Preserve Kenwood

04/08/2026

Today marks the third anniversary of Preserve Kenwood. From the start our goal was a straightforward one - to engage civic leaders and community groups in proactively planning for a better future for the Kenwood site.

In the past three years there has been far too little progress. While spring normally brings new hope for a brighter tomorrow, as time passes, it becomes increasingly difficult to draw attention to this neglected site, and all of the missed opportunities it represents.

07/27/2025

"Long before modern architects preached harmony with nature, Alexander Jackson Davis was quietly building it into every detail. For this 19th-century visionary, architecture was more than construction; it was about composition. His work — including several buildings in the Capital Region — sought to balance style with setting, resulting in distinctive designs tailored to their landscapes and purpose." Check out the front-page article about AJ Davis and his work in the Sunday Times Union. Author Shannon Fromma reached out to Bill Brandow about Preserve Kenwood's efforts to save the remaining structures and grounds of the Kenwood estate, which Brandow calls "the most important cultural landscape in the city of Albany.”

https://archive.ph/K4BSN

06/10/2025

Finally some acknowledgment that this situation needs to change. This is good news, but only if Albany County proceeds expeditiously.

The Kenwood tract cannot be treated like just another parcel. We’ll be right back where we started!

Preserve Kenwood was founded to advocate for, and assist with, this eventuality. The past several years should have been spent getting ready for this, but we need to look forward.

Together, we can make good things happen on this unique and significant property! Let’s go!

https://archive.ph/l5Zoq

Preserve Kenwood is committed to protecting the designed landscape and remaining buildings at the former Doane Stuart campus in Albany.

04/20/2025

Amid the needless desolation, and the interminable wait for an unknown future, the hillsides at Kenwood are a riot of daffodils. Kenwood has always been beautiful in springtime!

04/02/2025

Another story about Kenwood. Hopefully, at some point, this ongoing saga will get a longer and more detailed story.

Whether you remember it as the former Kenwood convent or Doane Stuart school on March 23rd, 2023, the Albany skyline forever changed when a fire destroyed the historical site. The blaze left behind…

03/22/2025

Unfortunately, this article fails to mention the importance of the site from a historical and design perspective. With $8 million wrapped up in the property, the citizens of Albany County have every reason to expect something better.

The current proposal sounds remarkablely similar to the last one. The major differences is that someone burned down the main building while the current and former owners sqabled over ownership, and their mutual failed investments in the property.

Given the facts, it’s difficult to envision a positive outcome.

The next steps for the former Kenwood Convent site remain murky two years after a raging fire destroyed the historic former religious center and school.

02/10/2025

The last line from today’s New York Times article about NYS’s $400 million investment in Albany: “Let’s go, let’s not spend two years trying to figure it out.”

Meanwhile, on the other side of town, it would have been great if we’d spent the last two years “trying to figure out” what to do at Kenwood Instead, another two years have passed without planning or progress.

01/02/2025

As 2025 dawns, a new chapter begins in the ongoing saga of the forlorn Kenwood site.

The past year should have been a pivotal one for the property. Instead, another 365 days passed without any meaningful progress.

As of today, Albany County is obligated to pay the City of Albany nearly a quarter-million-dollars for another year of back-taxes. Perhaps that unfortunate financial burden will spur a new spirit of cooperation - on all sides.

Preserve Kenwood remains optimistic, and resolute in our belief that the opportunities presented by the current situation are too great, and too obvious, to be ignored any longer.

Here’s hoping that this year is the pivotal one in the Kenwood saga that last year might have been.

We’ll keep you posted…

10/07/2024

Today marks a year-and-a-half since Preserve Kenwood was founded on the belief that the March 2023 fire represented an opportunity to begin a new chapter for the site - to move beyond the stagnation and missed opportunities of the past.

The loss of the main building was profound, but the beautiful building was never the main attraction at Kenwood , nor its most historically important feature. Kenwood’s site - the most historical important designed landscape in Albany County - was always Kenwood’s greatest draw. And it is still waiting to be saved!

The delay has cost $500.00 taxpayer dollars a day, and led to further deterioration of the remaining 1840s buildings, but the opportunity is still there for the taking. The County must act! Preserve Kenwood will continue to advocate at every opportunity for a positive outcome.

07/14/2024

Yesterday, the old Rathbone & Sard foundry burned and was quickly demolished. The building dated to the 1830s and stood near the then-recently-opened Erie Canal, north of downtown. Not long after this building was built the foundry’s owner built the Kenwood estate, just south of Albany.

The remaining buildings and designed landscape at Kenwood must be preserved. Albany’s history is being lost at an alarming rate.

06/15/2024

An additional $6,500 of taxpayers’ money has been committed* to payments in lieu of taxes since this was posted less than two weeks ago.

*if the owner fails to pay this years taxes, which is almost certain to happen.