NEWS RELEASE - Preserve Kenwood
Colleen Ryan
Graduates, Advocates Spring Into Action
to Preserve Historic Kenwood Campus
ALBANY, NY – April 8, 2023 – In the aftermath of a devastating fire, a group is mobilizing to protect the designed landscape and remaining buildings at the former Doane Stuart campus in Albany.
Preserve Kenwood is organizing to support the preservation of the historic core of the Kenwood estate – some 50 acres – and its associated historic structures, while working to realize the highest and best use for three large developable parcels on the north, west, and southeast edges of the property – some 25 acres.
“While the main 19th century building is lost, what remains is a treasure of national significance,” said Bill Brandow, a 1991 graduate of Doane Stuart. “We have a brief opportunity to ensure that the site and its historic buildings are preserved for the benefit of all of Albany’s residents.”
Members of Preserve Kenwood believe that as the works of architect Alexander Jackson Davis, the gatehouse and gardener’s cottage on the grounds are of great architectural and historic significance.
“The remarkably intact historic 1840s Kenwood landscape, along with the two remaining A. J. Davis-designed buildings, should be preserved and restored as an amenity that enhances Albany,” said Brandow. “People crave open space opportunities near urban centers. The adjacency of this site to the Albany County Rail Trail along the falls of the Normanskill make this parcel even more valuable as open space.”
The Tudor Gothic villa called Kenwood was built for industrialist and former Albany Mayor Jared Rathbone in the early 1840s. The Society of the Sacred Heart purchased the estate in 1859 and built a new Gothic Revival-style building, incorporating some pieces of the earlier mansion, to house the Female Academy of the Sacred Heart. The private Roman Catholic school later became known as Kenwood Academy.
The Doane Stuart School was created in 1975 when Kenwood Academy merged with the Episcopal St. Agnes School (founded in 1870). The school shared the campus with the Convent of the Sisters of the Sacred Heart until 2009. The buildings have been vacant since.
Alexander Jackson Davis was the leading designer of residential architecture in America during the mid-1800s. Images of the Rathbone mansion were widely published and influenced the trajectory of American architecture. But because of Davis’ peer and sometime-collaborator, A. J. Downing, the designed landscape at Kenwood was among the most widely publicized and influential American landscapes in the fifteen years leading up to the creation of Central Park in New York City.
The group has launched a Facebook page, a website, and a Change.org petition to garner support for their efforts, which will include identifying institutional and governmental partners; mapping the site; and exploring the creation of a historic landscape report and redevelopment master plan.
“The main building, which was the heart of the campus, is irrevocably gone, but the green and leafy soul survived the fire,” said Brandow. “We, the people who loved the whole site, are committed to ensuring that the still-living soul of the campus remains to nourish and inspire future generations. We look forward to the day that we can ‘flip the script’ from an effort to ‘Preserve Kenwood’ and celebrate the creation of a ‘Kenwood Preserve.’”
For more information, visit www.preservekenwood.com .
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