Introduction
The urban renewal movement began after World War Two, during the Cold War. With the Marshall Plan, America got experience in rebuilding devastated cities and economies. They translated some of those theories and practices to America where cities were becoming increasingly run-down, impoverished, and neglected by industry and commerce. Urbanologists held that these social problems could be solved by replacing inadequate and out-dated infrastructure housing, roads, and social services—and updating the entire community with clean, new, ultra-modern, technologically advanced facilities—everything from housing projects to shopping malls. This entailed demolishing many historically and architecturally valuable buildings to make way for the new. To make a long story short, urban renewal did not revive the economies of most cities. To make things worse, the process of tearing down the old stuff and building the space-age cities of the future was a longer, costlier, and more complicated process than anyone had bargained for.
In Troy, for example, an entire block
of the historic downtown was razed to make way for the new Uncle Sam Mall. Meanwhile,
local businesses were displaced. Corruption and other complications meant that there was a
gaping hole where they had expected to set up shop again. The mall took so long to complete
that many of those businesses went under, while the rest moved elsewhere. The glass and
brick Uncle Sam Mall that was supposed to restore downtown Troy to its former commercial
bustle now houses government offices. Urban renewal had worsened Troy’s economic lot. Troy
community groups resisted urban renewal and began to focus on the value of historic
preservation, especially adaptive reuse—the process of renovating old buildings to serve
new purposes. The Rensselaer County Historical Society and the Hudson Mohawk Industrial
Gateway are two community groups that lead the struggle to preserve Troy’s unique and
beautiful 19th century architecture, relics of a time when the city took part in the
booming iron and textile industries and housed grand department stores like Frear’s Troy
Cash Bazaar.
Scope
This pathfinder provides college students and interested members of the community with a jumping-off point for research on the topic of urban renewal and historic preservation in Troy, New York. It lists reference sources to provide you with a general background in the many, varied aspects of the subject and guide you to more information. These sources contain information from the perspectives of urban studies experts, historical preservationists, historians, sociologists, architects, and more. Very technical and dry sources aimed at experts and government officials are excluded, but you can find them using the bibliographies, directories, and indexes that are included. Most of these sources are available through the University at Albany Libraries. The rest can be obtained very quickly through Interlibrary Loan. Subject headings and browsing areas should be helpful if you look for more items on these topics. Do not hesitate to ask a reference librarian for help with your research!
© 2003 Sarah Morehouse. This pathfinder was created for ISP605 (Information Sources and Services) with Professor Lokman Meho at the College of Information Science at the University at Albany. This site last updated April 20, 2003.