Sandy Horowitz and I proposed restoring the Gingerbread House back in 2004 when RPI published an RFP to move it or tear it down.

This was the response from RPI’s Barbara Nelson to us and to Dean Alan Balfour, dated February 27, 2004.

“Thank you for submitting your proposals to restore the Warren Gate House. We are encouraged by the caliber of both proposals.

“Returning the building to its original location on Congress Street has been Rensselaer’s objective for several years now, and we are pleased to see a revitalization of that effort. We ask that Sandy Horowitz, Don Rittner, and the Friends of Prospect Park Association develop their proposal further and submit details for our review. We also offer that Rensselaer will fund up to $25,000 of the actual relocation cost.

“Should the relocation project prove infeasible, then the building will be used to support the School of Architecture’s space needs for the Conservation Master’s Program. We are pleased to have this excellent fallback plan to ensure the building will not be demolished.

“In either case, it cannot remain at its current location past July 2004. Utilities work related to the Institute’s electrical substations is necessary in the lands surrounding and under the house. If assigned to the School of Architecture, it will be moved up College Avenue, closer to Academy Hall.

“We are hopeful that the Conservation Master’s Program will be a resource to Mr. Horowitz’s restoration team. Should relocation to the park not be possible within the July 2004 time frame, then it will be moved here on campus in August for the Conservation Master’s Program.

“Attached is a suggested format for the project management details. Mr. Horowitz and Mr. Rittner are asked to develop this project management plan and coordinate its review through Barb Nelson so that a sales agreement can be executed as soon as possible.

“Thank you all for your interest in the preservation of this property.”

It never happened, and I have been trying to contact Sandy to see why. Not sure what the ‘Friends” group did. I think it was because Sandy was basically run out of town for not playing the political game (He used to always say to me, “I’m Sandy Horowitz, I don’t give a fk what they tell me”).

Question to RPI. Why did you not restore it and use it for the Conservation Master’s Program as written? I’m also curious why it would have moved to Academy Hall (the old School 14) on the 15th.

It remained vacant and deteriorating for 22 more years, with no interest by the school to restore it further, even though in recent times, local people talked to the school about restoring it.

So, RPI had for decades warned us — move it, or we will tear it down. They lived up to their word.

My question now is, when will RPI tear down the Church of the Holy Cross and the Warren Institute building? The church was founded by Mary Warren in the early 1840s with her son, Nathan B. Warren (same family that owned the Gingerbread House)? Parts of it (Nave) were designed by Davis in 1844, the same architect as the Gingerbread.

The Mary Warren Free Institute was built adjoining the church to the south and created as an educational, spiritual, and musical institution for poor Troy girls. It opened at that location in 1862. The school, which taught grades 1 to 8, closed in the 1960s. The Institute was still in business until 2009, then RPI acquired it.

The church has been vacant for years since. It’s on the National Register, so my guess is RPI is waiting for a wall to collapse so they can tear that down, too. Then they will have completed eradicating every 19th-century building that stood on the eastern side of Eighth Street. Obviously, you don’t want all these 19th-century derelict buildings blocking your view.

How did this get by any historical review by the city? Did the city engineer visit the site? Was the building repairable or really falling down?

I should mention the Van Rensselaer Manor stones going to waste over at Rensselaer Park. Years ago, William Bayard Van Rensselaer initially planned to remove one wing of the Albany Patroon’s Manor House to make room for the New York Central Railroad. His cousin, Marcus T. Reynolds (Williams Class of 1890), convinced him that it would be better to remove the house completely rather than make a major alteration.

Reynolds, a brand-new architect, later designed many iconic Albany buildings. He devised a method of preserving the house and making it his fraternity, Sigma Phi. He transported historic exterior pieces of the old manor house to Williamstown and designed a new Sigma Phi house.

Historical interior details of the original manor house were given to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The fraternity was destroyed in 1973. Not sure how RPI got the foundation and facade stones, but they did. Years ago, I wrote to President Shirley Jackson and asked her if I could use them and make a historic park at the Tech Park. The Van Rensselaer family, along with Amos Eaton, founded RPI. I was ghosted.

In the early 2000’s, a friend of mine called me frantically. The geology department was tossing all their rock and fossil collections out the back window for the dump. She and I went up and filled our cars until they almost bottomed out and salvaged them. Many of these were probably collected by Amos Eaton, the FOUNDER of RPI!!!

I never got an answer to why! Ironic since I often visited the geology museum in West Hall to look at all the fossils and rocks, and it encouraged my interest in science when I was a kid.

Finally, when I was growing up on 8th Street and playing on the hills of RPI, I would brag to my friends that I would be a student there someday. They laughed. My family was working class and knew I could never afford it. But I beat the odds and received my Master’s Degree in Urban and Environmental Planning. I often boasted about that.

Got History? Don is the author of a dozen books about his hometown. You can reach him at drittner@aol.com

© The Saratogian