Rapp Road Community Historic District

Rapp Road Community Historic District occupies a narrow lane on the southwestern edge of Albany, along the Guilderland border. It grew from a tract bought in 1930 by Rev. Louis Parson, pastor of the First Church of God and Christ, who sold irregular lots to church members, many recruited from Mississippi and other Southern states. Families such as the Owens, Woodards, McCanns and Johnsons built modest wood-frame bungalow and ranch-style houses themselves, often working in stages as money and wartime materials allowed. Later state construction of the Washington Avenue Extension removed or relocated some homes. Today the district holds 21 contributing resources, mostly single-story houses, with a few garages, sheds and driveway features, plus two modern noncontributing homes. It was listed for its role as a rare, intact chain-migration community of the Great Migration, where residents preserved Southern rural customs across generations, and for its association with Parson.