{"nrhp_refnum":"76001204","name":"Hall, James, Office","other_names":["Sunshine School"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Lincoln Park","address_restricted":false,"city":"Albany","county":"Albany County","state":"NY","lat":42.64598243200004,"lon":-73.76876986899998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1976-12-08","is_nhl":true,"nhl_designated_date":"1976-12-08","areas_of_significance":["Science"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A one-story brick Italianate villa in Lincoln Park, Albany, New York, built around 1852 as the office and collections space of geologist James Hall. It was designed by Andrew Jackson Downing and Calvert Vaux and is now used as a school.","why_significant":"The building was the working center of James Hall, a leading 19th-century paleontologist and stratigrapher, from 1852 until his death. Many noted geologists trained there as his assistants. It is also one of a very limited number of surviving buildings definitely designed by Downing and Vaux during their brief collaboration.","narrative":"Built around 1852 in Albany's Lincoln Park, this one-story brick Italianate villa served as the office and collections space of geologist James Hall. Andrew Jackson Downing and Calvert Vaux designed it, and it is one of very few surviving buildings definitely attributed to their short collaboration. Hall, a leading 19th-century paleontologist and stratigrapher, used the building to house his fossil collections, drawings and assistants, and for many years he effectively lived there. It was the center of his work from 1852 to 1885, and he kept working there until his death. His assistants there included men who later became prominent paleontologists and geologists. The city of Albany acquired the building between 1898 and 1916, and a 1916 plaque honors it as an influential center of geological science. It later became a school. Extensions and a planned addition altered the original structure, though the original building remains.","period_of_significance":"1852-1898","architect_builder":"Calvert Vaux and Andrew Jackson Downing","architectural_style":"Italianate villa","criteria":[],"status_note":"Used as a school (Sunshine School), with major alterations including an extension of two classrooms and a further addition planned for 1976 that may compromise its integrity.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:50:38.64134-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/76001204_NHL.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/76001204/6018d0f189-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/76001204/6018d0f189-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Daniel Case","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:James_Hall_Office.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Daniel Case</a>, <a href=\"http://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:James_Hall_Office.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75315639","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Hall_Office","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6135402"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/albany-county/hall-james-office-76001204/"}