State and National Registers of Historic Places: Rome Residential Historic District
The City of Rome has several historically important properties now listed in the New York State and National Listing on the Register of Historic Places, known as the Rome Residential Historic District. The listing provides additional funding resources to protect and enhance the local Historic and Scenic Preservation District and surrounding historic homes not included in the local district, as well as provide further financial resources for capital improvements for building-owners within the boundary.
What are the State and National Registers of Historic Places?
The State and National Registers are the official lists of properties significant in history, architecture, engineering, landscape design, archeology, and culture. Properties may be significant in local, state and/or national contexts. More than 120,000 properties in New York have received this prestigious recognition.
About the new Rome Residential Historic District
Near the center point of the city, the district is a large, roughly rectangular area tapered at its southern end and centered along North George Street, which extends northeast from the city’s primary commercial core (West Liberty Street). The Rome Residential Historic District abuts the existing Gansevoort-Bellamy Historic District (NR listed in 1975), with both encompassing portions of the local Rome Scenic and Historic Preservation District administered by the City of Rome.
The district encompasses the primary concentration of residential development in Rome beginning in the mid-nineteenth century and extending beyond the early twentieth century. The early village developed rapidly following the construction of the enlarged Erie Canal in the 1840s, was incorporated as a city in 1870, and experienced robust expansion fueled by local industry during its “Copper City” era around the turn of the twentieth century. As the city’s population grew, more land was subdivided into residential lots, and the street grid expanded to either side of the northeasterly axis of North George Street. The district is roughly bound by West Cedar Street to the North, North James Street to the east, West Liberty Street to the south, and North Madison Street to the west, with the east and west boundaries drawn to exclude areas characterized by significant loss of integrity and/or widespread commercial use conversion, and to exclude the Gansevoort-Bellamy Historic District.
Included in the 952 parcel- district are 839 contributing primary buildings that are mostly single and multi-family residential buildings, with several complimentary religious buildings. The architecture reflects vernacular to high-style interpretations of many nineteenth and twentieth century styles including Federal, Greek Revival, Gothic Revival, Italianate, Second Empire, Stick, Queen Anne, Romanesque, Colonial Revival, Tudor Revival, Mission and Spanish Revival, Craftsman, Ranch, and Split-Level. Over two-thirds of the properties include a contributing outbuilding, mostly garages, numbering 358. The proposed district includes only 44 non-contributing primary and 79 noncontributing secondary buildings in reflection of its overall integrity.
Rome Residential Historic District Map
Rome Residential Historic District Address List
Resources for Property Owners in the New District
If you are the owner of a house within the Rome Residential Historic District, you may be eligible for a state historic tax credit equal to 20% of the repair costs through the New York State Historic Homeownership Rehabilitation Credit Program. All of the work must be approved by the Division for Historic Preservation (DHP) before you begin.
Incentives for commercial properties within the new district are available as well. Owners of historic income-producing properties may be eligible for federal and state income tax credits equaling 20%-50% of qualified rehabilitation costs.
Properties within the new district are not subject to any new regulations.
To speak with someone to see if your property and project are eligible to take advantage of these programs, please reach out to:
Christina M Vágvölgyi, Senior Historic Site Restoration Coordinator
New York State Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation
Phone: 518-268-2217
Email: christina.vagvolgyi@parks.ny.gov
Resources
Homeowner Tax Credit Handout
Homeownership Tax Credit FAQs
NYS Commercial Tax Credit Programs
State Historic Preservation Office State and National Register: https://parks.ny.gov/shpo/national-register/
State Historic Preservation Office Tax Credit Programs: https://parks.ny.gov/shpo/tax-credit-programs/
