Rice Building

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Coordinates: 42°43′52″N 73°41′35″W / 42.731006°N 73.693144°W / 42.731006; -73.693144
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Not to be confused with The Rice (Houston).
Rice Building
Victorian Gothic
Part ofCentral Troy Historic District (ID86001527)

The Rice Building, originally known as the Hall Building for Benjamin Homer Hall who built it, is a triangular historic high

Vaux and Withers, the partnership between Calvert Vaux and Frederick Clarke Withers[2][3] after the death in a steamboat accident of Andrew Jackson Downing. More recent scholarship by a professor suggests George B. Post was the building's architect.[4] It is part of the Central Troy Historic District
.

Originally 6 stories with 3 towers on the roof, a fire damaged the top floor and it was removed along with the towers. In more recent decades, the building fell into disrepair after it was foreclosed on in the 1980s. An effort to save it was launched and it was restored in the 1990s. A nonprofit entity called Rice Building Incorporated was created to turn it into a business incubator center. With support from State Senator Joseph Bruno, New York State provided $2 million for the project. The architecture firm Lepera & Ward headed the project.[3] Ganem Contracting was also involved in the project and photographed the work and many architectural details.[5] The origins of the name Rice Building are not known.[6]

Benjamin Homer Hall

The building was originally known as the Hall Building for attorney and poet Benjamin Homer Hall (November 14, 1830 - April 6,1893)[1][3][7] who had it built. Hall was educated at Harvard University and served as City Clerk of Troy. The building may have been an inspiration for New York City's Flatiron Building. [8] Hall wrote A Collection of College Works and Customs (ca. 1850), History of Eastern Vermont, from its Earliest Settlement to the Close of the Eighteenth Century (1858), and Bibliography of the United States (1860).[7] He married Margaret McCoun Lane, the daughter of Jacob L. Lane of Troy. [7]

A collection of his and his father Daniel Hall's papers include correspondence with

Rensselaer Institute), Edward Everett, William H. Seward, Hamilton Fish, Robert Todd Lincoln, Horatio Seymour, William L. Marcy, John E. Wool, and Asa Fitch.[7]

Fire

The upper floor and roof towers were damaged by a fire in 1913[3] 1916,[4] or 1920 (when a fire struck River Street),[9] depending on the source.

Other information

The building was constructed on the site of Lane's Row

voussoirs.[15] A plan to restore the building to its original aspect with architectural features including the towers was proposed by Joseph Michael Kelly, Architect and Engineer in 2015.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b Mandat, Laura Christine (September 1999). "Rice Building to nourish young business". Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
  2. ^ "Vaux & Withers - Companies". EMPORIS GMBH. Archived from the original on October 4, 2018.
  3. ^ a b c d "Rice Building :: Archival Image & Media Collection". Art Institute of Chicago.
  4. ^ a b c Anderson, Eric (31 August 2015). "New owners may restore spires edifice lost to fire". Times Union.
  5. ^ "Rice Building". Ganem Contracting Corporation.
  6. ISBN 9780738599342
    .
  7. ^ a b c d "Benjamin Homer Hall Papers: Manuscripts and Special Collections: New York State Library". www.nysl.nysed.gov.
  8. ^ "Home - Tai Ventures". Tai Ventures, LLC.
  9. ^ a b Robarge, Mark (January 9, 2017). "Nonprofits to share in proceeds of Rice Building sale". Troy Record.
  10. ISBN 9780738557557
    .
  11. ^ "NEB&W Guide to Troy, NY Not Modeled - Rice Building - NEB&W Railroad Heritage Website".
  12. ^ "Rice Building, Troy, NY (etching)". New York Heritage.
  13. City of Troy
    .
  14. ^ content://media/external/file/348569
  15. ^ Franco, Jim (October 11, 2014). "T-Spin: Rice Building to change hands".
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