Rapp Road Community Historic District | |
 Front elevations, 67 and 68 Rapp Road, 2012 | |
   | |
| Location | Albany, NY |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 42°41′46″N 73°51′12″W / 42.69611°N 73.85333°W |
| Area | 14 acres (5.7 ha)[2] |
| Built | 1930 |
| Architectural style | Bungalow/Craftsman |
| NRHP reference No. | 02001620[1] |
| Added to NRHP | December 27, 2002 |
The Rapp Road Community Historic District is located in the Pine Bush area of Albany, New York. It is a 14-acre (5.7 ha) residential neighborhood. In 2002 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
It was established in the 1920s by Rev. Louis W. Parson, an African American minister, and his wife, who had moved north from Mississippi in the Great Migration out of the rural South to industrial cities, originally settling in Albany's South End.[3] He was followed by other members of his congregation. Neither he nor they liked urban life much, and eventually he bought the land along Rapp Road where they all moved.
Half of the original purchase was taken by the state for road projects in the 1970s. The remaining half, today's historic district, has many of the original buildings. Most of the original families' descendants still live there. It is a rare intact example of a chain migration community from the Great Migration, although many such communities formed in northern cities.[2][1]
- ^ a b "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
- ^ a b Lemak, Jennifer A. (April 2000). "National Register of Historic Places Registration: Rapp Road Community Historic District". Retrieved April 19, 2009.Accompanying 18 photos, undated Archived December 9, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Jennifer A. Lemak: Southern Life, Northern City, The History of Albany's Rapp Road Community, State University of New York Press, Albany, NY, 2008