Global InformationOld Albany Academy Building information
Albany Academy | |
U.S. National Register of Historic Places | |
U.S. Historic district Contributing property | |
 East (front) elevation with statue of Henry, 2015 | |
   | |
| Location | Albany, NY |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 42°39′10″N 73°45′17″W / 42.65278°N 73.75472°W |
| Area | 1 acre (4,000 m2) |
| Built | 1815 |
| Architect | Philip Hooker |
| Part of | Lafayette Park Historic District (ID78001837) |
| NRHP reference No. | 71000515[1] |
| Added to NRHP | February 18, 1971 |
The old Albany Academy building, known officially as Academy Park by the City School District of Albany, its owner (after the park in which it is located), and formerly known as the Joseph Henry Memorial, is located in downtown Albany, New York, United States. It is a Federal style brownstone building erected in the early 19th century. In 1971, it was listed in the National Register of Historic Places.[2] Later, it was included as a contributing property when the Lafayette Park Historic District was established.
At the time it was built it was home to The Albany Academy, established a few years earlier. Architect Philip Hooker's Federal style design is the city's oldest public building, and the less altered of his two intact non-residential buildings in the city.[3] In the 1820s, Joseph Henry co-discovered electrical inductance in experiments conducted in the building, a discovery that was important to the later development of the telegraph and, by extension, the modern telecommunications of the Information Age. A statue of him by John Flanagan was placed out front to commemorate his accomplishment. T. Romeyn Beck wrote his important early works on forensic medicine while serving as the school's principal for three decades.
In the 1930s, the Academy moved to a new building in a different section of the city that it still occupies. It sold the building to the city of Albany; in 1986 the city's school district took ownership and began its current use of the building for its main offices. Another Albany architect, Marcus T. Reynolds, supervised renovations to the building's interior. It has otherwise remained intact.
- ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
- ^ "NPGallery Asset Detail". npgallery.nps.gov.
- ^ Opalka, Anthony (1993). Diana Waite (ed.). Albany Architecture: A Guide to the City. Albany, NY: Mount Ida Press. p. 72. ISBN 9780962536816. Retrieved June 6, 2013.