Fleischmanns building nominated for historic registers

Jun. 17—A Delaware County building has been nominated for inclusion on the state and national registers of historic places.

Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Friday, June 17, that the state Board for Historic Preservation has recommended adding 23 properties to the registers. The nominated properties include two Buffalo schools where a local Black Power organization developed its own curriculum, a Catskill retreat for Jewish elites, and the facility of a Western New York Prohibition-era bootlegging company. The state board has also recommended adding documentation of the slaveholding activities of the Revolutionary War general, U.S. Senator, and prominent regional landholder Philip J. Schuyler to the designation of his Albany home and state historic site, Schuyler Mansion.

Locally the Max and Johanna Fleischmann House in the Delaware County village of Fleischmanns was nominated.

According to a media release from Hochul's office, the property (now known as Spillian) is the only surviving house of six summer "cottages" used by the Fleischmann family of Cincinnati, Ohio, and New York City.

"The Fleischmann family had an enormous impact on recreational development in this area of Delaware County and encouraged other late nineteenth century leading figures in arts, business and politics to summer in the Catskills," the release said. The house was built in 1886 and "is an exceptionally intact example of a Gilded Age summer 'cottage' in the Stick and Shingle style," according to the release.

"In New York, our diversity is our strength and I am very excited to see New Yorkers across the state are so actively engaged in preserving our heritage," Hochul said. "These diverse additions to the historic registers will help ensure resources are available to protect historic sites so that the past can continue to inspire us today — and into the future."

Listing on the state and national registers can assist owners in revitalizing properties, making them eligible for various public preservation programs and services, such as matching state grants and state and federal historic rehabilitation tax credits, the release said.

Commissioner of the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation Erik Kulleseid said, "One of State Parks' most exciting functions is helping to preserve and promote New York's history. Securing State and National Registers recognition for such places provides resources and other potential incentives, such as state and federal tax credits, that will help keep this history alive and vibrant."

Over the last decade, according to the release, the state has approved the use of rehabilitation commercial tax credits for more than 1,000 historic properties, driving more than $12 billion in private investment. National Park Service research on the tax credits indicates that between 2015 and 2019, the credits issued to New York sites generated 67,578 jobs nationally and more than $195 million in local, state and federal taxes.

The New York State and National Registers are the official lists of buildings, structures, districts, landscapes, objects, and sites significant in the history, architecture, archaeology, and culture of the state and the nation, the release said. Individually or as components of historic districts, New York has more than 120,000 historic properties listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Property owners, municipalities, and organizations from communities across the state sponsored the nominations.

Once recommendations are approved by the commissioner, who serves as the state historic preservation officer, the properties are listed on the State Register of Historic Places and nominated to the National Register of Historic Places, where they are reviewed and, once approved, entered on the National Register.