Fredella Avenue Historic District

Fredella Avenue in Glens Falls is a short, steeply inclined street lined with eight closely spaced concrete houses, set in an area surrounded by heavy industry. Local builder Joseph J. Fredella, an Italian mason who immigrated in 1901, built them between 1914 and 1918 as speculative housing for Italian immigrant families working in nearby stone quarries. The street was then called Lime Street. Walls of molded concrete block imitate ashlar stone, and cast concrete trim includes quoins, friezes, modillions and fluted porch columns with classical capitals. Most houses have two-story porches; one house has three stories, and one has been covered with aluminum siding over its concrete walls. The district is significant because it shows how an inexpensive, novel material could produce stylish Neoclassical detail. Fredella's technique never gained wide popularity after his death in 1930, which makes these houses a rare and notable group of working-class early twentieth-century housing in the city.