Historic and Community Character

Key Observations:

The City of Watervliet is home to four historic buildings or sites that are listed on the National and State Registers of Historic Places.
The recently completed Local Waterfront Revitalization Program identified additional potential historic sites.

Facilitated by strategies such as the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Main Street program, communities large and small are increasingly integrating and relying on historic preservation in their community and economic development programs. In doing so, these communities have taken steps to identify, protect, enhance and promote their historic and cultural resources.

A growing body of research indicates that although there are many misconceptions regarding the protection of historic resources, these protections help maintain and enhance property values, enhance community pride, establish a unique sense of place (allowing differentiation from surrounding communities), stabilize neighborhoods, facilitate tourism and attract additional investment.

Communities that successfully use historic preservation tools as part of their comprehensive community and economic development strategies implement policies, projects and programs designed to build on the characteristics, assets and strengths that make them unique and set them apart from other communities. They look for opportunities to maximize their assets by working with similar communities to protect like resources. They try to evaluate the community impacts that might result from not preserving and protecting historic resources. They also recognize that the decision to protect, preserve, enhance and promote unique assets such as historic resources does not come without costs that must be borne by municipal government, business and industry, and local property owners, and they develop ways to mitigate those costs. Finally, they also establish administrative procedures and practices that allow and encourage public discourse and decision-making.

With these success factors in mind, the purpose of this section is to document the City of Watervliet’s existing historic preservation efforts, to assist the City in identifying the economic values and risks associated with historic resources, and provide information that will enable the City to evaluate whether historic preservation strategies are, or can be, effective and worthwhile economic revitalization tools. This section will also assist the City in determining whether there is more it can do to capitalize on the economic development and heritage tourism potential of Watervliet’s historic resources.

National Register of Historical Places

The National Historic Preservation Act and New York State Historic Preservation Act establish criteria by which buildings, sites, and structures are determined historic. In order to be designated historic, and listed in the National and State Registers of Historic Places, buildings, structures, sites and neighborhoods are evaluated through a formal survey and nomination process, and, if determined significant based on the established criteria. Listed resources are afforded a basic level of protection from federal and state actions, but local regulation is needed to prevent demolition and other actions.

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National and State Register-listed historic resources in the City of Watervliet include the following properties:

Watervliet Arsenal National Historic Landmark: Located on Broadway, the Watervliet Arsenal is the oldest arsenal in continuous operation in the United States. Founded in 1813, the site encompasses approximately 112.5 acres. Approximately one-third of the landmark (located mostly east of Buffington Street) consists of military quarters and office buildings in a park-like setting with lawns, mature trees and shrubs, fountains and monuments and athletic fields and recreational buildings. The remaining two-thirds of the landmark consist of the industrial buildings, laboratories and support facilities devoted to the manufacture of weaponry. The Arsenal began with the manufacture of small, fixed ammunition and artillery accoutrements. Since 1887, the Arsenal has been the Army’s primary producer of large-caliber cannon. The Arsenal has increasingly become a research and development facility for weapons with production being limited to smaller quantities of cannon of small and medium caliber.
Watervliet Side Cut Locks (“Double Locks”): Located on 23 rd Street at the Hudson River, the locks are constructed of cut limestone blocks, laid up in a random ashlar pattern. The stone sea wall which runs along the river bank and curves in to form the entrance to the locks is constructed in a similar fashion. The wooden gates of the lock no longer remain, but the large recesses in the walls of locks clearly mark where they were once located. According to NYS Department of Transportation officials, this site is buried in sand under the northbound exit ramp of Interstate 787 at 23rd Street.
Ohio Street Methodist Episcopal Church Complex: Located at 1921 Third Avenue it is also known as the Third Avenue Methodist Church and St. Anne’s Maronite Catholic Church. The complex includes two contributing buildings – the church and an associated parish house. The church was erected in 1851 and modified c. 1895, while the parish house was constructed c. 1880. The church is architecturally significant in the local context as a largely intact example of Romanesque Revival –style ecclesiastical design. This church consists of a stone foundation with brick walls and a metal roof. The parish house is an Italianate-style house. The church, which is currently vacant, will soon be returned to active use by the St. Ann Maronite Catholic Church in Troy.
St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Church: Located at 4 th Avenue and 24 th Street, St. Nicholas is a large, rectangular-shaped one-story building with load-bearing brick walls built above footings and foundation walls of poured concrete. The church is architecturally significant in the local context as an intact example of Ukrainian-inspired religious design. This Romanesque/Byzantine style church was erected in 1908 and is highlighted by a bell tower crowned by a multi-stage copper-clad onion dome. The church has served the Ukrainian Catholic population for 100 years and remains one of Watervliet’s most distinctive ecclesiastical architectural statements.

Other Potential Historical Resources

The Hudson-Mohawk Urban Cultural Park Heritage Trail Technical Report (prepared by the Preservation/Design Group and the Reimann-Beuchner-Crandall Partnership in 1979) included a comprehensive Cultural Resources Inventory for the City of Watervliet. During the 1980s LWRP planning process, a licensed architect familiar with National Register designation criteria conducted a visual exterior inspection of the properties listed in that report. As part of the 2004 LWRP planning process, site visits were conducted to ascertain whether the structures from the 1979 report still existed and were still in a condition qualifying them as potentially eligible for the National Register. While several

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structures, such as Public School #1, are in a state of disrepair, they are still noteworthy for their historic significance and architectural qualities.

During the LWRP planning process, the Community Advisory Committee identified an area that, due to a concentration of historic resources, had potential for the creation of a local historic district. The City may explore such a designation in the future. This area, encompassing Broadway west to Second Avenue and north of the Arsenal to 15th Street, includes several of the resources identified in Table #. These resources are indicated with an asterisk (*).

Table #: Historic Resource Inventory 281 Broadway Watervliet City Hall (15th Street & Broadway)* 329-399 Broadway Russell Place (13th Street & 1st Avenue)* 401-429 Broadway 201-209 Thirteenth Street* 525 & 529 Broadway 1425 & 1429 Broadway* 527 Broadway 1437 Broadway* Public School #1 1445, 1449, 1453 Broadway* 779 Broadway United Methodist Church (1409 First Ave.) * 917 Broadway 1432 First Avenue* 937 Broadway 1415 First Avenue* 953 Broadway 1436 First Avenue* 2101 Second Avenue Reformed Dutch Church 2115 Second Avenue 201-203 16th Street 2121 Second Avenue Mc Intyre Hose Company Ukrainian Church VFW northern foundation wall ñ Erie Canal St. Patrick’s Church 19 th Street Source: City of Watervliet Local Waterfront Revitalization Program

Cultural Resources

Cultural Resources include the Arsenal Museum and National Historic Landmark (gun powder magazine/“Iron Building”) on the Watervliet Arsenal grounds. The museum is housed in the Iron Building, which is made entirely of pre-fabricated cast iron plates, cast and wrought iron trusses, and sheet steel roofing. There are a few relics of Watervliet’s pride and past on display at locations throughout the city, including a bronze cast Meneely Bell at the Public Library, which was originally a foundry site, and the Parrott Rifle and pot-bellied Civil War cannons unearthed during the I-787 construction and on display in the little park fronting City Hall.

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