If you stand near the Soldiers & Sailors Monument at the Henry Johnson Avenue entrance to Washington Park and looks upward towards State Street, you'll find what appears to be a very old house perched atop the roof of a 13-story apartment building.
An odd sight. It really looks as if someone took a farmhouse from Albany's past, lifted it up into the sky, and set it down intact on this rooftop overlooking the Park.
Not quite. It's actually the housing for the apartment buildings elevator equipment. Rather mundane after all. But it was deliberated designed to look like a colonial Dutch dwelling when the hundred-unit apartment building was constructed in the 1925 as an annex to the rear of 397 State Street, a striking 1880s brownstone by City Hall's architect H.H. Richardson.
How odd and delightful at the same time. I wish they would build like that again, just for old times sake, you know?
ReplyDeleteIt's funny looking, but a great conversation piece!
ReplyDelete