The Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (OPRHP) announced recommendations by the New York State Board for Historic Preservation to add 19 properties and districts and one Multiple Property Document Form to the State and National Registers of Historic Places. The nominations include a nineteenth-century church in Jefferson County that developed and promoted Universalism in Upstate New York, a pre-Revolutionary War house owned by seven generations of the Hulse family on Long Island’s North Shore, and additional documentation for New York City’s Hotel Chelsea recognizing its significance as a center of LGBTQ cultural and creative life.
OPRHP Commissioner Kathy Moser said, “With new research, collaboration, and Our Whole History initiative, we are telling more complete histories of communities throughout New York State. This diverse group of nominations highlights the many ways historic places help us understand New York’s history and identity. Through the State and National Registers, we are committed to identifying and documenting these places while connecting communities and property owners with resources that support preservation and revitalization.”
The nominations were reviewed June 4, 2026, at a meeting of the New York State Board for Historic Preservation at the New York State Museum in Albany, New York. The nominations also included a Multiple Property Documentation Form that establishes a framework for evaluating New York City Housing Authority properties for listing in the State and National Registers of Historic Places.
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.
OPRHP Deputy Commissioner for Historic Preservation Daniel Mackay said, “The Division for Historic Preservation works to expand the State and National Registers of Historic Places, so they reflect New York’s full history. As more New York City Housing Authority public housing properties become eligible for listing, this Multiple Property Documentation Form will provide an important framework for evaluating these resources, supporting continued investment in public and affordable housing. By connecting property owners with resources, we support the rehabilitation and continued use of these historic assets. Historic preservation is a shared statewide effort, and we are proud to advance this work.”
New York State continues to lead the nation in the use of historic tax credits, with over $6.08 billion in total rehabilitation investments from 2020-2025. Since 2006, 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 2020 to 2024, the credits in New York State generated 93,144 jobs and over $1.775 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 131,000 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
First Presbyterian Church of Ballston Spa, Ballston Spa, Saratoga County – The First Presbyterian Church of Ballston Spa unites mid-nineteenth-century Greek Revival and early twentieth-century Colonial Revival ecclesiastical architecture. The original Greek Revival portion was erected in 1835, and the Colonial Revival addition was constructed in 1924. Many of the exterior and interior details remain unchanged from their periods of construction. The church is a prominent landmark in the Ballston Spa Village Local Historic District due to its central location and soaring spire, and it has served as a significant cultural and religious center for the local community since the early 1800s.
The Lake George Club, Diamond Point, Warren County – Located on the western shore of Lake George, the Lake George Club, also known as “the Club,” reflects the architectural distinction and leisure culture associated with New York’s upper class during the early twentieth century. Constructed in 1909 in what was known as “Millionaire’s Row,” the club was designed by prominent New York architect Charles S. Peabody in the Tudor Revival style with Romantic Medieval and vernacular elements seen in Continental Europe. It remains one of the longest-lasting seasonal sites on Lake George. The club shaped the region’s boating history, fostered a distinct summer society throughout the twentieth century, and continues to operate as one of the few remaining historic buildings in its original capacity on Lake George.
Central NY
Pine Woods Union Church, Eaton, Madison County – Built in 1910 using local labor and funding, the Pine Woods Union Church is a traditional wood framed church with a distinctively decorative steeple that has functioned as the center of collective activities for the hamlet for much of the twentieth century. Almeda McQueen and the Ladies Aid Society built the interdenominational Union Church as a welcoming place. Over the years, it provided a meeting space for local groups such as the boy scouts and the Home Bureau and hosted many social events including the annual “Old Home Days” – a reunion gathering for all in the community. Today, the Pine Woods Union Church remains as a symbol of community for the people of Pine Woods who continue to care for the church and maintain its integrity.
Finger Lakes
Cobb’s Hill Historic District, Rochester, Monroe County – The Cobb’s Hill Historic District in Rochester encompasses Cobb’s Hill Park, Washington Grove, and the Cobb’s Hill and Highland Heights neighborhoods and reflects the city’s planned suburban expansion and development during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. As Rochester’s urban core grew denser, upper-middle class residents began seeking a more suburban lifestyle. Developers created planned neighborhoods southeast of Rochester’s core that provided these families with homes in a park-like setting with large lawns, designed landscapes, and curvilinear roads. At the same time, the city constructed the Cobb’s Hill Reservoir to provide city residents with increased access to drinking water and expanded public green spaces through Cobb’s Hill Park and Washington Grove. Today, the district tells a vibrant story of urban expansion and the impact that infrastructure development and recreational access have on community growth.
Fall Brook Point, Niles, Cayuga County – Fall Brook Point in the town of Niles is an excellent example of an 1890s Shingle-style summer residence on Skaneateles Lake. Fall Brook Point is a rare and remarkably intact work by once prolific Syracuse-based architect Asa Lanfear Merrick, who designed Fall Brook Point’s main house. The main house is Merrick’s only known extant private residence and represents Merrick's fluency with fashionable late-nineteenth century styles.
The Peters House, Medina, Orleans County – The Peters House is a Queen Anne style residence located a mile outside of Medina’s historic core. German immigrant George Peters, who owned a local meat and fish shop, built the house around 1910. The Queen Anne style appealed to financially successful merchants like George and Anna Peters, whose disposable income grew alongside the village’s expansion in the early 1900s. The flexibility and customizability of the Queen Anne style made it popular among the developing middle class. The house displays several notable features, including the polygonal tower, classical window surrounds, pent gables, textural variation and a wrap-around porch. On the interior, the house retains its historic finishes, and the plan reflects contemporary perspectives on domestic labor and use of space.
Long Island
Edmund Wetmore Estate, Smithtown, Suffolk County – The Edmund Wetmore Estate in the hamlet of Fort Salonga represents an early residential project by noted architect Henry Killam Murphy. Murphy later became known for his educational campus designs in China that combined Eastern and Western architectural forms and construction methods, which he referred to as “adaptive architecture.” As a young architect, he primarily designed Colonial Revival residences for wealthy and middle-class clients in Connecticut and New York City. The Wetmore Estate, designed for prominent patent attorney Edmund Wetmore, is a rare, intact example of his residential work on Long Island.
Hulse House, East Setauket, Suffolk County – Hulse House in East Setauket is an exceptionally intact example of a mid-eighteenth-century Cape Cod–form dwelling constructed ca. 1740-1750. The property reflects the inland expansion of English settlement on Long Island’s North Shore through the Hulse family, who owned the property for seven generations, and is a rare example of a surviving, intact, lived in pre-Revolutionary War house. It also reflects early historic preservation efforts on Long Island through the work of the Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities (Preservation Long Island) to rehabilitate the property during the 1960s.
Mid-Hudson
Apple Hill Farm, Chappaqua, Westchester County – Located in the Hamlet of Chappaqua, Apple Hill Farm is an early twentieth century Tudor Revival-style estate designed ca. 1913 by architect Julian Clarence Levia for Albert and Lillie Lewisohn of New York City. The estate centers on an L-shaped residence, featuring a prominent terracotta tile roof, restrained yet prominent half-timbering, and striking dark stained woodwork. The interior retains much of its original hardware, dark wood paneling and trim, ornate fireplaces, and tile flooring still intact and/or restored to its original finish. Its original landscape includes a Tudor Revival-style pool house, an ace of spades terrace, and an in-ground pool enclosed by stone walls.
Wilbur Historic District, Kingston, Ulster County – Located along the water’s edge of the Rondout Creek in Kingston, the Wilbur Historic District is a dynamic collection of residential, commercial, and industrial buildings that reflect the neighborhood’s period of successful bluestone finishing and bluestone distribution industries from 1836 through ca. 1900. Following the natural contours of the area’s topography, the neighborhood was first laid out in a street and block plan in 1836 and later realized in 1854. As such, class differences within the district developed, with residential, commercial and industrial buildings located within the valley and along Rondout Creek, while atop the plateau, residences and the stately Church of the Holy Name of Jesus were built to attract middle-class merchants, factory owners, tradesmen and their families. A variety of building types, including Greek Revival, Gothic Revival, Italianate, and Colonial Revival, illustrates this planned development and organic settlement.
New York City
Public Housing in New York City, 1934-1973, Multiple Property Documentation Form (MPDF), Bronx, Kings, New York, Queens, and Richmond Counties – The MPDF documents all public housing properties built by or for the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) and planned, funded or constructed between NYCHA’s founding in 1934 and 1973, the year the federal government placed a moratorium on public housing programs. While not itself a nomination, the document provides a basis for evaluating all NYCHA complexes proposed for listing in the State and National Registers. The comprehensive MPDF provides a broad overview of the complex events, policies, influences, individuals, and groups that shaped the history of public housing in New York City as well as identifying and outlining the basic themes and major property types that defined each era. Public housing developments document critical records of social and political history, reflecting government commitments to address poverty and substandard housing, while also reflecting changing attitudes towards race and class in America. They capture a wide range of design and planning philosophies that chart the progression of modern urbanism; however, prejudice, discrimination, redlining, white flight, and anti-urban policies also shaped their history. By ensuring their continued recognition and protection, the preservation of public housing makes it possible to tell a fuller story of New York City’s history, one that acknowledges ambition and achievement alongside inequity and struggle. While the history of each NYCHA development is specific to its neighborhood and period and tells the story of those directly involved, this document will facilitate the evaluation of individual examples by placing them in the broad context of public housing theories, establishing typologies and comparative sets, and setting integrity and registration requirements for eligibility.
Woodrow Wilson Houses, New York, New York County (Public Housing in New York City, 1934-1973, Multiple Property Document) – The Woodrow Wilson Houses is a public housing complex constructed by the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA). It was completed in 1959-1961 and designed by architects Pomerance & Breines with landscape architects Clarke & Rapuano. Planning for the complex began as early as 1956, during a period of transition for NYCHA when the housing crisis following World War II diminished and criticism of large superblock developments and displacement was growing. Within NYCHA’s trifecta of funding streams—federal, state, and city—the Wilson Houses were the product of New York State’s public housing program. It reflects the state’s and NYCHA’s recognition of the growing need for apartments for larger families. It is also emblematic of the slow shift in public housing away from superblock developments toward smaller interventions that would preserve existing neighborhood character and displace fewer people. It has all of the characteristics of what would later be known as “vest pocket” housing, occupying less than a city block or less and containing four or fewer residential buildings.
Hotel Chelsea Additional Documentation, New York City, New York County – The Hotel Chelsea was listed on the National Register in 1977 with significance in architecture and literature. This additional documentation recognizes the Chelsea’s LGBTQ associations during its use as a residential hotel where many nationally and internationally significant LGBTQ cultural figures lived and worked through 1990. The documentation adds significance in Social History/LGBTQ, Art, Entertainment, Literature, Music, and Performing Arts and highlights the Chelsea’s role as a hub of creative activity and counterculture. Its tolerant atmosphere allowed many prominent LGBTQ figures to flourish creatively, thus solidifying the hotel’s status as an internationally renowned icon of New York City’s artistic, literary, and musical heritage. Stanley Bard, the Chelsea’s manager from 1964 to 2007, fostered this environment by supporting artists with discounted rents (including allowing them to fall behind on rent and accepting artwork in lieu of rent) and flexible living arrangements. The hotel’s open and accepting atmosphere enabled people of diverse backgrounds to gather and share ideas, fueling creative experiments and personal expression that were instrumental in advancing the artistic and social standing of LGBTQ people in American society. Many works completed by LGBTQ residents were essential in the development of abstract art, pop art, rock, glam rock, punk rock, underground film, reality tv, cinema verité, Beat literature, and the NY School of Poetry. This additional documentation recognizes the contributions of individuals whose sexual identities were previously overlooked and ensures a more inclusive and accurate representation of the hotel’s impact on the cultural heritage of New York and the United States.
Linden Plaza, Brooklyn, Kings County – Built between 1969 and 1973 in Brooklyn’s East New York neighborhood, Linden Plaza is an affordable housing complex designed by the firm of Jerrald L. Karlan through the Mitchell-Lama program, which encouraged private developers to construct affordable, middle-income housing. Containing more than 1,500 apartments, the complex is also a notable example of an air rights development. Engineers Hertzberg & Cantor constructed the complex on a platform above the Pitkin Avenue Rail Yard of the New York City subway system, solving a number of novel problems including how to support the platform without disrupting operations on the subway tracks below.
North Country
First Universalist Church of Henderson, Henderson, Jefferson County – The First Universalist Church of Henderson played a major role in the development and spread of Universalism in Jefferson County throughout the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century. Known regionally as a “mother church,” the church served as a training ground for students and ministers connected to the Theological School of St. Lawrence University from 1856 to 1965. The First Universalist Church of Henderson also remains strongly associated with the life, work, and contributions of the Reverend Pitt Morse, a significant figure in the development and promotion of Universalism in upstate New York. The Rev. Morse was the first pastor of the church in 1839 and continued to work at Henderson until he relocated in 1855.
Western NY
Bennett Apartments, Buffalo, Erie County – Buffalo’s Bennett Apartments, created in 1938 by the Buffalo Cement Company, embody Machine Age design through Art Deco and Art Moderne features including abstract orthogonal brick patterning and curved banded door hoods. Two residential blocks connected by a subterranean garage accommodate both residents and automobiles while drawing on European Modernist principles that replaced the lost building footprint with outdoor useable space. The garage roof doubles as an ornamental courtyard between the buildings,] and sculptural stair towers allow easy access to flat and habitable rooftops. The architectural significance of Bennett Apartments lies in the property’s ability to capture in its design a 1930s bold and optimistic vision for modern living.
Dunkirk Macaroni and Supply Company Building, Dunkirk, Chautauqua County – The Dunkirk Macaroni and Supply Building on the Dunkirk’s Lake Erie waterfront reflects the growing popularity of Italian food at the turn of the twentieth century that resulted in over one hundred pasta factories scattered across New York by 1925. Dunkirk Macaroni is one of the rare surviving buildings to represent this phenomenon. Entrepreneur Fred C. Henning constructed the factory initially as a two-story building on a full stone basement in 1908 and expanded it in 1912 with the addition of a third and fourth floor to meet growing demand. The basement and first floor were used for mixing, kneading, rolling, cutting, and shaping, while the upper floors housed plentiful racks for pasta drying. The company operated successfully on the site until the early 1940s. The mid-twentieth century consolidation of food production into larger conglomerates meant that regional small-to-mid sized independent factories like this fell out of use. The Dunkirk Macaroni and Supply Building stands as a reminder to the important role they once played.
Farmers and Mechanics Savings Bank, Lockport, Niagara County – When the Farmers and Mechanics Savings Bank was built in 1905-1906 by Binghamton architects T. I. Lacey and Son, it introduced a new architectural style to Lockport. This six-story steel framed building was clad in the recently popularized Beaux Arts style and became the city’s tallest structure. Designed into a three-part vertical block, the building reflected a new academic approach to tall building design organizing the structure into three distinct stacked zones created by vertical divisions. The lowest zone usually housed the building’s most important public-facing functions, a public banking hall. The middle section is the most extensive and tends to have repetitious bays arranged with a vertical emphasis, generally signaling similar and more private office spaces. The topmost zone is often treated as an attic zone, with squatter proportions and housing some mechanical functions such as the elevator mechanisms and is capped with a prominent cornice to signal the building’s termination. Using an architectural language that conveyed both tradition and modernity, the Farmers and Mechanics Savings Bank used its building to create an image that would foster confidence in its clients and investors.
Gates Manor Apartments, Buffalo, Erie County – Designed by architect Morton G. Wolfe and built in 1928, Buffalo’s Gates Manor Apartments illustrate changing attitudes toward apartment living in the early twentieth century. Located in a desirable neighborhood with convenient transportation and employment opportunities, the small apartments attracted Buffalo’s middle-class professionals, particularly independent women. Records reveal that already in the early 1930s the majority of building residents were women. From the 1950s through the 1970s, 70 to 90 percent of the occupants of Gates Manor were women professionals. Gates Manor is a well-preserved example of an early twentieth-century efficiency apartment building serving an emerging professional class of single, independent women.
Perry High School, Perry, Wyoming County – Constructed in 1906-1907, Perry High School represents the community’s transition from a rural, academy-based educational system to a modern public high school that provided free secondary education illustrative of the expansion of public secondary education in New York State. The building functioned as Perry’s high school from 1907 to 1955 and is an intact example of Colonial Revival institutional design by prominent Rochester architect Frank W. Kirkland, distinguished by its symmetrical brick facade, classical details, prominent central cupola, pediment-topped clock, and carefully proportioned fenestration.
