ALBANY — In the aftermath of the Kenwood Academy fire, which ravaged the historic site and reduced its main former convent building to rubble, a group of advocates have organized to preserve what’s left of the campus.
A group dubbed Preserve Kenwood has launched a Facebook page, website and a Change.org petition to garner support for the preservation of the historic site and its remaining structures that survived last month’s devastating blaze.
“While the main 19th-century building is lost, what remains is a treasure of national significance,” Bill Brandow, a 1991 graduate of Doane Stuart School, said in a press release. Doane Stuart long-occupied the campus. “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.”
The group hopes to safeguard remaining buildings and transform the 50 acres of green space into a publicly accessible natural area, habitat for wildlife and restorative resource for residents of the South End. Among their primary focuses are the gatehouse and gardener’s cottage designed by Alexander Jackson Davis, a leading American architect during the mid-1800s. The gatehouse structure is visible to the public as it’s right off South Pearl Street, guarding what was once the lower entrance to the property. Situated between the old orchard and the terraced lawns further into the property is the gardener’s cottage, which Brandow described as having strong gothic revival detailing intended to be a visually pleasing part of the detailed landscape.
Brandow said the estate’s designed landscape was one of the most widely publicized and influential American landscapes of its time and, along with the two remaining buildings, “should be preserved and restored as an amenity that enhances Albany.”
He added that both buildings are in relatively good…
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