A decorative brick course
Course (architecture)
A course is a continuous horizontal layer of similarly-sized building material one unit high, usually in a wall. The term is almost always used in conjunction with unit masonry such as brick, cut stone, or concrete masonry units .-Styles:...
as well as molded string runs around the building. To its north are two smaller buildings, dating to around 1910, the newest buildings in the district.
To the south of the large warehouses are smaller buildings. At 403 River Street is a three-story building dating to the same period as the warehouses, but 405-407, originally built as the Gaiety Theatre in 1888 and rebuilt with Dutch [[Colonial Revival architecture
Colonial Revival architecture
The Colonial Revival was a nationalistic architectural style, garden design, and interior design movement in the United States which sought to revive elements of Georgian architecture, part of a broader Colonial Revival Movement in the arts. In the early 1890s Americans began to value their own...
stepped gables after a fire twenty years later.
The west side is dominated by three large three-story brick warehouses all built around 1885. To their north, at 428-430 River Street, is a two-story brick building from ten years later.
History
The neighborhood was isolated from downtown by the construction of the Rensselaer and Saratoga RailroadRensselaer and Saratoga Railroad
The Rensselaer and Saratoga Railroad was chartered on April 14, 1832. It completed between Troy and Ballston Spa on March 19, 1836. The Delaware and Hudson Canal Company leased the line on May 1, 1871, and it was consolidated into the Delaware and Hudson Railroad effective January 30, 1945....
in the 1830s, which ran into Troy on a route paralleling Federal Street from a now-demolished bridge. This, and the river's nearby water power, made it a more desirable location for the commercial detachable-collar
Collar
Collar may refer to:Human neckwear:*Collar , the part of a garment that fastens around or frames the neck*Ruff collar*Slave collar*Collar , a device of any material placed around the neck of the submissive partner in BDSM...
factories and warehouses that were opening up as what had been a local cottage industry became the mainstay of the local economy and the product that gave the city an enduring nickname.
Space in the area was limited, and later expansions and additions to the industry found even better facilities available in the city's long northern extension. The railroad tracks were eventually removed when that industry declined along with the collar factories in the 20th century, but the road was expanded to include their right of way. Some of the properties were expanded for different purposes
Adaptive reuse
Adaptive reuse refers to the process of reusing an old site or building for a purpose other than which it was built or designed for. Along with brownfield reclamation, adaptive reuse is seen by many as a key factor in land conservation and the reduction of urban sprawl...
in the 1950s. Local urban renewal
Urban renewal
Urban renewal is a program of land redevelopment in areas of moderate to high density urban land use. Renewal has had both successes and failures. Its modern incarnation began in the late 19th century in developed nations and experienced an intense phase in the late 1940s – under the rubric of...
efforts in the next two decades also further isolated the area from downtown, but left the remaining River Street buildings intact, preserving them as a transitional block between commercial Troy to the south and industrial Troy to the north.
Today it is not only on the Register, but included as part of the city's Riverfront Historic District. Special zoning
Zoning
Zoning is a device of land use planning used by local governments in most developed countries. The word is derived from the practice of designating permitted uses of land based on mapped zones which separate one set of land uses from another...
ordinances
Local ordinance
A local ordinance is a law usually found in a municipal code.-United States:In the United States, these laws are enforced locally in addition to state law and federal law.-Japan:...
are in place to protect its historic character. It has been redeveloped with small retail outlets and restaurants, such as the River Street Café, upstairs in 429 River Street overlooking the river.