Mansion Neighborhood House & Garden Tour, Festival of American Music, Summer In The City Youth Talent Exhibition and more!

Historic Albany Foundation (HAF) has some interesting events coming up this fall:

Tiptoe through the gardens of the Mansion Neighborhood on their House & Garden Tour, Sunday 7, 2008. Join us noon-5pm, rain or shine, for a tour of stunning mid-1800’s architecture, classic interiors and imaginative gardens. Tickets are available at several places including here at the HAF offices (check the list of sellers on our website http://historic-albany.org/mansion.html). Or purchase tickets the day of the tour at Bleecker Park, corner of Madison Avenue and Eagle Street. Pre-sale tickets are $17, day of are $20. For more information call 465-0876 x10.


Thanks to Thisbe Nissen of Woodstock and her mention of HAF’s Architectural Parts Warehouse in her article documenting the restoration of her historic home, HAF is in this month's issue of Preservation magazine. Preservation magazine is the bi-monthly publication of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Check out the article online here: http://www.preservationnation.org/magazine/2008/september-october/place-nissen-house.html.

St. Joseph’s Church in the Ten Broeck neighborhood will host another fabulous concert with ARIA (formerly Albany Ensemble) on September 28, 2008 at 4pm with special guests, national renowned pianist Lincoln Mayorga and singer/songwriter Sheri Mayorga. The Festival of American Music will highlight the works of two prominent American composers: George Gershwin and Scott Joplin. With Lincoln Mayorga at the piano, Gershwin’s renowned Rhapsody In Blue will be the featured presentation. ARIA artists will present selections from Scott Joplin’s ragtime opera Treemonisha and other classic, jazz and folk works from great American composers. Sheri Mayorga will present her original music and American folk tunes. Tickets are $30 at the door. For more information contact 465-0876 x10 or 432-0849 or email info@allegrorep.com

St. Joseph’s is a busy busy place these days. HAF will be hosting the 2008 Summer In The City Youth Talent Exhibition as part of 1st Friday on October 3, 2008. The Summer In The City Exhibition will celebrate the accomplishments of young people in Arbor Hill, showcasing performing arts, multimedia, poetry, cultural and political knowledge projects and more created during the summer of 2008. The Summer in the City program was founded in 2004 by the College of Saint Rose American Studies Program to help inform Arbor Hill families about summer programs for youth with an emphasis on cultural and educational activities. For more information contact HAF at 465-0876 x10.

HAF is so close to finishing the $300,000 matching grant from the NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. If everyone who’s helped HAF with St. Joseph’s gave only $38 dollars HAF would be all set. So please check out HAF's website and send your check today! http://historic-albany.org/stjoes-donate.html

If you would like to see preservation in action in a possibly precedent-setting case here in Albany then go to the Court of Appeals on Wednesday, September 3, 2008 at 3:30 pm to hear the case of St. Brigid’s vs. the Archdiocese of New York. The Committee to Save St. Brigid’s was able to get a court injunction in 2006 to stop the demolition of the historic Irish Famine Church designed by Patrick Keely. Patrick Keely is the architect of Albany's Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception and St. Joseph’s Church. It is thought that St. Brigid’s is the oldest Keely church still standing of the 600 or so he designed. To get more information visit www.savestbrigid.com. The Committee to Save St. Brigid’s would love to see the courtroom packed so head on down and support historic preservation. Look out for HAF Executive Director, Susan Holland. She’ll be there!

Take an architectural trip with the Turpin Bannister Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians, September 20-21, 2008 with a bus trip to Newport, Rhode Island. Newport is lousy with beautiful architecture, particularly the grand estates of the gilded age built in the second half of the 19th Century. The cost of the trip is only $280.50, per person, sharing a double room; a single supplement of $35 will be added for a single. Contact Ned Pratt with questions or reservation at 432-0220 or nedprat66@aol.com HURRY RESERVATIONS NEED TO BE MADE BY AUGUST 29TH. SO CALL NOW!

2009 is a major year for Albanians. Not only is it the 400th anniversary of that fateful landing of Henry Hudson, but it is the 35th anniversary HAF. Not so long ago hundreds of buildings were demolished for the South Mall (Empire State Plaza for the young’uns). With more demolitions slated for the Hudson/Park and Center Square neighborhood, a group of residents organized to save the buildings and so was the birth of Historic Albany Foundation.