Back to School

An 1890 Albany school becomes a school again.

By Elizabeth Benjamin | Online Only | Sept. 26, 2001

School 10

Credit: Historic Albany

Two years ago, School 10, a century-old former elementary school in Albany, N.Y., was threatened with demolition to make way for a drugstore. Now the building will undergo a $7 million restoration, returning it to its original use.

The city of Albany has agreed to sell the two-story red-brick structure, located at the intersection of Central and North Lake avenues, to the Brighter Choice Charter School for $500,000. The charter school's board of trustees plans to renovate the 15,500-square-foot property and construct a 23,000-square-foot addition on an adjacent parking lot. The board hopes to open its doors next September as the nation's first elementary charter school with single-sex classes. The student body would be composed of 90 kindergarten and first graders.

"It seemed ridiculous to us to build a brand new school building when we had an existing historic school sitting there unoccupied and just deteriorating away each year," said Brighter Choice Chairman Tom Carroll. "Part of what we're trying to teach at our school is that there's something more important than the immediate. We think it's fitting that, as we give the students a long view, we give them an appreciation of historic architecture."

Designed by Albany architect Albert Fuller in 1890, School 10 has been vacant and poorly maintained for more than five years. (It last housed a variety of city offices and programs.) Burst water pipes have caused the wood floors to buckle. Paint peels from the walls. And a thick layer of dust covers the interior.

Although School 10 may not look like it's in top form, Carroll says the building is structurally sound. "We don't have to rip apart the old building," he says. "The classroom space will remain the same. The gym, library, and cafeteria will all be in the addition. The elevator for handicapped kids will be there, too."

The biggest challenges will include removing lead paint and asbestos, bringing the school into compliance with modern-day building codes and wiring it for the Internet.

Local and state preservationists

Credit: Historic Albany

Threatened

In the spring of 1999, School 10 was nearly ripped down altogether. Lyndi Development, an Albany-based construction company, acting on behalf of Eckerd Corp., the national drugstore chain, wanted to purchase the building for $850,000, raze it, and erect an 11,000-square-foot drugstore. The developers argued that the structure was not historically significant. It is not located in one of the city's 16 historic districts or listed on the National Register of Historic Places. (It is eligible for inclusion on the register, but was never formally listed).

State and local preservationists responded, mounting a campaign to save the school, which they consider an important piece of the neighborhood's fabric. Members of the Historic Albany Foundation pointed out that there was enough room on the empty plot next to the structure to
accommodate a drugstore if Eckerd would agree to deviate from its vision of a store facing the street with a large parking lot in front of it.

Many residents said they would actually prefer to locate the parking lot behind the drugstore—a design that would make the store flush with the sidewalk and maintain the pedestrian-friendly character of Central Avenue. But the developers refused to budge.

A Happy Ending

In June 1999, the National Trust released its annual list of the country's 11 most endangered sites. That year the Trust included "the corner of Main and Main," which was being threatened by the escalating competition for land among national drugstore chains in downtown areas across America. The New York Times then ran a photo of School 10 on the front page of its Metro section, and the building drew national attention.

Almost a year later, as the result of pressure from the Trust and strong local opposition, Eckerd announced it would stop its practice of targeting historic properties as sites for new drugstores, and Lyndi Development subsequently dropped its plans to tear down School 10.

Preservationists in Albany have expressed support for the latest plan to restore and reuse the old school building. Seeing the building occupied once again by children and teachers will be satisfying, says Elizabeth Griffin, executive director of the Historic Albany Foundation. She hopes the charter school will bring new vitality to Central Avenue. Once the city's main commercial thoroughfare, the strip now struggles to define itself amid competition from suburban malls and big-box stores.

"Schools, museums, and libraries - these are all places where the community comes together. I think that's something that has been missing on Central Avenue for some time," she says.

"This is potentially a very happy story," echoes Scott Heyl, president of the Preservation League of New York State, the organization that introduced the Brighter Choice board of trustees to School 10. "The building didn't present itself well cosmetically, but it's constructed like a fort. And what better reuse than as a school?"

Elizabeth Benjamin is a freelance writer based in Cambridge, Mass.