: Tri:' CALL BOARD NEWSLETTER OF THE MOHAWK & HUDSON CHAPTER, N.R.H.S. February 1991

The D&H BuildingBy Ti m Truscott andDick Barrett

By the beginning of the Twentieth Cen-.urv Albany was an important, versatiletransportation center connecting majormarkets. Railroads had surpassed riverboatsas the primary mode of transportation forpassengers and most freight. By one ac-counting, as many as 680 trains came intoAlbany daily and that traffic, along with thewaterfront activity, resulted in unsightlyconzestion at the foot of State Street.

fu the period soon after the turn of thecentury, the railroad industry in the north-eastern United States was at its peak ofgrowth. Like many of the other Class Trailroads, including the New York Central,the Delaware & Hudson's business activi-ties were booming. In 1907, for instance,the D&H handled a much larger traffic thanduring any previous year. That year gross

railroad earnings increased 18 percent from$17,100,000 in 1906, the previous highrecord figure, to $20,200,000. The increasecame primarily from coal freight earnings,which rose 36 percent from $6,700,000 in1906 to $9,100,000. Merchandise freightearnings rose eight percent, while passen-ger earnings rose five percent. To add tothis business boom. the Delaware &Hudson's coal mines produced 6,600,000tons of anthracite. approximately 10 per-cent of the total production of anthracite inthe United States.

The great increase in business meantthat more office space was needed for theheadquarters of the company, which hadoutgrown its office building located at 58North Pearl St. on the comer of SteubenStreet in Albanv. The North Pearl Streetbuilding. which'the railroad had occupiedsince 1892. was its second in Albany, itsoriginal Albany & Susquehanna Railroad

building being on Broadway near the footof Madison Ave.

In addition, the company had outgrownits two freight houses in downtown Albany,one at Livingston Ave., five blocks northof the center of town, and the other atChurch Street, ten blocks south. Both freighthouses were at an inconvenient distancefrom the business center of town. A newfreight terminal of adequate size in theheart of the business district was needed bythe Delaware & Hudson. Furthermore, theD&H wanted to raise its passenger trackssouth of Union station.

The area around Steamboat Square indowntown Albany was described as "atangle of mean streets and wretched build-ings." In addition to the unsightly array ofstreets and buildings, the Delaware &Hudson's tracks added to the cluttered viewtoward the river from the downtown area.The Chamber of Commerce played a role

An aerial view of the Delaware & Hudson's headquarters office building in Albany as it appeared onNovember 5, 1925. The main tower of the building is at the center of the photo, with the north wing to itsleft. Attached to the north wing is the four-story freight house, built in 1914-1915 along with the main rtower and north wing. The south wing (south of the main tower) and the south tower (home of the AlbanyEvening Journal), were built in 1916-1917. The Albany boat basin and the New York Central's MaidenLane Bridge are in the background. (D&H Collection, New York State Library)

February 1991 NEWSLETTER OF THE MOHAWK & HUDSON CHAPTER, N.R.H.S. THE CALL BOARD 9

along with public agitation for riverfrontimprovement, and a study of the problemwas initiated in 1907. There possibly was

-~embarrassment over the appearance of thevaterfront when Albany participated in the1909 Hudson-Fulton Celebration. TheMayor's Annual Message in 1909 statedthat the "City's welfare demands the SPeedyobliteration of the unsightly and unsanitaryriverfront. "

A more detailed plan for riverfront im-provement was completed in 1910. Theidea of a plaza at the foot of State Street wasconceived by Albany's premier architect,Marcus T. Reynolds, who, interestinglyenough, included no building in his initialplan. The "City Beautiful Movement". anational landscape architecture movement.came to Albany when the Mayor and CityCouncil engaged noted landscape architectArnold W. Brunner to study the problem in1912. Brunner observed that it seemed

natural to remove derelict buildings andsecure a view of the Hudson River byconstructing a plaza, but that the view wouldnot be one of the river at all. Instead, itwould be one of a passenger and freightrailroad yard, the New York Central'sMaiden Lane Bridge and the roundhouseon the other side of the river at Rensselaer.

Therefore, according to Brunner's argu-ment, it seemed much better to obliteratethis "view" and create a plaza surroundedby buildings that would effectively screenthese activities from sight. The most im-portant feature of Brunner's concept was apicturesque tower placed on the axis ofState Street intended to form a terminationat the eastern end of State Street in charac-ter with the State Capitol at the other end.Steep roofs with dormer windows wouldaccommodate itself to the form of the Plazaand would harmonize with the adjacentPost Office building to the north. Reynolds

was eventually engaged as architect for thebuilding originally conceived by Brunner.

The Delaware & Hudson and the city, itwas determined, had common interestswhich would require cooperation. The citywould cooperate in the exchange of prop-erty with the railroad being granted permis-sion to raise some of its tracks to allowaccess to the upper level of Albany UnionStation, and to extend its terminal facilitieswith the construction of a new freight houseand yard. In return, the proposed officebuilding would be of such a character as tofit into the recommendations of Brunnerand Reynolds.

At the time the D&H Building was con-ceived, it was standard to base designs ofcontemporary buildings on specific prece-dents in the architecture of the past. MarcusT. Reynolds, therefore, visited Belgium in1912 and selected the Guild Hall of theCloth Makers in Ypres (also known as the

~.A view of the south wing and south tower of the D&H/Albany Evening Journal buildings on March 21,1917, as viewed from the riverfront while they were under construction. Note the steel skeletonframework with the stone facing. The building to the extreme left is the Hudson River Day Line steamboatoffices. (Collection of State University of New York, Central Administration)

l

10 THE CALL BOARD NEWSLETTER OF THE MOHAWK & HUDSON CHAPTER, N.R.H.S. February 1991

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Diagram showing layout of main tower and north wing of D&H general office building, freight house andtracks, as they were built in 1914~1915.(Collection of Dick Barrett)

Cloth Hall) as the primary model for theD&H Building. Begun in 1205. the ClothHall was completed in the 15th -Centuryand its architectural style is early FlemishGothic. By coincidence, the Cloth Hall atYpres was destroyed by German artilleryfire in November of 1914, shortly afterwork was begun on its counterpart in Al-bany.

The D&H Building has a central 13-story tower, 52 feet by 62 feet, which is inalignment with State Street. Extending tothe north from this tower is a five-storywing 260 feet long by 48 feet wide. Theview from the upper floors of the tower isdirectly up State Street hill toward the StateCapitol, and one wonders if the juxtaposi-tion of the Delaware & Hudson's executiveoffices with the Capitol is meant as a chal-lenge to the power of the State's authorityand power.

The tower and north wing, with theexception of the first floor, were used en-tirely for the general offices of the railroadand had a total area of 128,000 sq. feet. Onthe west side of the building facing theplaza and Broadway, an open arcade per-mitted passage along the entire length ofthe building under cover. Facing the arcadewere shops which were rented out for vari-ous purposes including the city ticket of-fice for the D&H. The center of the towercontained two elevators and a stairwaywhich were protected by fireproof wallsand doors. A turret-shaped pilaster locatedin the northwest comer of the tower con-tained a winding staircase, protected byfireproof doors and small fireproof win-

dows, which served as a fire escape.The exterior walls of the building were

constructed of Plymouth seam-faced gran-ite. The ornamental trim was constructed ofa synthetic stone. The roof was coveredwith multi -colored slate. with the lowercourse being one-inch thick and graded tothinner sizes toward the peak. The towerwas crowned with a 70-foot spire whichwas covered with copper.

A new 317-foot, three-story freight housewing was built from the north wing '-JI theoffice building along Dean Street. Attachedto the north end of the new freight house.facing on Maiden Lane, was a four-storyfreight house formerly owned and occu-pied by the National Express Company.This old building, 73 feet by 63 fed. wasremodeled for use in conjunction with thenew freight house.

The first floor of the new building wasused as a freight house, with the secondfloor used as storage and the third nom asoffices for the freight clerks. The new freighthouse contained 14 bays with each havingdouble rolling doors on both the track sideand the street side. Adjacent to two of thefour stairways were freight elevators with8-foot by 9-foot platforms. while next tothe other two stairways were 5-ton capacityscales with platforms measuring 8 feet by 9feet. The entire freight house was equippedwith a modem automatic sprinkler system.as well as automatic fire doors.

There were 12 house tracks located on askew with the face of the freight house,arranged in pairs 12 feet. center-to-center.Platforms between each pair were 12-feet

wide, while the platform along the front ofthe freight house were 17-feet wide.

After the main part of the D&H Buildingwas completed. it was determined that therailroad needed even more space. There-fore. the wing south of the main tower wasadded ill 1916-1917, with the tower of the ...••Albany Evening Journal Building formingthe southern termination of the structure. Inthe new wing just south of the main tower,a drive-through allowed automobiles todischarge their passengers undercover whilepermitting vehicular access to the area be-hind the building. A short distance south ofthe office building, below the Hudson RiverDay Line building, an passageway underthe D&H tracks provided access to thewaterfront (Quay Street).

The building has a frontage of 664 feetalong its angled west side, toward Broad-way, and is 48 feet wide. The building issupported by a steel "I" beam skeletonwhich allowed flexibility of interior non-load bearing partitions. This constructioncombined the modem technical innova-tions of steel framework with rock facingand cast ornamentation.

The costly ornamentation indicates thatthis was a period of great prosperity for therailroad. Ornamental figures include therepeated form of the beaver (it was thebeaver's pelt which brought the first set-tlers to Fort Nassau - later Fort Orange - in1614 to trade with the Mohawk Indians)and expressive caricatures of human faces, c:a part of Gothic tradition. At the top of thecentral tower is a carved copy ofMichelangelo's "n Pensieroso (The

February 1991 NEWSLETTER OF THE MOHAWK & HUDSON CHAPTER, N.R.H.S. THE CALL BOARD 11

Thinker). This curious image may havebeen meant to inspire thinking among thecompany's employees, much as the famous

~IBM "Think" signs in offices were to do atI later date. Reynolds also tied the building'sarchitecture to Albany's early history withother ornamentation including the arms ofthe British Crown and the Dutch States-General, and the arms of Francis the First ofFrance (Francis declared that all Northeast-ern America was a possession of the King ofFrance). To commemorate Henry Hudson'strip up the river in 1609 in which, some say,he landed near the location of the D&HBuilding, Reynolds chose a model ofHudson's ship, the "Half Moon" as thecrowning ornament of the central tower.This model is the largest working weathervane in North America, measuring 6 feet 9inches in length and 8 feet 10 inches inheight.

What were the political and interper-sonal ramifications of this bold waterfrontre-development project? The railroad in itsgreat wealth and power was undoubtedlyvery influential in city government. TheD&H may have been selected as developerfor this waterfront project because it wasprobably the only corporate entity in townwhich could undertake such a large project.

~---When it was completed, the Delaware &Hudson reported that acquisition of theproperty and cost $750,000 and that con-struction had cost $1,057,991. These werelarge amounts for the time. The city's bankscould not justify or afford such a largebuilding, and the only other truly big busi-ness in town, the New York Central, hadalready made its contribution to Albany byconstructing Union Station in 1900.

In addition to the financial aspects ofsuch a large project, there were the politicalaspects. Billy Barnes, Editor of the AlbanyEvening Journal, was also head of the Re-publican political machine in Albany. Barnesand his newspaper constructed, and occu-pied, the southern end of the complex in1916-1917. It has been said that the tworailroads in town had different political al-legiances: the New York Central was thoughtof as the Democratic railroad and the Dela-ware & Hudson was seen as the Republicanrailroad. This may have accounted for theapparent closeness of the D&H, Barnes andthe city in accomplishing this large project.Why was Marcus T. Reynolds selected asthe architect for the project"? While he was

< one of the leading architects of the city at the~time, his grandfather, coincidentally, was

the first president of the Albany NorthernRailroad, later part of the D&H. While allthese possible connections exist, we can do

no more than to speculate.The D&H Building not only symbol-

izes the wealth and power of the railroadindustry in the early 20th Century, it sur-passes it. Visitors to Albany often mistakethe building for the New York State Capi-tol. Others often think it was the localrailroad station. However. it is withoutdispute a first-class building and the sort ofbuilding one would expect D&H PresidentL.F. Loree to build. Shortly before thisproject was undertaken, Loree had taken ahand in designing the most modem of railmechanical facilities for its time, the Dela-ware & Hudson's Colonie Shops.

The Delaware & Hudson's Plaza Build-ing has been the birthplace of Albany'sdowntown redevelopment twice in its life-time. While Albany Union Station is themost recent significant building restora-tion in downtown Albany, the D&H Build-ing began this trend of downtown redevel-opment about 15 years ago when it waspurchased and refurbished by the State

University of New York as the headquar-ters for its Central Administration.

Albany was fortunate to have such amagnificent building constructed in theearly part of this century, and it was equallyfortunate to have the State University savethe building from demolition and refurbishit in more recent years. If this had nothappened, the preservation movement mayhave never started in downtown Albanyand Albany Union Station might never havebeen saved. We recommend taking the timeto stop at the D&H Building soon and lookat it closely. It's worth the visit.

References :New Delaware & Hudson Terminal at Al-bany, N.Y. Railway Age Gazette, Vol. 59,No.2, July 9, 1915.

The New Delaware & Hudson OfficeBuilding at Albany, N.Y. By M.T.Reynolds, Concrete & Cement, 6:289-293,June, 1915.

A view of the Albany waterfront from the main tower of the D&HBuilding sometime in the 1930's, with the Hudson River Day Line pierat lower left, and the Hudson River Night line pier adjacent tosteamboat. In the Background is the Dunn Memorial Bridge. Thenorthbound passenger train is on D&H tracks leading to the lowerlevel of Albany Union Station, while the tracks to the right presumablylead to the D&H freighthouse and the upper level of Union Station.(Photo collection of Dick Barrett)

The Delaware & Hudson's headquarters offfice building as viewed across thePlaza from the corner of State St. and Broadway in Albany on July 16, 1926.The main tower and the wing to the north (to the left) were built in 1914-1915,while the south wing and south tower (to the right of the main tower) were builtin 1916-1917.The south tower was the home of the Albany Evening Journal.(D&H Collection, New York State Library)