Rubble

The rubble left behind after the demolition of the Wellington Hotel Annex on Saturday.  The partially collapsed structure on the right is the old parking garage from the Wellington complex In the background, the bell tower of City Hall and, to the left, the DeWitt Clinton Hotel which is being renovated. 

Berkshire Silhouettes

Silhouettes of people and objects fill in the windows of the former Berkshire Hotel.  Part of the long-neglected Wellington Row, it's now part of a project that will construct new buildings while saving the old facades.  The gramophone and dog are definitely an homage to Albany's iconic statue of Nipper on Broadway.

Over

Graffiti on the vacant remnant of the Wellington Hotel.  This was the Annex on Howard Street (directly behind the main part of the hotel.)  The larger, newer building in the background is the State Comptroller's Office.

Another view (from 2011)

Fire On State Street

The headline that really caught my attention yesterday morning was the one about the fire on State Street. I immediately recognized the building as a part of the old Wellington Row; it's located immediately to the left of the former Wellington Hotel itself.

I remember that a Chinese restaurant occupied the ground floor of the building until at least the mid-1990s. I don't think I ever ate there, but recall passing the window with its faux-rock display very often.

I knew the building appeared to be historic...or, at the very least...quite old. But with its much simpler style, it was overshadowed by the other buildings in the Row like the ornate Elks Club a few doors up and the intriguing Chatham on its left.

A bit of quick research told me that the burned building was built in 1832 and is called the John Taylor Cooper House. It's also one of the oldest buildings on State Street, along with a pair of earlier buildings directly across the street. Born in 1798, Cooper was a wealthy and well-connected attorney.

I took a walk downtown at noon yesterday to see how much damage had been done to the building (which was already gutted by contractors as part of the stabilization of Wellington Row). Fire trucks were just leaving and clean-up crews just arriving when I took the photo above.

Of course, I also wanted to check and see if the stone faces on the adjacent Chatham had been damaged by the fire or hoses. Fortunately, they're just fine because I really like those mysterious faces. Especially the one on the right.

A Rusting Gate

Paint is chipping away and rust corroding this bit of ornamental ironwork along Wellington Row.

Holding Steady

Massive horizontal metal beams stabilize this facade, part of State Street's long-decayed Wellington Row. Over the past couple of years, the Row's buildings have been torn down with only the facades (or, in the case of the Wellington Hotel, just the lower portion) preserved to be incorporated into future developments.

Previous posts about the decay and demolition of Wellington Row:

Shells
Down To The Bones
Almost Gone

Undiscovered Faces

I don't know how I missed this one. I walk past it almost every day and blogged about it just a few weeks ago. But two days ago, walking down State Street Hill, I spotted not one, but two of these glum, but wonderfully expressive carved faces emerging from the facade of The Chatham, just down from The Capitol and Wellington Row.

Architectural Detail

This bit of Gothic style over the door of a vacant building at the eastern end of the decaying Wellington Row always catches my eye. I can't remember what this building housed when I was little, though I've passed it at least once a week since childhood and recall other businesses along this street very well, such as the Chinese restaurant that used to be a door or two up from here.

I love the stylized letters, the heraldic-style shields, and the fine details on the columns.

Shells

This photo of the Wellington Row on State Street was taken in the spring, shortly after I began this blog. In the nine or ten months since it was taken, the scene has changed as workers spent the summer, fall, and winter dismantling these deteriorating, but historically and architecturally significant buildings from the inside out.

Of the two buildings shown above, only the facade of the lower floors remains on the Wellington Hotel (left) and the stabilized facade of the Elks Lodge (right). The building to the right of the Elks with its distinctive metal bay windows is also now just a stabilized facade.

For previous posts about the demolition along Wellington Row, see Down To The Bones and Almost Gone.

Almost Gone

I wasn't expecting this.

I'd set out with my camera for Beaver Street south of Eagle to see if there were any visible remnants of the previously photographed Elks Lodge, the gutted structure behind the crane. Not much to see there, but next to it - to my surprise - was an old house. A brick house with cheerful moss-green paint still on its window frames.

The house must have been completely hidden for almost a century. The front of it appears to have faced Eagle Street where it would have been completely enveloped by the handsome DeWitt Clinton Hotel which was built in the 1920s. The north side of the house would have been blocked off by the Elks Lodge and adjacent structures on State Street, and the side shown here would have been obscured by buildings on Beaver Street which were torn down only recently as part of the ongoing stabilization and demolition of buildings in the Wellington Row parcel.

I don't know how old the house is, though, or from whom it was built. And I have to wonder why it was never demolished sooner and, instead, left standing and enclosed as other buildings rose around it.

It's probably gone already. When I poked my camera through the fence to take this picture, demolition had already begun on this long-forgotten house.

Down to the bones

When I was about seven or eight, I recall going to a Christmas party at the Elks Lodge on State Street. Exactly how and why I was going to the Elks Lodge isn't quite clear. No one in the family was associated with the Elks, but at that age, you don't necessarily question that sort of thing and, to be honest, I remember very little about the interior of the Lodge save for a fleeting glimpse of what I believe was an old-fashioned bar of heavy wood.

The exterior, though, has always been a familiar site. A sad one, in recent years as I walked up and down State Street's steep hill (usually en route to Starbucks). The Elks Lodge, with its gorgeous ca. 1913 Beaux-Arts facade, has long since moved from 49 State Street and the handsome building had been falling into disrepair (along with the old Wellington Hotel next to it) for years.

It was earlier this year that work finally commenced on a redevelopment project along this section of State Street now known as Wellington Row. The buildings, including the historic 500-room hotel, are slowly being demolished. However, the facades are being preserved and the intent is to incorporate them into the future structures to be built here.

While walking yesterday behind Wellington Row, I caught a glimpse of the Elks Lodge as it's being torn down. Looking through the chain-link fence at the exposed interior, I could see what's left of what must have been a very fine staircase. The bare bones of a once-impressive building and, no doubt, those will be gone shortly as work progresses.