National Register Listing

Church of the Holy Innocents

a.k.a. Church of the Nativity of our Virgin Lady

275 N. Pearl St., Albany, NY

Designed by architect Frank Wills in 1850, the Church of the Holy Innocents is significant as an example of the early Gothic Revival style in architecture. An important feature of the church is its stained glass, designed and made by John Bolton, a major craftsman of stained glass in the nineteenth century.

The Church of the Holy Innocents was the fifth Episcopal parish in Albany. The church building, given by lumber baron William DeWitt as a memorial to his four children, was erected in what was the most fashionable area of Albany during the 1840s and 1850s.
Designed in 1850 by Frank Wills in the early Gothic Revival style, the church is reminiscent of an English country parish church and displays the influence of Pugin on Wills. Wills was a prominent Episcopal architect who is best known for his churches in Canada although he designed several in America as well. The principal stained glass windows were designed and made by John Bolton, who with his brother, William, rediscovered the medieval stained glass technique when it was needed to accompany the growing taste for the medieval style in church architecture. The stained glass windows are fairly rare examples dating from the first phase of the American Gothic Revival.

The church and its chapel form a diminutive complex notable for the rural English church atmosphere which has been skillfully created within an urban context. The site is a reminder of the prosperity which characterized this area of Albany in the middle of the nineteenth century and continues today as a visual focal point for its community. The structure is now used as a Russian Orthodox Church and has some alterations in keeping with this function.

Local significance of the building:
Architecture

Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1978.

The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.