Utica Mansions Saved
By Krista Walton | Online Only | June 12, 2008
Alexander Jackson Davis designed this Utica mansion in 1854.
Credit: Preservation League of New York State
This month an upstate New York nonprofit won a hard-fought preservation victory when it acquired two mansions in Utica's historic Rutger Park neighborhood after decades of trying to preserve the structures.
"It has been a long road, to say the least," said Michael Bosak, president of the board of trustees of the Landmarks Society of Greater Utica, in a June 5 statement.
Saving the two houses has been a priority for the Landmarks Society for 35 years. With loans from the county, grants from community groups, and private donations, the Landmarks Society purchased the mansions for $325,000. The nonprofit has listed both buildings on its annual most endangered list several times.
"Rutger Park is really a centerpiece of the city, so preserving [these sites] was of utmost importance," says Angelo Roefaro, first assistant to Utica Mayor David Roefaro. "Since no one inhabited them, it was a threat that eventually they would deteriorate to a point beyond preservation."
Architect A.J. Davis designed the Italianate villa at 1 Rutger Park in c. 1854, and his architectural plans are in the permanent collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The c. 1830 Greek revival house at 3 Rutger Park was built by Philip Hooker and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The two houses are located in the Rutger-Steuben Park Historic District, which has one of the highest concentrations of 19th-century homes in the country.
The Landmarks Society will rehabilitate the mansions within about three years. Once the structures are restored to their former grandeur, the group plans to open them to the public, possibly as a park or pair of house museums.
"Economic development isn't about tearing something down and looking at a plot of vacant land and hoping someone will use it," Roefaro adds. "We're just focusing on what was already there and making it even better."
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