{"nrhp_refnum":"71000521","name":"New York State Department of Education Building","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Washington Ave. between Hawk and Swan Sts.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Albany","county":"Albany County","state":"NY","lat":42.65402183000003,"lon":-73.75760350399997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1971-03-18","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Education","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A five-story stone government building on Washington Avenue between Hawk and Swan Streets in Albany, New York, built from 1908 to 1912 to a design by architect Henry Hornbostel. It houses the State Library and the State Museum.","why_significant":"The nomination calls it the first major building in the United States constructed solely as a headquarters for administering education. Its classical design follows the spirit of the 1893 Columbian Exposition, and its 36-column colonnade is described as one of the longest in the world. The library reading room and rotunda are cited as outstanding interior spaces, with tile work by R. Guastavino.","narrative":"Rising five stories above Washington Avenue in Albany, this stone building was begun in 1908 and finished in 1912 as the home of New York State's education administration. Architect Henry Hornbostel designed it, and it was the first major building in the United States built solely for that purpose. Its south front is thirty-one bays wide and carries a colonnade of thirty-six hollow marble columns with terra-cotta Corinthian capitals beneath a very wide entablature, a feature meant to set it apart from the other government buildings on Capitol Hill. Inside, the State Library reading room rises about fifty feet on iron columns and vaults infilled with Guastavino tile. The nearby rotunda has a cruciform plan, a 94-foot dome of metal tracery and glass, glass barrel-vaulted skylights, and murals about the human quest for education. The building also houses the New York State Museum. A smaller addition was built in 1960.","period_of_significance":"1908-1912","architect_builder":"Henry Hornbostel (architect); R. Guastavino (tile work in the reading room)","architectural_style":"Classical, in the spirit of the Columbian Exposition of 1893","criteria":[],"status_note":"Listed as occupied, in fair condition, unaltered and on its original site; an addition was erected in 1960 at the northeast corner. State-owned and used as a government building.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:50:38.953107-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/71000521.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/71000521/b8989e0e70-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/71000521/b8989e0e70-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Daniel Case","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:New_York_State_of_Education_building_daytime,_2012.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Daniel Case</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:New_York_State_of_Education_building_daytime,_2012.jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"78001837","name":"Lafayette Park Historic","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/new-york/lafayette-park-historic-78001837/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75316289","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_State_Education_Building","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7014096"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/albany-county/new-york-state-department-of-education-building-71000521/"}