{"nrhp_refnum":"85002741","name":"Lawton, George H., House","other_names":["Component No. 14"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"27 Maxwell Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Colonie","county":"Albany County","state":"NY","lat":42.72442889900003,"lon":-73.75619931299997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1985-10-03","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A one-and-one-half story board-and-batten cottage at 27 Maxwell Road in the Town of Colonie, Albany County, New York, built between 1851 and 1854 (circa 1854) in the Gothic Revival style.","why_significant":"The nomination presents it as a distinctive example of Andrew Jackson Downing-inspired pattern book architecture and of the shift from five-bay and side-hall plans to the cottage form. It is described as the only picturesque Gothic Cottage in the Colonie Multiple Resource Area. It keeps features such as board and batten siding, paired windows with bracketed sills and lintels, exposed rafter ends and a verandah.","narrative":"Built between 1851 and 1854, this one-and-one-half story cottage at 27 Maxwell Road in Colonie is a local example of the picturesque Gothic Revival. Its walls are board and batten, its windows are paired with bracketed sills and lintels, its rafters are exposed at the eaves, and a simple one-story porch runs along the front of the ell. A small shed-roofed addition was later placed at the rear. The house is considered important as pattern book architecture of the kind popularized by Andrew Jackson Downing, whose books from 1841 promoted modest, asymmetrical cottages as ideal homes for the growing middle class. It reflects a move away from the conventional five-bay central hall plan and the side-hall plan. It is the only picturesque Gothic cottage in the town's multiple resource area. George H. Lawton, an Albany grocer and merchant, probably used it as a country residence. Modern suburban houses now surround it, and its parcel of under one acre is the remaining intact historic property associated with it.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Picturesque Gothic Revival cottage","criteria":[],"status_note":"Used as a residence, as originally; condition rated fair, with no known threats. A small one-story shed-roofed addition was built at the rear of the ell.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:50:45.016958-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/85002741.pdf"},"photo":null,"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75311982","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_H._Lawton_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5540048"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/albany-county/lawton-george-h-house-85002741/"}