{"nrhp_refnum":"73001158","name":"Bethlehem House","other_names":["Rensselaer Nicoll House"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"E of Bethlehem off NY 144","address_restricted":false,"city":"Bethlehem","county":"Albany County","state":"NY","lat":42.54406728600003,"lon":-73.76624114499998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1973-04-11","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A brick house on the west shore of the Hudson River in Bethlehem, Albany County, New York, begun in 1736 for Rensselaer Nicoll and enlarged in 1796, around 1810 and in 1830.","why_significant":"The nomination presents the house as an architectural \"growth not a type,\" whose successive additions express the changing needs and lifestyles of one family through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It also preserves much original woodwork and unchanged eighteenth-century framing, and it is tied to the Nicoll and Sill families and to the site's seventeenth-century sawmill.","narrative":"Overlooking the west shore of the Hudson River south of Albany, this brick house in Bethlehem grew in stages over roughly a century. Rensselaer Nicoll, nephew of the fourth patroon, built the original gambrel-roofed section in 1736 beside a falls on the Vlaumanskill, where a seventeenth-century sawmill had stood. His son Francis Nicoll added a southern wing in 1796 to house returning family members, using newer details such as inside shutters and different ceiling heights. Around 1810 a west kitchen wing was added, with slave quarters above, and a tea room and office followed in 1830. Inside, a central hall, original woodwork and paneling, and a cellar and attic little changed since the eighteenth century survive. A family cemetery with about seventy graves lies to the south. The house is valued as a record of one family's changing needs across the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It was unoccupied when nominated and in fair condition.","period_of_significance":"18th and 19th centuries (specific dates 1735-1796-1810-1830)","architect_builder":"Rensselaer Nicoll (original house); Francis Nicoll (1796 southern addition)","architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Listed as in fair condition, altered, and unoccupied; the house has deteriorated since the late 1800s and was being considered for use as headquarters of the Bethlehem Historical Society.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:50:39.313975-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/73001158.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/73001158/2edc600705-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/73001158/2edc600705-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Norman R. Sturgis, HABS photographer","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bethlehem_HABS_NY1.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Norman R. Sturgis, HABS photographer</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bethlehem_HABS_NY1.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75316173","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bethlehem_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q14706183"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/albany-county/bethlehem-house-73001158/"}