On January 16, 2018, the National Register of Historic Places officially designated the 1896 St. Casimir’s Catholic Church and adjacent rectory, along with its 1905 School and 1924, Convent to the nation’s official list of properties worthy of preservation. As the city’s newest historic district, it is recognized that these properties hold significant importance to the history of our county architecturally as representative works of some of the city’s most prominent architects and architectural styles prevalent for their era, but more importantly for its social history as the nucleus of Albany’s immigrant Polish community who settled on and around Sheridan Avenue after leaving Poland in the 1870s. This recognition and the official listing breathes new life and provides security for a better future for this campus of buildings that was closed by the Diocese in 2004 and has been vacant since 2009 for the most part.
In 2015, local housing developer and social services provider, Interfaith Partnership for the Homeless (IPH), purchased the three-story school from the Albany Diocese, followed by the purchase of the adjacent convent in 2017. IPH was the sponsor of the National Register nomination and, as a result of the listing, will be eligible to pursue the use and syndication of Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credits (https://www.nps.gov/tps/tax-incentives.htm).
Landmark Consulting is working with IPH to design the adaptive reuse of both buildings to be a new neighborhood hub offering “Community Connections, Healthy Connections,” a health & wellness center sponsored by MVP Health Care, and apartments for formerly homeless individuals. The vision is to revitalize more of Sheridan Avenue through continued investment in its buildings and programs. While the church and the rectory are currently unused, it is the hope of this recent landmark designation that new owners will be encouraged to follow IPH’s lead to further the vision for Sheridan Ave’s full revitalization.