Nut Grove

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Nut Grove

Nut Grove.jpg

North elevation and east profile, 2011
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Location Albany, NY
Coordinates 42°38′0″N73°46′6″W / 42.63333°N 73.76833°W / 42.63333; -73.76833 Coordinates: 42°38′0″N73°46′6″W / 42.63333°N 73.76833°W / 42.63333; -73.76833
Area 8 acres (3.2 ha)
Built 1845 [1]
Architect Alexander Jackson Davis
Architectural style Greek Revival
NRHP reference # 74001215 [2]
Added to NRHP July 30, 1974

Nut Grove, also known as the William Walsh House, is a historic house located on McCarty Avenue in Albany, New York, United States. It is a brick building originally designed in the Greek Revival architectural style by architect Alexander Jackson Davis in the mid-19th century. In 1974 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. [2]

Albany, New York Capital of New York

Albany is the capital of the U.S. state of New York and the seat of Albany County. Albany is located on the west bank of the Hudson River approximately 10 miles (16 km) south of its confluence with the Mohawk River and approximately 135 miles (220 km) north of New York City.

Greek Revival architecture architectural movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries

The Greek Revival was an architectural movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in Northern Europe and the United States. A product of Hellenism, it may be looked upon as the last phase in the development of Neoclassical architecture. The term was first used by Charles Robert Cockerell in a lecture he gave as Professor of Architecture to the Royal Academy of Arts, London in 1842.

Architectural style specific method of construction, characterized by the features that make it notable

An architectural style is characterized by the features that make a building or other structure notable or historically identifiable. It is a sub-class of style in the visual arts generally, and most styles in architecture related closely to the wider contemporary artistic style. A style may include such elements as form, method of construction, building materials, and regional character. Most architecture can be classified within a chronology of styles which changes over time reflecting changing fashions, beliefs and religions, or the emergence of new ideas, technology, or materials which make new styles possible.

Contents

It is Davis's only house in that style in the Hudson Valley, and one of the rare Greek Revival houses to use the "Grecian country house" variant of the style. In the early 20th century it was modified for use as a hospital. Today it is part of a drug treatment clinic, known as the Reilly House and used for sober living. [3] Much of its original ornamentation is gone, but it retains the basic form and some of the interior decoration.

Hudson Valley comprises the valley of the Hudson River and its adjacent communities in the U.S. state of New York

The Hudson Valley comprises the valley of the Hudson River and its adjacent communities in the U.S. state of New York, from the cities of Albany and Troy southward to Yonkers in Westchester County. Depending upon the definition delineating its boundaries, the Hudson Valley encompasses a growing metropolis which is home to between 3 and 3.5 million residents centered along the north-south axis of the Hudson River.

Building

The building as it is today stands at the rear of the Addictions Care Center of Albany's (ACCA) 8-acre (3.2 ha) property on the south side of McCarty just east of Bowne Street, near the southern boundary of the city. To its west and northwest are ACCA's other two, more modern buildings, and a parking lot. A meditation garden and gazebo are located to the north, part of a grassy area with some mature trees separating ACCA from the Nutgrove Garden public housing complex on Nutgrove Lane to the east. [4] Cherry Hill, another old estate listed on the Register, is a quarter-mile (500 m) to the east on South Pearl Street (New York State Route 32) just north of McCarty. Across McCarty are modern single-family homes. To the south is a wooded slope leading down to Interstate 787.

Meditation practice where an individual focuses their mind on a particular object, thought or activity to achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm state

Meditation is a practice where an individual uses a technique – such as mindfulness, or focusing their mind on a particular object, thought or activity – to train attention and awareness, and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm and stable state.

Gazebo pavilion structure built in a park, garden or public area

A gazebo is a pavilion structure, sometimes octagonal or turret-shaped, often built in a park, garden or spacious public area.

Public housing residential properties owned by a government

Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is owned by a government authority, which may be central or local.

The building itself is a two-story structure of yellow brick, five bays wide along its long side. It is topped by a flat roof. A small shed-roofed one story addition is on the west side of the facade, housing what is now the main entrance at its east end. A wood frame addition with clapboard extends one bay from the south, complemented by one extending from the east just above the southeast corner. [1]

Bay (architecture) space defined by the vertical piers, in a building

In architecture, a bay is the space between architectural elements, or a recess or compartment. Bay comes from Old French baee, meaning an opening or hole.

Facade exterior side of a building, usually the front but not always

A facade is generally one exterior side of a building, usually the front. It is a foreign loan word from the French façade, which means "frontage" or "face".

Timber framing building technique, construction method using heavy squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers

Timber framing and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden pegs. It is commonplace in wooden buildings from the 19th century and earlier. If the structural frame of load-bearing timber is left exposed on the exterior of the building it may be referred to as half-timbered, and in many cases the infill between timbers will be used for decorative effect. The country most known for this kind of architecture is Germany. Timber framed houses are spread all over the country except in the southeast.

Along the east facade, originally the front, is a full-length verandah supported by columns. The window lintels have shell or rosette designs, and the original main entrance has Greek Revival detailing. On the north side, the current main entrance has a small porch with a flat roof supported by square columns. Both the shed-roofed addition and the main block's roof are topped with a plain wide frieze and box cornice. A modern roof with larger box cornice, pierced by a chimney at the south end, forms the uppermost layer. [1]

Rosette (design) round, stylized flower design

A rosette is a round, stylized flower design.

Frieze wide central section part of an entablature

In architecture the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Even when neither columns nor pilasters are expressed, on an astylar wall it lies upon the architrave and is capped by the moldings of the cornice. A frieze can be found on many Greek and Roman buildings, the Parthenon Frieze being the most famous, and perhaps the most elaborate. This style is typical for the Persians.

Cornice horizontal decorative molding that crowns a building or furniture

A cornice is generally any horizontal decorative molding that crowns a building or furniture element – the cornice over a door or window, for instance, or the cornice around the top edge of a pedestal or along the top of an interior wall. A simple cornice may be formed just with a crown.

History

When the house was built, in 1845, it was south of Albany's city limits, in the Town of Bethlehem. William Walsh and his wife were part of the city's wealthy aristocracy. They were related by marriage to Henry James. [1]

Bethlehem, New York Town in New York, United States

Bethlehem is a town in Albany County, New York, USA. The town's population was 33,656 at the 2010 census. Bethlehem is located immediately to the south of the City of Albany. Bethlehem includes the following hamlets: Delmar, Elsmere, Glenmont, North Bethlehem, Selkirk, Slingerlands, and South Bethlehem. U.S. Route 9W passes through the town. The town is named after the biblical Bethlehem.

Henry James American writer and literary critic

Henry James, OM was an American-British author regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the son of Henry James Sr. and the brother of renowned philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James.

Those connections led them to friends of Davis, who had built many structures in the Hudson Valley, notably the 1839 Oliver Bronson House in Hudson, today recognized as a National Historic Landmark (NHL). Most of his houses were in either the various Gothic Revival styles becoming popular at the time or the new Hudson River Bracketed mode considered to have been developed by the Bronson house. Both styles were seen as gentler and more harmonious with the surrounding countryside in comparison with the Greek Revival style, whose monumentality, especially in its temple variant, was more suited to public buildings and churches, such as Davis's 1835 Dutch Reformed Church at Newburgh, also an NHL. [1]

For the Walshes, Davis built a Grecian country house overlooking the Hudson River. That variant retains the basic form and symmetry of the standard Greek Revival house, but with some slight deviations and extra decoration to create interest and distinguish it from more standard country houses. Nut Grove was originally topped with a hipped roof, had two rear wings and featured diamond-paned glass windows. A garage and cottage were also located to the southwest. [1]

Davis designed several similar Grecian country houses after 1835. A simplified version, with some Italianate features, appears in The Architecture of Country Houses, Andrew Jackson Downing's influential 1850 pattern book. Nut Grove is the only one known to survive. [1]

The Walshes lived at Nut Grove until William died in 1863. His wife soon remarried to Robert Donaldson, who owned two other Davis houses downriver in Barrytown, one of which she moved into with him. Her nephew, Dudley Walsh, took over Nut Grove. [1]

In the 1870s, Walsh sold it to Thomas McCarty, an Irish immigrant who had become a wealthy brickmaker. McCarty had served two terms on Albany's City Council before becoming a state assemblyman. The city eventually annexed the area around Nut Grove, and McCarty made two unsuccessful bids for mayor. He built a driveway connecting the property to South Pearl Street, the beginning of today's McCarty Avenue, and began to subdivide the property. [1]

The house was purchased in 1902 by Eleanor Spensley, who had founded the Hospital for Incurables in downtown Albany 20 years earlier. She died two months later. For hospital purposes the roof was raised and dormer windows added. [1]

In that form, the Hospital for Incurables continued operating in the house until 1973. After it was closed the two rear wings were demolished. [1] It remained vacant, owned by the hospital, until sometime after it was listed on the Register in 1974 when the Addictions Care Center of Albany acquired the property. The roof was completely replaced with a flat roof and modern sliding windows were installed. It is now the Reilly House, a sober living environment that can hold up to 12 men at a time. [3]

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Cornelia E. Brooke (January 1974). "National Register of Historic Places Registration: Nut Grove". New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation . Retrieved 2010-10-13.See also: "Accompanying three photos".
  2. 1 2 National Park Service (2009-03-13). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service.
  3. 1 2 "Reilly House for Men". Addictions Care Center of Albany, Inc. Retrieved October 10, 2011.
  4. "Nutgrove Garden Apartments". Albany Housing Authority. Retrieved October 9, 2011.

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