{"nrhp_refnum":"72000912","name":"Nott Memorial Hall","other_names":["Nott Memorial Hall, Union College"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Union College campus","address_restricted":false,"city":"Schenectady","county":"Schenectady County","state":"NY","lat":42.81729095350005,"lon":-73.92992071600193,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1972-05-05","is_nhl":true,"nhl_designated_date":"1986-06-24","areas_of_significance":["Engineering","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A sixteen-sided domed memorial hall at the center of the Union College campus in Schenectady, New York, designed by Edward Tuckerman Potter and built in 1872-76 on foundations laid in 1858.","why_significant":"The nomination calls it a landmark of nineteenth-century architecture, with a Ruskinian banded polychrome exterior in Italianate or Venetian Gothic style. Behind that exterior is a cast-iron structural system that anticipated later skyscraper construction. Its long, interrupted building history connects it to J.J. Ramee's 1813 campus plan, and historians such as Hitchcock and Whiffen have studied and debated it.","narrative":"Standing at the center of the Union College campus in Schenectady, this sixteen-sided hall with a clerestory and dome was designed by Edward Tuckerman Potter, grandson of college president Eliphalet Nott, for whom it is named. Its origins reach back to J.J. Ramee's 1813 campus plan, and ground was broken in 1858, but lack of funds halted work at the foundations. The building was completed in 1872-76. Its banded polychrome stone exterior reflects the ideas of John Ruskin and Italian Gothic models, while sixteen cast-iron columns carry the dome inside, a system that anticipated later skyscrapers. A 1902 Andrew Carnegie grant paid for conversion to a library, the finished clerestory designed by William Appleton Potter, and arched steel trusses supporting a second floor. Historians including Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Marcus Whiffen have studied it as an important nineteenth-century landmark. It was in use as a theatre when nominated.","period_of_significance":"1872-","architect_builder":"Edward Tuckerman Potter; William Appleton Potter (1902 completion and renovation)","architectural_style":"Ruskinian / Victorian Gothic (Italianate or Venetian Gothic exterior) with cast-iron interior structure","criteria":[],"status_note":"Described as in fair condition and unaltered, on its original site; in use as a theatre, with a bookstore in the basement, and the exterior stone partly hidden by ivy.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:50:39.248016-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/72000912.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/72000912/de6381cd18-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/72000912/de6381cd18-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"UpstateNYer, color correction and perspective/barrel adjustments by User:Jaakobou","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NottMemorialPano.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">UpstateNYer, color correction and perspective/barrel adjustments by User:Jaakobou</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:NottMemorialPano.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75321693","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nott_Memorial","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7063536"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/schenectady-county/nott-memorial-hall-72000912/"}