United Traction Company Building
Encyclopedia
The United Traction Company Building is located on Broadway in Albany
, New York, United States. It is a brick building by local architect Marcus T. Reynolds
in the Renaissance Revival architectural style
, constructed at the end of the 19th century. In 1976 it was added to the National Register of Historic Places
. Four years later it was included as a contributing property
when the Downtown Albany
Historic District
was listed on the Register.
It was the headquarters of United Traction, which at the time of its construction operated the city's trolley system. Architecturally it complemented the nearby Union Station, and the two served as the gateway to the city for visitors. Although it eventually switched to operating buses, United Traction remained in the building until the 1950s, when it became part of the Capital District Transportation Authority
. It is currently used for other business purposes.
a block to the east along the Hudson River
. The surrounding neighborhood is a densely developed urban center. To the north of the building is a parking lot; across Broadway is a tall office building used as the headquarters of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
. To the west are some slightly taller commercial buildings. Across Columbia Street is the small Tricentennial Park. The former Albany Union Station is on the southeast. The terrain is level, sloping up on the west side slightly.
Although the building is trapezoid
al, it appears rectangular from the street. It is a two-story steel frame
structure on a stone foundation
faced in beige brick with a flat roof, five bays
along the west (front) elevation on Broadway, and three on the south along Columbia. The two sides facing the streets have ornamentation
in stone and terra cotta
.
On both facades, the windows are recessed in round-arched openings topped by scrolled keystones. Between them are large cartouches
. A decorated frieze
runs below the cornice
which separates the two floors. The second floor functions as a piano nobile
. Its windows are in rectangular recessed openings topped by segmental pediment
s and recessed oval attic windows. All the lower stories have one-over-one double-hung sash window
s. At the roof a corbel
ed cornice above a frieze supports wide overhanging eaves.
The centrally located main entrance is in a slightly projecting pavilion on both stories. It, too, has a recessed round-arched entrance, flanked by cartouches, with a small set of steps. Below them are stone plaques on the foundation with the words "United Traction Company". Its treatment is otherwise the same as the rest of the first story. Above it is a balcony flanked by two round fluted
and hermiculated columns with Corinthian
capitals
ending at the roofline frieze.
Inside the building has been altered considerably, but many original finishes remain under their replacements. The first floor has an oval central hall with a colored marble floor and marble walls with rosette
s. An archway leads to stairs with marble floors and an ornate metal railing. Some rooms on the first floor retain their original stonework, such as patterned floors and wall paneling. The rooms on the upper floors have minimal decoration.
service began in Albany in 1864. The vehicles were operated by the Albany Railway Company, which began to introduce electric trolleys
in 1890. By 1899 it was successful enough to commission Marcus T. Reynolds
to design its headquarters, and around the time it moved in it changed its name to the United Traction Company. His Renaissance Revival design was possibly inspired by an Italian palazzo
. It was a smaller complement to the equally unrestrained Union Station across the intersection, and both buildings were thus the first experience of Albany's architecture for many visitors.
The rise of the automobile led to the decline of trolley systems nationwide. In the 1930s United Traction gradually began to switch from trolleys to buses. The last one was taken out of service in 1946. The company remained in the building until 1950. After later financial struggles, it was one of several private bus companies absorbed into the new, public Capital District Transportation Authority
in the early 1970s. The building is the sole reminder of the company's existence today.
Albany, New York
Albany is the capital city of the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Albany County, and the central city of New York's Capital District. Roughly north of New York City, Albany sits on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River...
, New York, United States. It is a brick building by local architect Marcus T. Reynolds
Marcus T. Reynolds
Marcus Tullius Reynolds was a prominent architect from the Albany, New York area. Born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, he was raised by his aunt in Albany after the death of his mother. He attended Williams College and Columbia University and began his life as an architect in 1893...
in the Renaissance Revival architectural style
Architectural style
Architectural styles classify architecture in terms of the use of form, techniques, materials, time period, region and other stylistic influences. It overlaps with, and emerges from the study of the evolution and history of architecture...
, constructed at the end of the 19th century. In 1976 it was added to the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
. Four years later it was included as a contributing property
Contributing property
In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing resource or contributing property is any building, structure, or object which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic district, listed locally or federally, significant...
when the Downtown Albany
Downtown Albany Historic District
The Downtown Albany Historic District is a 19-block, area of Albany, New York, United States, centered around the junction of State and North and South Pearl streets . It is the oldest settled area of the city, originally planned and settled in the 17th century, and the nucleus of its later...
Historic District
Historic district (United States)
In the United States, a historic district is a group of buildings, properties, or sites that have been designated by one of several entities on different levels as historically or architecturally significant. Buildings, structures, objects and sites within a historic district are normally divided...
was listed on the Register.
It was the headquarters of United Traction, which at the time of its construction operated the city's trolley system. Architecturally it complemented the nearby Union Station, and the two served as the gateway to the city for visitors. Although it eventually switched to operating buses, United Traction remained in the building until the 1950s, when it became part of the Capital District Transportation Authority
Capital District Transportation Authority
The Capital District Transportation Authority is a public benefit organization that provides transportation in the Capital District of New York State...
. It is currently used for other business purposes.
Building
The building sits on a corner lot of just over an acre (4,500 m²) at the northwest corner of Broadway and Columbia Street, one block south of where U.S. Route 9 exits from Interstate 787Interstate 787
Interstate 787 is an auxiliary Interstate Highway in the U.S. state of New York. I-787 is the main highway for those traveling into and out of downtown Albany. The southern terminus is at the Interstate 87/New York State Thruway exit 23 toll plaza southwest of downtown Albany...
a block to the east along the Hudson River
Hudson River
The Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...
. The surrounding neighborhood is a densely developed urban center. To the north of the building is a parking lot; across Broadway is a tall office building used as the headquarters of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation is responsible for the conservation, improvement, and protection of natural resources within the U.S. state of New York. It was founded in 1970, replacing the previous Conservation Department...
. To the west are some slightly taller commercial buildings. Across Columbia Street is the small Tricentennial Park. The former Albany Union Station is on the southeast. The terrain is level, sloping up on the west side slightly.
Although the building is trapezoid
Trapezoid
In Euclidean geometry, a convex quadrilateral with one pair of parallel sides is referred to as a trapezoid in American English and as a trapezium in English outside North America. A trapezoid with vertices ABCD is denoted...
al, it appears rectangular from the street. It is a two-story steel frame
Steel frame
Steel frame usually refers to a building technique with a "skeleton frame" of vertical steel columns and horizontal -beams, constructed in a rectangular grid to support the floors, roof and walls of a building which are all attached to the frame...
structure on a stone foundation
Foundation (architecture)
A foundation is the lowest and supporting layer of a structure. Foundations are generally divided into two categories: shallow foundations and deep foundations.-Shallow foundations:...
faced in beige brick with a flat roof, five bays
Bay (architecture)
A bay is a unit of form in architecture. This unit is defined as the zone between the outer edges of an engaged column, pilaster, or post; or within a window frame, doorframe, or vertical 'bas relief' wall form.-Defining elements:...
along the west (front) elevation on Broadway, and three on the south along Columbia. The two sides facing the streets have ornamentation
Ornament (architecture)
In architecture and decorative art, ornament is a decoration used to embellish parts of a building or object. Large figurative elements such as monumental sculpture and their equivalents in decorative art are excluded from the term; most ornament does not include human figures, and if present they...
in stone and terra cotta
Architectural terracotta
Terracotta, in its unglazed form, became fashionable as an architectural ceramic construction material in England in the 1860s, and in the United States in the 1870s. It was generally used to supplement brick and tiles of similar colour in late Victorian buildings.It had been used before this in...
.
On both facades, the windows are recessed in round-arched openings topped by scrolled keystones. Between them are large cartouches
Cartouche (design)
A cartouche is an oval or oblong design with a slightly convex surface, typically edged with ornamental scrollwork. It is used to hold a painted or low relief design....
. A decorated frieze
Frieze
thumb|267px|Frieze of the [[Tower of the Winds]], AthensIn architecture the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Even when neither columns nor pilasters are expressed, on an astylar wall it lies upon...
runs below the cornice
Cornice
Cornice molding is generally any horizontal decorative molding that crowns any building or furniture element: the cornice over a door or window, for instance, or the cornice around the edge of a pedestal. A simple cornice may be formed just with a crown molding.The function of the projecting...
which separates the two floors. The second floor functions as a piano nobile
Piano nobile
The piano nobile is the principal floor of a large house, usually built in one of the styles of classical renaissance architecture...
. Its windows are in rectangular recessed openings topped by segmental pediment
Pediment
A pediment is a classical architectural element consisting of the triangular section found above the horizontal structure , typically supported by columns. The gable end of the pediment is surrounded by the cornice moulding...
s and recessed oval attic windows. All the lower stories have one-over-one double-hung sash window
Sash window
A sash window or hung sash window is made of one or more movable panels or "sashes" that form a frame to hold panes of glass, which are often separated from other panes by narrow muntins...
s. At the roof a corbel
Corbel
In architecture a corbel is a piece of stone jutting out of a wall to carry any superincumbent weight. A piece of timber projecting in the same way was called a "tassel" or a "bragger". The technique of corbelling, where rows of corbels deeply keyed inside a wall support a projecting wall or...
ed cornice above a frieze supports wide overhanging eaves.
The centrally located main entrance is in a slightly projecting pavilion on both stories. It, too, has a recessed round-arched entrance, flanked by cartouches, with a small set of steps. Below them are stone plaques on the foundation with the words "United Traction Company". Its treatment is otherwise the same as the rest of the first story. Above it is a balcony flanked by two round fluted
Fluting (architecture)
Fluting in architecture refers to the shallow grooves running vertically along a surface.It typically refers to the grooves running on a column shaft or a pilaster, but need not necessarily be restricted to those two applications...
and hermiculated columns with Corinthian
Corinthian order
The Corinthian order is one of the three principal classical orders of ancient Greek and Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric and Ionic. When classical architecture was revived during the Renaissance, two more orders were added to the canon, the Tuscan order and the Composite order...
capitals
Capital (architecture)
In architecture the capital forms the topmost member of a column . It mediates between the column and the load thrusting down upon it, broadening the area of the column's supporting surface...
ending at the roofline frieze.
Inside the building has been altered considerably, but many original finishes remain under their replacements. The first floor has an oval central hall with a colored marble floor and marble walls with rosette
Rosette (design)
A rosette is a round, stylized flower design, used extensively in sculptural objects from antiquity. Appearing in Mesopotamia and used to decorate the funeral stele in Ancient Greece...
s. An archway leads to stairs with marble floors and an ornate metal railing. Some rooms on the first floor retain their original stonework, such as patterned floors and wall paneling. The rooms on the upper floors have minimal decoration.
History
Horse-drawn trolleyHorsecar
A horsecar or horse-drawn tram is an animal-powered streetcar or tram.These early forms of public transport developed out of industrial haulage routes that had long been in existence, and from the omnibus routes that first ran on public streets in the 1820s, using the newly improved iron or steel...
service began in Albany in 1864. The vehicles were operated by the Albany Railway Company, which began to introduce electric trolleys
Streetcars in North America
Electric streetcars—trams outside North America—once were the chief mode of public transit in scores of North American cities. Most municipal systems were dismantled in the mid-20th century....
in 1890. By 1899 it was successful enough to commission Marcus T. Reynolds
Marcus T. Reynolds
Marcus Tullius Reynolds was a prominent architect from the Albany, New York area. Born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, he was raised by his aunt in Albany after the death of his mother. He attended Williams College and Columbia University and began his life as an architect in 1893...
to design its headquarters, and around the time it moved in it changed its name to the United Traction Company. His Renaissance Revival design was possibly inspired by an Italian palazzo
Palazzo
Palazzo, an Italian word meaning a large building , may refer to:-Buildings:*Palazzo, an Italian type of building**Palazzo style architecture, imitative of Italian palazzi...
. It was a smaller complement to the equally unrestrained Union Station across the intersection, and both buildings were thus the first experience of Albany's architecture for many visitors.
The rise of the automobile led to the decline of trolley systems nationwide. In the 1930s United Traction gradually began to switch from trolleys to buses. The last one was taken out of service in 1946. The company remained in the building until 1950. After later financial struggles, it was one of several private bus companies absorbed into the new, public Capital District Transportation Authority
Capital District Transportation Authority
The Capital District Transportation Authority is a public benefit organization that provides transportation in the Capital District of New York State...
in the early 1970s. The building is the sole reminder of the company's existence today.