Preservation League 50th Anniversary

The Preservation League was founded in 1974. Join us as we celebrate our 50th anniversary throughout 2024.

In mid-1973, preservationists from across the state gathered for a weekend in the southern Albany County hamlet of Rensselaerville at the urging of the New York State Council on the Arts. Through their discussions they came to the conclusion that New York needed a private organization to provide a clear, unified voice for preservation across the State. The Preservation League of NYS was incorporated in March 1974.

At its founding, the organization’s purpose was to communicate preservation ideals and help shape federal, state, and local policies to encourage the protection, sensitive use, and creative reuse of historic properties. All that remains true. But in the intervening 50 years, the League has taken its mandate of being a statewide leader seriously, and in that vein, has continued to push itself — and the field — forward.

Now as we celebrate our 50th Anniversary, we are excited to celebrate all that we have accomplished over the past 50 years — but we are even more excited to look ahead at how we continue to evolve over the next 50. We hope you will join us…

Stories From Our 50 Years

Featured
A Proclamation in Albany
A Proclamation in Albany

On Wednesday, March 27, alongside our colleagues at Historic Albany Foundation (who are also celebrating their 50th Anniversary!) the League received a proclamation from Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan. In addition to the Mayor, we were honored that both Congressman Paul D. Tonko and NYS Assemblymember John T. McDonald were on hand to show their support. Relationships with elected officials like Rep. Tonko and AM McDonald are essential to our statewide work and we are grateful for their continued support of historic preservation in NYS.

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Relive our 2024 Pillar of New York Awards
Relive our 2024 Pillar of New York Awards

On Thursday, March 14, we hosted a festive evening in New York’s iconic Rainbow Room for our 50th anniversary Pillar of New York Awards. In addition to our wonderful honorees and their guests, the room was filled with League Trustees and members of the Trustees Council, historic preservation students and recent grads, and great friends and supporters of preservation.

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25 Years of Seven to Save
25 Years of Seven to Save

Since we first began drawing attention to at-risk places with a Seven to Save designation, some places have been lost, some are still endangered, and others have gone on to be remarkable success stories. There are lessons to be learned in all three cases. For our anniversary year, we wanted to look at the program with a thematic retrospective – highlighting seven themes we’ve seen pop up in our listings over the past 25 years. Over the course of the year, we’ll be digging into our STS archive to highlight places across the state that help tell a broader story of preservation in New York. In this post we are teasing the themes we’re going to be looking at more deeply later in the year. We hope you’ll follow along!

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A Look at the League's First 50 Years
A Look at the League's First 50 Years

A lot has happened over the League’s 50-year history and we wanted to share some of the highlights that have led our organization to where it is today. This timeline gives you a broad overview of the League’s first 50 years, from our founding in 1974 to today. We’ll be digging into at least of few of these stories in more detail over the coming months as we continue to mark our 50th Anniversary. In the meantime, we hope you enjoy this infographic look at the League’s half century of preservation work in NYS!

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Introducing the Preservation Opportunity Fund
Introducing the Preservation Opportunity Fund

The Preservation League of New York State is thrilled to be starting its 50th Anniversary year with a brand-new grant opportunity for New York nonprofits. Organizations with an ownership interest in, or a long-term lease of, a historic property requiring preservation, restoration, or rehabilitation, are invited to apply for the inaugural year of funding for the League’s new capital grant program.

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50th Anniversary Artwork
50th Anniversary Artwork

In thinking about all the ways we might mark our 50th Anniversary this year, we knew we wanted to work with a local artist to create something for the occasion. Albany-based illustrator Cara Hanley came immediately to mind. But how can you distill 50 years of work into a single graphic, especially covering an area as large as New York State? You can’t! But we wanted to take inspiration from some of the incredible places we’ve been lucky enough to work with over the years, representing iconic building types — an Adirondack Great Camp, rowhouses, a church, a barn — to get a feel for the kind of historic places that make up the fabric of NYS. We had no shortage of ideas to pull from, but here’s a breakdown of the real places Cara was inspired by in her final illustration.

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