Arbor Hill Courts

The Arbor Hill Historic District–Ten Broeck Triangle is located within the Arbor Hill neighborhood of Albany, New York, United States. It is a seven-block area north of downtown. In 1979 its current eastern section, the Ten Broeck Triangle, the second oldest residential neighborhood in the city, was recognized as a historic district and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Four years later, it was increased to its current size. The future district was first established by its oldest contributing property, the Ten Broeck Mansion, built at the end of the 18th century by a prominent local family. It lent its name to the Ten Broeck Triangle, established in the middle of the following century when successful businessmen, primarily lumber dealers, built large houses along Ten Broeck Avenue with the fortunes they had made from trade on the Erie Canal. It was one of the first neighborhoods to develop north of the city's downtown as it grew during the 19th century. Its fortunes began to slip as the city expanded westward, to new neighborhoods like Washington Park which attracted the city's affluent. As the 20th century began, it gradually became a more middle-class neighborhood, then, after the Great Migration, predominantly African American. As an effective racial ghetto, the neighborhood and its historic buildings suffered the effects of disinvestment and decline. The designation of the historic district, and other efforts by preservationists later in the century, have helped reverse that trend, though not completely. Over 200 buildings are listed as contributing properties. Most were built between the 1840s and 1870s. They are a mix of rowhouses and detached houses. The largest and oldest, the Ten Broeck Mansion, is also the only property in the district listed on the Register individually. It also includes two churches, reflecting a later popularity with immigrants, including St. Joseph's Church.