Pastures Historic District

Thirteen blocks in Albany's South End make up this district of about 17 acres, laid out on land the Dutch founders set aside as a communal pasture. The city deeded it to the Dutch Reformed Church in 1687, and the church later divided it into lots after the Revolutionary War. More than three quarters of the surviving houses date from 1815 to 1855. They are mostly two- and three-story brick rowhouses with high basements, first in late Federal style and then in Greek Revival. Merchants, speculators and carpenter-builders erected them, and builders often kept workshops on their lots. Wealthy businessmen, craftsmen and free black residents lived in the same neighborhood. Later additions include School 15, built in the 1870s, and the Beth El Jacob Synagogue of 1907 and St. John's Church of 1903 to 1908. The nomination values the district for its uniform red brick streetscapes, its modest scale and its mix of homes, shops and churches. It notes that decline set in after the First World War.