{"nrhp_refnum":"70000418","name":"Coeymans School","other_names":["Acton Civill Polytechnic Institute"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"SW corner of Westerlo St. and Civill Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Coeymans","county":"Albany County","state":"NY","lat":42.47281009400007,"lon":-73.79805464599997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1970-12-29","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Education","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A three-story red brick academy building with a full basement at the southwest corner of Westerlo Street and Civill Avenue in Coeymans, Albany County, New York, apparently built in 1873 for Acton Civill as the Acton Civill Polytechnic Institute.","why_significant":"The nomination presents the building as a local episode in nineteenth-century educational philanthropy, tied to the career of Acton Civill. It is also a landmark in Coeymans because of its size, character and position, and a fine example of period design with an unusual amount of cast iron detail. It represents the private school or academy type common in New York communities.","narrative":"Rising above the village of Coeymans on the Hudson River, this three-story red brick building was erected, apparently in 1873, as the Acton Civill Polytechnic Institute. Civill, a Coeymans native who became a New York City businessman, bought the land in 1865 and 1870 and built the academy, but it never opened as a school during his lifetime. The Board of Education bought it in 1899, and it served as a public school until 1963. The building has brick bearing walls, a slate mansard-style roof and an unusually large amount of cast iron detail, including quoins, window labels, balustrades, towers, chimneys and a columned entrance porch inscribed 1873. The front is five bays wide and the sides eleven. A rear auditorium-gymnasium was added in 1929 and 1930. Its size and robust design make it a village landmark and a surviving example of the nineteenth-century private academy and of educational philanthropy.","period_of_significance":"19th Century (specific date 1873)","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Condition listed as fair and altered; it served as a public school until 1963, was sold in 1969 to the Coeymans Fire District No. 1 and leased to the volunteer fire company.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:50:39.252026-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/70000418.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/70000418/4a5da729d1-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/70000418/4a5da729d1-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 2.0","author":"Doug Kerr from Upstate New York","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Coeymans_School_Apr_10.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Doug Kerr from Upstate New York</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 2.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Coeymans_School_Apr_10.jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"100001767","name":"Coeymans Landing Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/new-york/coeymans-landing-historic-district-100001767/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75316199","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coeymans_School","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5140863"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/albany-county/coeymans-school-70000418/"}