Governor Kathy Hochul announced 20 recommended additions to the State and National Registers of Historic Places, spotlighting New York’s diverse heritage from a c.1750–1870 Pine Street African Burial Ground in Kingston to community-driven affordable housing like Brooklyn’s Fulton Park Plaza developed by Jackie Robinson, and Buffalo’s McKinley Parkway Historic District, slated to be the state’s largest with 5,000+ buildings. Reviewed on September 10, 2025 by the New York State Board for Historic Preservation in Albany, the nominations span all regions and eras—public health landmarks such as the Mott Haven Health Center (Bronx), early education sites like Clifton Park’s “Little Red Schoolhouse,” and industrial and immigrant history in Buffalo and Solvay. Listing makes properties eligible for grants and state/federal historic rehabilitation tax credits; New York leads the nation with $7.17B in rehab costs (2018–2024), $16.4B in project spending since 2009, 91,386 jobs, and $1.79B in tax revenue (2019–2023)—advancing preservation, revitalization, and pride of place statewide.

Governor Hochul Announces 20 Nominations for State and National Registers of Historic Places

Nominations Represent Diverse Histories and Unique Stories Across New York State

Governor Kathy Hochul today announced recommendations by the New York State Board for Historic Preservation to add 20 properties and districts to the State and National Registers of Historic Places. The nominations include a c. 1750-1870 African burial ground in Kingston, a barn that was a creative workspace for influential historic preservationists in Newfield, an affordable housing complex developed by legendary baseball player Jackie Robinson in Brooklyn, and the McKinley Parkway Historic District in Buffalo – which is slated to become the largest single historic district in the state with more than 5,000 buildings.

“New York’s history is one of our greatest treasures,” Governor Hochul said. “These sites are more than buildings or landmarks — they are powerful connections to the people and stories that shaped our state. By adding these properties to the State and National Registers, we are reaffirming our commitment to honoring and preserving New York’s rich, diverse history for generations to come.”

The nominations were reviewed September 10, 2025, at the 200th meeting of the New York State Board for Historic Preservation. In addition to acknowledging the milestone of this meeting with a special presentation about the history of the National Register program in New York State, the board recognized the service of former board member Jay DiLorenzo and welcomed two new board appointees, Ruth Pierpont and Felicia Mayro.

New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation Commissioner Pro Tempore Randy Simons said, “As we work to expand and diversify listings in the State and National Registers of Historic Places, we’re looking to identify and recognize the places that help tell New York’s whole history now and into the future. With listings, historic resources become eligible for support programs that can aid in preservation and rehabilitation efforts — which encourage community revitalization and enhance pride of place. Plus, through this process, we document our knowledge about our state’s history and continue to share compelling new research with the public.”

State and National Register listing 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, “At the Division for Historic Preservation, we are dedicated to expanding the State and National Registers of Historic Places and to connecting communities with the resources they need to help preserve and promote these historic assets so that pieces of our past can have a meaningful role in the present. Listing in the registers is a critical step in connecting property owners with resources that can help them steward this shared history.”

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. 

New York City

Brooklyn Garden Apartments (Navy Yard), Brooklyn, Kings County

The Brooklyn Garden Apartments is a privately owned affordable housing complex located in the Wallabout neighborhood of Brooklyn. Built between 1929-1932 and designed by architect Frank H. Quinby, the complex was a direct result of the New York State Housing Law of 1926, which encouraged private development of affordable housing by authorizing limited-divided housing corporations (whose profits were capped at 6 percent), offering tax abatements, and allowing the use of eminent domain to assemble building lots. This project was the first development to utilize the eminent domain provision of the law and was backed by some of New York’s most notable advocates of improved affordable housing including Housing Board member Louis H. Pink, Governor Alfred Smith, and financier and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller Jr. The complex is also notable for its garden apartment-style plan, which comprises two U-shaped buildings enclosing a central courtyard.

East 152nd Street-Courtlandt Avenue Houses, Bronx, Bronx County

The East 152nd Street-Courtlandt Avenue Houses is a public housing development in the Melrose neighborhood of the South Bronx designed by the architectural firm of Ames Kagan Stewart. The complex officially opened on August 31, 1973 and reflected local efforts to revitalize the South Bronx as part of the larger Melrose-Morrisania Study. Beginning in 1968, the New York City Planning Committee worked closely with the Melrose Planning Council (formed by residents of Melrose) to develop an urban renewal plan that would benefit their community. The planners conducted extensive surveys and held public hearings about individual urban renewal sites scheduled around residents’ availability. This process represents a successful collaboration between local government and neighborhood residents. The complex is also an example of NYCHA’s vest pocket and turnkey programs. Vest pocket housing developments were defined by their size—sites were a city block or less and the complex comprised one to four residential buildings—and were designed to minimize demolition and displacement while promoting neighborhood-scale redevelopment. The turnkey program allowed a private developer to construct a housing project and then turn the keys over to the housing authority, ideally speeding construction and reducing costs.

Fulton Park Plaza, Brooklyn, Kings County

Fulton Park Plaza is a publicly subsidized, privately owned affordable housing complex located in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn. Built between 1972 and1974 and designed by the architectural firm of L.E. Tuckett & Thompson, the complex was developed by legendary baseball player Jackie Robinson with considerable input from the area’s Black residents and community organizations. Fulton Park Plaza was the result of a lengthy and sometimes contentious effort to revitalize Bedford-Stuyvesant. During the 1960s, the city proposed an urban renewal program that would have demolished a substantial number of buildings in the vicinity of Fulton Park. The neighborhood’s network of community organizations—most notably the Central Brooklyn Coordinating Council and the Fulton Park Community Council, both championed by local activist Elsie Richardson—quickly organized against the proposal. In the end, what these groups sought, and ultimately achieved, was community input into the form the renewal program would take, who would build it, and who would operate it once completed. Fulton Park Plaza fulfilled these community requests: in form, the complex was a vest-pocket development situated on a relatively small site and fitting in with the low-scale character of the neighborhood; the architects were founding members of the New York Coalition of Black Architects; and its developer was a famed civil rights icon.

Jackie Robinson Houses, New York, New York County

The Jackie Robinson Houses, constructed in 1973-1974, is significant for its association with public housing programs in East Harlem after World War II and specifically for its association with the history and development of a small area in northeastern Harlem known as the Harlem Triangle. In the post-war period, East Harlem witnessed an unprecedented number of new public housing projects, many championed by Robert Moses, who, after taking charge of the city’s public housing program, formed the Mayor’s Slum Clearance Committee in 1948. The committee gave him license to deem vast areas of the city as slums, raze them, and build large new public housing complexes in their place. Within this era of mass demolition and building, a city report condemned the tiny Harlem Triangle as “one of the most blighted and rundown areas in Harlem … and wholly unsuitable for housing.” This designation led to the city’s efforts to level the area and redevelop it with industrial resources. Beginning in the 1960s, two local groups, the Community Association of the East Harlem Triangle (CAEHT) and the Architects’ Renewal Committee in Harlem (ARCH), took a strong interest in the area’s future and worked to thwart the city’s plans, which faced strong opposition from residents. CAEHT, led by prominent activist Alice Kornegay, and ARCH, led by important African American architect J. Max Bond, fought the neighborhood’s designation as “blighted and run down,” forcing the city to amend its urban renewal plan to permit housing on the periphery of the triangle. In 1966, CAEHT partnered with ARCH to create the East Harlem Triangle Plan, which gave voice to residents’ concerns and proposed new redevelopment plans that favored those who lived there. Although the East Harlem Triangle Plan was never completely developed, the Jackie Robinson Houses emerged directly from it. The building was designed by Bond, Ryder and Associates and composed of two of the most prominent Black architects in New York City, J. Max Bond Jr. and Donald P. Ryder.

Messiah Lutheran Church, Staten Island, Richmond County

Located on Staten Island, the Messiah Lutheran Church is an example of Late Gothic Revival ecclesiastical architecture designed by architect Leonard Burd. Built in 1931, Messiah Lutheran served as a place of worship for Scandinavian settlers of Annadale and their descendants as the only church in the neighborhood for most of its lifespan. Historically the church was a center of community activity and aid in Annadale. The church was home to various Scandinavian, Lutheran, and non-sectarian cultural and social organizations and played a major role in youth education and development.

Mott Haven Health Center, Bronx, Bronx County

The Mott Haven Health Center was one of fourteen neighborhood health centers built by the City of New York during the Great Depression/New Deal era. First proposed in 1931 and opened in 1937, the building was designed by architects William H. Gompert and Kenneth M. Murchison. The neighborhood health center movement began in the early 1900s when New York City created thirty health districts intended to reduce mortality and morbidity rates – especially in the city’s densely populated tenement areas such as Mott Haven. During the Great Depression, fourteen of these districts received purpose-built health centers funded by the Public Works Administration (PWA). The Mott Haven building is architecturally notable for its Modern Classical style. The exterior design fused a modern sensibility with classical forms and featured a symmetrical buff-brick and limestone façade with stylized ornament including bronze grilles and spandrels with medical iconography. The interior was organized into functional quadrants devoted to specific types of preventative care (i.e. maternity and infant care and dental services) and sicknesses (i.e. tuberculosis and venereal services). Of particular note is the double-height light therapy room, where tuberculosis patients were exposed to natural light that could eradicate disease-causing microbes. The building is also significant for its later history as the Lincoln Detox People’s Program, a drug rehabilitation program established by a group of revolutionary doctors and community organizers in the early 1970s. At a time when drug users faced rampant stigmatization and discrimination, the program helped generate national recognition of acupuncture—a natural, chemical-free healing option—as an accepted drug addiction therapy.

St. Paul’s Methodist Episcopal Church, Staten Island, Richmond County

St. Paul’s Methodist Episcopal Church, located in the Tottenville neighborhood, is connected to the early growth of Methodism in Staten Island where it served as a hometown church that fostered a strong sense of altruism and community. Built in three separate campaigns (1859, 1862, and 1961) the church is notable for its Romanesque Revival ecclesiastical architecture, use of brick instead of more commonly used wood for its construction, stained-glass windows with Masonic symbolism, and a rare and elaborate Felgemaker pipe organ from Germany.

Long Island

Corwith-Jones Farmhouse, Southampton, Suffolk County

The Corwith-Jones Farmhouse is a Greek Revival style residence in Southampton’s historic Hayground area. The house was built for the Corwiths – one of the earliest English families to settle in the Bridgehampton area – and it represents the evolution of a vernacular Long Island “Half House” that was expanded and adapted to reflect the owner’s increasing affluence and changing needs. The home’s center wing was likely built between 1800-1820 and the main block was likely built following an 1843 fire. In 1866, the farm was sold to the Hand family, who raised potatoes. In 1908, it was sold again to the Jones family, who bred swine. The property was sold to Katharine Parsons Feibleman in 1967, who was a professional member of the American Institute of Decorators. Her restoration work sought to return the house to a more historically appropriate Greek Revival appearance while adapting it to modern living standards.

Capital Region

Chestertown Historic District Boundary Increase and Amendment, Chestertown, Warren County

The original Chestertown Historic District – three adjacent properties located along U.S. Route 9 (Chestertown Main Street): the Fowler House (1837), the Church of the Good Shepherd (1884), and the former Chester High School (1912) – was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. The expanded district adds 161 contributing resources across a 154-acre area that comprises the core of the hamlet of Chestertown, capturing its evolution from a milling and tanning hub into a summer resort community. It includes a mix of residential, civic, commercial, and religious architecture in a variety of architectural styles from the 1830s to the 1960s. The district has had minimal infill and, despite some material alterations over the years, retains its appearance and feeling as a rural village nestled in the eastern Adirondack Mountains.

School No. 5 “The Little Red Schoolhouse,” Clifton Park, Saratoga County

School No. 5 “Little Red Schoolhouse” in the Town of Clifton Park was built in 1903 and is historically significant for its association with one-room schoolhouse education during the formative years of New York’s public education system. School No. 5 offered public education to the Clifton Park community until its closure in 1953, when 22 schools were combined to form the Shenendehowa Central School District. After a brief period of disuse, a local group of parents purchased the Little Red Schoolhouse in 1960 and formed the Clifton Park Nursery School Cooperative Preschool, which continues to occupy the building today. Of the original schools that combined to form the Shenendehowa Central School District, the Little Red Schoolhouse is the only one that retains historical integrity and continues to function as a school.

Mid-Hudson

Pine Street African Burial Ground, Kingston, Ulster County

The Pine Street African Burial Ground in the City of Kingston is locally significant as the city’s first burial ground for enslaved people, their descendants, and free persons between 1750 and ca. 1870. The burial ground, located at 157 Pine Street and portions of adjacent properties, was established by the Trustees of Kingston in 1750 and was used until ca. 1870, when the site became a lumberyard. The site later became a residential property in the early twentieth century. In 1990, the burial ground was reidentified upon the discovery of bones in the adjacent property, and comprehensive archaeological evidence was gathered in 2018 and in the early 2020s by the SUNY New Paltz Archaeological Field School. Harambee Kingston, a non-profit community organization, purchased the property at 157 Pine Street in 2019 and established a cultural center and museum that interprets the history of the Pine Street African Burial Ground. Given limited historical information – specifically regarding the histories of African enslavement and African Americans in Kingston and the mid-Hudson Valley more broadly – further archaeological and historical documentation of the site has the potential to contribute significantly to knowledge of these histories.

Central New York

Pozzi Building, Solvay, Onondaga County

Constructed by inventor, businessman, and padrone of the local Tyrolean community Angelo Pozzi in 1917, the Pozzi Building is a landmark in the Village of Solvay and served many purposes over the years, including as a residential hotel, a grocery, a café/saloon, a savings and loan company, and an oil and lubricant business. The red brick building design emulated classical details of larger Colonial Revival hotels emerging in major cities at the time, lending a stylish dignity to the Pozzi family’s business enterprises. The building served as an immigration gateway to generations of men from Pozzi’s homeland, which was once part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and became part of Italy after World War I. Pozzi helped these men travel and find jobs at the Solvay Process (later Allied) plant across the street, while renting rooms and providing various services to them. The building’s commercial spaces remain substantially intact, as do the upstairs lodgings. The building remained a popular local dining and gathering spot through the closing of Allied in 1985.

Roswell Beckwith Sr. House, Cazenovia, Madison County

Built in 1804, the Roswell Beckwith Sr. House in the Town of Cazenovia is a 1 ½ story, center-chimney, timber-frame house with walls of wooden clapboards. The interior of the house retains integrity to its initial 1804 plan and appearance, with much of the original Federal period features and detailing intact, including its large, center chimney with cooking hearth and bake oven. The house is one of the town’s oldest existing buildings and is architecturally significant as an early example of dwellings constructed by the first settlers arriving in Cazenovia from New England.

Southern Tier

1883 Barn, Newfield, Tompkins County

The 1883 Barn on Elmira Road in the Town of Newfield began life as a substantial Victorian era hay barn in the early 1880s, but between 1965 and 1977, two pioneering historic preservationists of the region, Victoria Romanoff and Constance Saltonstall, purchased the barn and used it as a laboratory for developing skills, experience, and ideas for future and more public endeavors. Romanoff and Saltonstall rescued the local landmark to serve as their seasonal residence and private art gallery. Newspapers covered the barn’s conversion and later art exhibitions which raised the public profile of historic preservation regionally. The women went on to consult and work on major early historic preservation projects throughout Tompkins County including Ithaca’s Boardman House and Clinton House. The barn’s conversion reflects the broader ethos of this particular era, when historic preservation aligned with a counter-cultural movement that embraced a return to the land, traditional folkways, and environmentally and economically conscious reuse.

Johnson City High School, Johnson City, Broome County

The Johnson City High School, on Main Street in Johnson City, is one of three examples of outstanding Tudor Revival Style public high schools designed in the 1910s in the triple cities of Binghamton, Johnson City, and Endicott. Features such as its low-slung pointed entry arch, turrets with pepper pot domes, and surface patterning all lend the structure a rich set of references to the English Renaissance. Prominent local architect C. Edward Vosbury designed two of the three, including the nominated buildings. Johnson City High School is an intact example of standardized school construction from the 1910s. Schools from this period followed state and national regulations aimed at safety concerns, responding to theories about optimizing student health and preventing school fires. Among other features, the interior was configured with rows of classrooms on each floor’s north and south sides, with a central corridor running through the center of the building from the east entrance, reflecting the school design standards of this period. While the east wing was constructed in 1914, the plan was completed with the addition of the matching west wing in 1928. At the same time, a compatible gymnasium was added at the rear of the building. The Johnson City High School retains outstanding integrity of its exterior design and many historic features and finishes on the interior.

Western New York

Beth Jacob Cemetery, Buffalo, Erie County

Beth Jacob is the last surviving Jewish cemetery within the City of Buffalo. Located on the city’s East Side, it is a rare and tangible record of the religious, cultural, and social practices of Buffalo’s Orthodox Jewish immigrants – particularly those from Russia and Lithuania – who settled in Buffalo from the 1880s through the 1920s. Beth Jacob Cemetery offers insight into the migration experience, communal organization, religious life, and artistic expression of identity and memory. The cemetery reflects popular and mass-produced American grave makers from the late nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, illustrating adaptation by the Jewish immigrant community to American funerary tastes, but applying unique Jewish symbolism and inscriptions to reflect their cultural and religious identity. The burial practices, configuration, marker typology, gravestone symbolism, and the cemetery’s location offer insights into evolving religious affiliations, immigrant assimilation, and community cohesion. While earlier Jewish cemeteries in the city have vanished beneath urban infrastructure, or moved to Pine Ridge, Beth Jacob Cemetery remains an important physical reminder of the Jewish heritage of Buffalo’s East Side.

Buffalo Lounge Company Building, Buffalo, Erie County

The Buffalo Lounge Company Building, located in the City of Buffalo’s Hydraulics/Larkin neighborhood, is an example of heavy timber-frame fireproof mill construction and was a site for two major businesses. The Buffalo Lounge Company built the sprawling four-story brick-clad building in 1901 to house its production of upholstered furniture. Noted for its high-quality materials and construction techniques, Buffalo Lounge sent its furniture to major dealers and department stores from Maine to Virginia and as far west as Cleveland and Pittsburgh. As consumers’ ability to purchase suites of fine living room furniture declined during the Great Depression, the company’s fortunes waned until it went out of business in 1934. Craver-Dickinson Seed Company purchased the building and used it as a warehouse and distribution center. Both a major importer of seeds from abroad and a vendor of more common products like pine tree seeds and bluegrass seeds, Craver-Dickinson thrived at the location into the mid-1980s.

Iroquois Door Company Building, Buffalo, Erie County

The nation’s first professional female architect, Louise Blanchard Bethune (1856-1913) designed the Iroquois Door Company Building in Buffalo’s Hydraulics/Larkin neighborhood to house the company’s factory and office facilities. An example of heavy timber-frame fireproof mill construction, it received three additions and a fourth floor by 1925, the size of the building mirroring the company’s financial success. A notable local employer of skill laborers, Iroquois Door Company prolifically produced exterior and interior architectural trim from its inception, particularly in the Craftsman and Colonial Revival Styles. The company also promoted storm doors and storm windows as a path towards energy savings as early as the late 1910s. Iroquois Door later expanded to Syracuse and Albany (its post-World War II era base) with the Buffalo building remaining at the center of its production and distribution.

McKinley Parkway Historic District, Buffalo, Erie County

The McKinley Parkway Historic District is a large, architecturally and culturally significant neighborhood that reflects the growth and development of South Buffalo. Spanning both sides of the Olmsted-designed McKinley Parkway, the district encompasses more than 5,000 buildings. The district’s location south of the Buffalo River meant that the area developed somewhat isolated from downtown Buffalo. But in the 1890s with the creation of the Olmsted Park System, access to the city center increased and the availability of near-by employers (such as the Lackawanna Steel plant) encouraged more intensive development of South Buffalo. The proximity to steel plants and grain elevators attracted a growing population of Irish immigrants and Irish Americans looking for good paying jobs and later established community centers, Roman Catholic churches, and commercial storefronts. The isolated location, development potential, and large immigrant population helped to forge a distinct community that was more suburban than was typical within the city limits. The relative prosperity and stability of the neighborhood is reflected through the repeated patterns of development that extended well into the 1960s. Notably, the McKinley Parkway Historic District is slated to become the largest National Register historic district in New York State.

Meteor Manufacturing Corporation Building, Buffalo, Erie County

A simple one-story steel and brick building just off Main Street in Buffalo’s Cold Spring neighborhood, the Meteor Manufacturing Corporation Building was built in 1923 to serve as an auto repair shop alongside the many other automotive-related businesses in the neighborhood. It is primarily significant, however, for its use between 1935 and 1958 as the incubator workshop for two businesses that later went on to flourish and move to larger facilities. The first of these, the Sponge-Aire Seat Company, pioneered vehicle seats made from shock-absorbing foam rubber, lending more comfort to the driver and passenger experience than the previous bouncy coil-based cushions. The second company, the Meteor Manufacturing Corporation, produced miniature wrench and ratchet sets that enjoyed nation-wide distribution via mail-order advertisements in magazines, as well as quirkier items such as gumball machines and cheese slicers. Both companies received patents for their inventions, as well as military contracts. The Meteor Manufacturing Corporation Building embodies the sort of modest and affordable mid-twentieth century space where invention could pave the way for entrepreneurial success.

State Senator José M. Serrano said, “Congratulations to the 20 properties and districts being recommended to be added to the State and National Registers of Historic Places! The 29th Senate District proudly represents two of the recommendations, East 152nd Street-Courtlandt Avenue Houses and the Mott Haven Health Center, both in the Bronx. Thank you to Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Board for Historic Preservation for recognizing the unique and diverse stories that these nominations represent throughout New York State.”

Bronx Borough President Vanessa L Gibson said, “The story of East 152nd Street-Courtlandt Avenue Houses reflects the history of our great borough,” said Bronx Borough President Vanessa L. Gibson. “I want to thank Governor Hochul and the New York State Board for Historic Preservation for valuing our local legacy and taking steps to preserve it for future generations.”

September 12, 2025

Albany, NY

Sources: Governor.NY.gov , Midtown Tribune
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