Arbor Hill Historic District-Ten Broeck Triangle

Built by Albany's "lumber barons" and other Industrialists during the latter half of the nineteenth century, this self-contained residential enclave clustered around two parks and a Catholic church survives today as a significant concentration of urban residential architecture. Still visually coherent, the Ten Broeck Historic District contains no modern intrusions, and only two small gaps (on First Street and Ten Broeck Street) break the continuous urban streetscapes which line the three sides of this triangular-shaped district.

Aloof from the Victorian row houses and parks which constitute much of the district, the Ten Broeck Mansion (1797-98) is set on its own spacious grounds in the northwest corner of the district. This hand some Federal style house was built for Abraham Ten Broeck, a prominent Revolutionary War figure, delegate to the Continental Congress and later State Senator and Mayor of Albany. The entire district which now bears his name was once undeveloped land surrounding the mansion, which commanded an unobstructed view down to the Hudson River.

In 1764 Stephen Van Rensselaer designated the land now known as Van Rensselaer Park as a burial ground for all Inhabitants of the manor of Rensselaerwyck. Eighty years later, in 1845, the relocation of this small, neglected cemetery was a turning point in the development of the Ten Broeck area as a fashionable residential quarter. By that time Ten Broeck Street, First Street, Second Street, and Ten Broeck Place had been laid out near Clinton Avenue, but were only beginning to be developed. According to a contemporary account, the ground of the cemetery "was much higher than the adjoining streets and lots; the soil loose and sandy, was easily washed away and hence from time to time the coffins and bones of the dead were exposed." One of the leading advocates of the removal of this old burying ground was Joseph Hall for whom Hall Place was named when opened up in 1849. Hall, a gardener, lived around the comer at 16 Ten Broeck Place (then known as Third Street).

The landscaping improvements of the 1840's gave rise to the prodigious development of the Ten Broeck area in the 1850's, during which over one-third of the district's one hundred houses were built, including most of those on Hall Place and First Street. In 1855, ground was broken for the monumental Catholic church in the center of the district, designed by noted ecclesiastical architect, Patrick Keeley of Brooklyn. When completed, St. Joseph's rivaled Keeley's other Albany work, the Cathedral of Immaculate Conception (1848-52, National Register) on the south side of the city. During the period 1850-1870, the newly-developed neighborhood became known as "Millionaire's Row," famous as the home of rich lumber merchant families with names such as Hubbell, Crannell, and Thomas. Their homes overlooked the lumber yards on the banks of the Hudson River.

The Ten Broeck District remained popular through the 1890's, when former Albany Mayor, Michael Nolan and many prosperous merchants continued to live here. St. Joseph's Terrace was laid out in 1881 and subdivided in 1891. The two well-proportioned apartment buildings constructed here in the early twentieth century illustrate the shift from large single-family houses to smaller dwelling units in this part of Albany. By the 1920's, most of the old Ten Broeck area families who had been owner-occupants had moved to the new semi-suburban sections on the fringes of the growing city. Though most of the mid-nineteenth century houses are presently divided into apartments and owned by absentee landlords, the Ten Broeck District retains its architectural integrity and is the focus of private and public rehabilitation projects.