Winner of the 2007 Excellence in Historic Preservation Award presented by the Preservation League of New York State Winner of the 2007 Building Typology Award presented by the Metropolitan Chapter of the Victorian Society in America New York's Army National Guard armories are among the most imposing monuments to the role of the citizen soldier in American military history. In New York's Historic Armories, Nancy L. Todd draws on archival research as well as historic and contemporary photographs and drawings to trace the evolution of the armory as a specific building type in American architectural and military history. The result of a ten-year collaboration between the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation and the New York State Division of Military and Naval Affairs, this illustrated history presents information on all known armories in the state as well as the units associated with them, and will serve as a valuable reference for readers interested in general, military, and architectural history. Built to house local units of the state's volunteer militia, armories served as arms storage facilities, clubhouses for the militiamen, and civic monuments symbolizing New York's determination to preserve domestic law and order through military might. Approximately 120 armories were built in New York State from the late eighteenth century to the middle of the twentieth, and most date from the last quarter of the nineteenth century, when the National Guard was America's primary domestic peacekeeper during the post–Civil War era of labor-capital unrest. Together, New York's armories chronicle the history of the volunteer militia, from its emergence during the early Republican Era, through its heyday during the Gilded Age as the backbone of the American military system, to its early twentieth-century role as the nation's primary armed reserve force.

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Pages: 23. Chapters: 18th Separate Company Armory, 369th Regiment Armory, Connecticut Street Armory, Corning Armory, Eighth Avenue (14th Brooklyn Regiment) Armory, Fort Washington Avenue Armory, Geneva Armory, Gloversville Armory, Hoosick Falls Armory, Hornell Armory, Jamestown Armory, Kingsbridge Armory, Malone Armory, Medina Armory, New Scotland Avenue (Troop B) Armory, New York State Armory (Newburgh), New York State Armory (Ogdensburg), New York State Armory (Poughkeepsie), Niagara Falls Armory, NYS Armory, Ogdensburg Armory, Olean Armory, Oneida Armory, Oneonta Armory, Oswego Armory, Schenectady Armory, Seventh Regiment Armory, Tonawanda Armory, Utica Armory, Walton Grange 1454-Former Armory, Watervliet Arsenal, Whitehall Armory, White Plains Armory. Excerpt: The Kingsbridge Armory, also known as the Eighth Regiment Armory, is located on West Kingsbridge Road in the New York City borough of The Bronx. It was built in the 1910s, from a design by the firm of then-state architect Lewis Pilcher to house the National Guard's Eighth Coastal Artillery Regiment unit which relocated from Manhattan in 1917. It is possibly the largest armory in the world. In addition to its military function, it has been used over the years for exhibitions, boxing matches, and a film set. After World War II the city offered it to the United Nations as a temporary meeting place. In 1974 it was designated a city landmark, and eight years later it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Its military use ended and it was turned over to city management in 1996. Since then it has remained vacant as various proposals to redevelop it have failed, including one which turned into a flashpoint over living wage policies and ended in a rare defeat for the administration of Mayor Michael Bloomberg. One National Guard unit has continued to use an annex in...

How to deal with historic buildings has long been a core issue of the international architectural discourse. Herzog & de Meuron began addressing the potential of existing structures very early on: the maintenance and alteration of buildings are among the key strategies of the architects. For the Park Avenue Armory in New York, Herzog & de Meuron have designed a new model for dealing with monuments. The historical building was opened in 1881 on the Upper East Side of Manhattan as a meeting place and training ground for the National Guard, and boasts a rich mixture of different styles. Herzog & de Meuron developed a multifaceted strategy for the transformation of the building, now used as a cultural center, that allows for a combination of restoration, transformation, and innovation. From the exposing of historic structures to the addition of new elements, the architecture gained new vibrancy from the considered entanglement of different aspects. In the current debate, this departure from the practice of historic preservation in the United States is, beyond its value as an actual example, a unique contribution that unfolds in close reference to material. It is exemplary and groundbreaking.

Although Victorian novels often feature lengthy descriptions of the buildings where characters live, work, and pray, we may not always notice the stories these buildings tell. But when we do pay attention, we find these buildings offer more than evocative background settings. Victorian Structures uses the architectural writings of Victorian critic John Ruskin as a framework for examining the interaction of physical, social, and narrative structures in Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens, Adam Bede by George Eliot, and The Mayor of Casterbridge and Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy. By closely reading their descriptions of architectural structure, this book reconsiders structure itself—both the social structures the novels reflect, and the narrative structures they employ. Weaving together analysis of these three kinds of structure offers an interpretation of Victorian realism that is far more socially and formally unstable than critics have tended to assume. It illustrates how these novels radically critique the limitations, dysfunctions, and deceptions of structure, while also imagining alternative possibilities. This unique interdisciplinary approach emphasizes structure-in-time: while current conversations about structure focus on its static and fixed properties, this book understands it as various forces in tension, producing meanings that are always in flux. Victorian Structures focuses not only on the way structures shape our perceptions and experiences, but also, more importantly, on the processes through which those structures come to be constructed in the first place, and how they change over time.

Images of America: Historic Silver Spring celebrates the community's past, beginning with founder Francis Preston Blair's 1840 discovery of the mica-flecked spring and the 1873 arrival of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. Vintage photographs document the progressive growth of the "Main Streets," Georgia Avenue and Colesville Road, and the construction of the Silver Spring Armory and National Dry Cleaning Institute in 1927 and the Silver Theatre and Silver Spring Shopping Center in 1938. The volume culminates with modern pictures of downtown Silver Spring's 21st-century revitalization, which continues to preserve the past and secure the future of the area. In a pictorial journey through the community's Central Business District and bordering residential neighborhood, East Silver Spring, Historic Silver Spring honors the people and places that have come before.

Tells the forgotten but surprising stories of the many handsome and significant buildings in downtown Troy, New York. Located about 150 miles north of Manhattan, on the east bank of the Hudson River, the city of Troy, New York, was once an industrial giant. It led the nation in iron production throughout much of the nineteenth century, and its factories turned out bells and cast-iron stoves that were sold the world over. Its population was both enterprising and civic-minded. Along with Troy’s economic success came the public, commercial, educational, residential, and religious buildings to prove it. Stores, banks, churches, firehouses, and schools, both modest and sophisticated, sprouted up in the latest architectural styles, creating a lively and fashionable downtown. Row houses and brownstones for the middle class and the wealthy rivaled those in Brooklyn and Manhattan. By the mid-twentieth century, however, Troy had dwindled in both prominence and population. Downtown stagnated, leaving building facades and interiors untouched, often for decades. A late-blooming urban-renewal program demolished many blocks of buildings, but preservationists fought back. Today, reinvestment is accelerating, and Troy now boasts what the New York Times has called “one of the most perfectly preserved nineteenth-century downtowns in the United States.” This book tells the stories behind the many handsome and significant buildings in downtown Troy and how they were designed and constructed—stories that have never been pulled together before. For the first time in generations, scores of Troy buildings are again linked with their architects, some local but others from out of town (the “starchitects” of their day) and even from Europe. In addition to numerous historic images, the book also includes contemporary photographs by local photographer Gary Gold. This book will inform, delight, and surprise readers, thereby helping to build an educated constituency for the preservation of an important American city. “Diana Waite has labored long to bring us the architectural history of Troy, which is said to have one of the most perfectly preserved downtowns in the United States. Great architects designed some of the city’s impressive buildings—Richard Upjohn, Leopold Eidlitz, Marcus T. Reynolds; but so did architects fairly early in their careers—such as George B. Post, who did the iconic flatiron Hall building on First Street, and the very visible Troy Savings Bank Music Hall. The book is also a wistful tour of the lost past—truly magnificent structures and sumptuous interiors that fell to the wrecking ball. And here are the stories behind major landmarks—such as the Approach staircase up to RPI (or down to Troy); the struggle to raise a monument at the center of the city to Troy’s fallen soldiers from three wars; and the complex installation of six major Tiffany windows in St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. The book is abundantly illustrated, with maps, and written in lively narrative style. Ms. Waite often quotes newspaper accounts of construction as it was happening, which vivifies her history.” — William Kennedy “Urban economist Edward L. Glaeser proclaims cities the triumph of humanity, both the ultimate expression of human culture and the engine that has propelled human progress. In this insightful and beautifully illustrated book, Diana Waite tells the story of one exceptional, mostly nineteenth-century example: Troy, New York. Troy is a rare gem, largely unspoiled by the forces that turned so many of America’s towns into wastelands of asphalt. As architects, planners, and policymakers struggle to define a twenty-first-century world that kicks the habits of our fossil-fuel-addicted modernity, that rediscovers how to make places for people, that builds strong communities, studying places like Troy takes on entirely new relevance. The Architecture of Downtown Troy paints a picture of the evolution of a historic town that provides valuable lessons for building the world of tomorrow.” — Carl Elefante, 2018 President, The American Institute of Architects “Diana Waite’s history of Troy’s downtown buildings describes the importance and diversity of this city’s distinctive architecture. Her clear narrative of Troy’s nineteenth-century growth, fires, early twentieth-century expansion, and its engagement of nationally recognized architects is excellent and supported by voluminous photographs. Troy is fortunate that twentieth-century ‘urban renewal’ occurred in a corner of the central business district, leaving intact so much of the city’s well-designed commercial, educational, and residential buildings. This new book presents an accurate, readable, and cohesive history of Troy. It is a must read.” — Matthew Bender IV “The pleasure of Troy isn’t discovering a single old building, but finding yourself lost among dozens of them. You may feel as if it were 1880, and you were strolling home to Washington Park, perhaps just for a change of collar.” — New York Times

Through wonderfully detailed letters, recruit rosters, and pension records, Edythe Ann Quinn shares the story of thirty-five African American Civil War soldiers and the United States Colored Troop (USCT) regiments with which they served. Associated with The Hills community in Westchester County, New York, the soldiers served in three regiments: the 29th Connecticut Infantry, 14th Rhode Island Heavy Artillery (11th USCT), and the 20th USCT. The thirty-sixth Hills man served in the Navy. Their ties to family, land, church, school, and occupational experiences at home buffered the brutal indifference of boredom and battle, the ravages of illness, the deprivations of unequal pay, and the hostility of some commissioned officers and white troops. At the same time, their service among kith and kin bolstered their determination and pride. They marched together, first as raw recruits, and finally as seasoned veterans, welcomed home by generals, politicians, and above all, their families and friends.

Gold Medalist, 2021 Independent Publisher Book Awards in the Transportation (Auto/Aviation/Railroad) Category Co-Winner of the 2020 Global Division Outstanding Book Award presented by the Global Division of the Society for the Study of Social Problems Walkable precincts have become an important component of urban revitalization on both sides of the Atlantic. In Walkable Cities, Carlos J. L. Balsas examines a range of city scales and geographic settings on three continents, focusing on the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal), Latin America (Brazil and Mexico), and the United States (Phoenix and New York City). He explains how this "pedestrianization of Main Street" approach to central locations (downtowns and midtowns) has contributed to strengthening various urban functions, such as urban vitality, pedestrian and bicyclist safety, tourism, and more. However, it has also put pressure on less affluent, peripheral, and fragile areas due to higher levels of consumption and waste generation. Balsas calls attention to the need to base urban revitalization interventions on more spatially and socially just interventions coupled with sustainable consumption practices that do not necessarily entail high growth levels, but instead aim to improve the quality of city life.

"Closely following the rise of the railroad industry, the Armory Square district of downtown Syracuse, New York, began to take its current shape in the mid-19th century...today it continues to grow with an expansive downtown renewal." --from back

... An 8 year plan to preserve Lowell's historic and cultural resources in order to tell the story of the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century; included in the plan are mills, institutions, residences, commercial buildings and canals; describes the areas covered; discusses preservation standards, public improvements, financing, related programs, etc.; provides architectural information, dates of construction, history, plans for building reuse, etc. of specific structures in the Lowell National Historic Park and Lowell Heritage State Park ...