{"nrhp_refnum":"72000818","name":"Washington Park Historic District","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Washington Park and surrounding properties","address_restricted":false,"city":"Albany","county":"Albany County","state":"NY","lat":42.65718896650006,"lon":-73.77416257521163,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1972-06-19","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Community Planning and Development","Landscape Architecture","Art","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A historic district in central Albany, New York, made up of the roughly ninety-acre Washington Park and the buildings facing it on Madison Avenue, Willett Street, State Street and South Lake Avenue, plus Thurlow Terrace and Englewood Place. The park was begun in 1870 and the surrounding townhouses and houses date mainly from the 1870s through the early twentieth century.","why_significant":"The nomination presents the park as a leading intact example of a Nineteenth Century municipal garden, laid out with the inspiration of Frederick Law Olmsted by engineers Bogart and Cuyler. Together with the continuous facades of Nineteenth Century townhouses on all sides, it is described as Albany's finest remaining urban environmental asset. Houses by architects H. H. Richardson and Stanford White add architectural interest.","narrative":"Washington Park is a ninety-acre public park in central Albany, together with the streets of houses that face it. The district takes in Madison Avenue, Willett Street, State Street and South Lake Avenue, along with Thurlow Terrace and Englewood Place. Work on the park began in 1870 on land set aside for public use since 1686, and plans were prepared by engineers Bogart and Cuyler after Frederick Law Olmsted was consulted. The eastern end holds formal promenades and an old parade ground, while the western end has rolling meadows, a lake and a 1929 Spanish-style lakehouse. Memorials include a bronze statue of Robert Burns and a Civil War monument. Over sixty brick and brownstone townhouses line State Street, including works linked to H. H. Richardson and Stanford White. The district was valued for its unity of scale, materials and period, and for a surviving Nineteenth Century park design, despite some demolished mansions and a few modern intrusions.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Park plans by Bogart and Cuyler, engineers (with Frederick Law Olmsted consulted); houses by H. H. Richardson and Stanford White, among others","architectural_style":"Nineteenth Century townhouses and rowhouses, with Victorian residences and a 1929 Spanish-style lakehouse","criteria":[],"status_note":"Park is no longer meticulously maintained; many houses are divided into apartments and doctors' offices, a few large houses on Thurlow Terrace and Englewood Place are gone, and one or two mid-twentieth century facades break the building line. Condition marked good/fair.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:50:38.706617-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/72000818.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/72000818/afdd3fd30a-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/72000818/afdd3fd30a-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"UpstateNYer","credit_html":"UpstateNYer, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PhotographerWashingtonPark.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75316375","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Park_Historic_District_(Albany,_New_York)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7972111"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/albany-county/washington-park-historic-district-72000818/"}