Visit Historic Public, Private Places: A Moveable Feast

Saturday, April 29, 2000

Historic Albany Foundation will sponsor its annual fund-raising event, A Moveable Feast, on Saturday, April 29, 2000.  The event features a cocktail reception from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m., dinner at architecturally unique or historic private homes throughout Albany, and a dessert reception from 9:30 to 11:00 p.m.

The cocktail reception will be hosted by Dr. Richard Enemark, Headmaster of the Doane Stuart School. It will take place at the Doane Stuart School, 799 South Pearl Street in Albany. Built on the site of the Rathbone Mansion, this building features elegant Victorian parlors and a chapel designed by Patrick Keeley of Brooklyn, the architect of Saint Joseph's Church in Arbor Hill and the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception on Madison Avenue.

The dessert reception will be hosted by Dr. Karen R. Hitchcock, President of the University at Albany, and her husband Dr. Murray Blair. It will take place at their residence, 5 Englewood Place in Albany. Built in 1887 for James E. Craig, and serving as the home of Albany banking magnate Peter D. Kiernan and his family for much of the twentieth century, this Washington Park dwelling was built by Robert W. Gibson.

Gibson's best-known Albany commission was the Episcopal Cathedral of All Saints, at Swan and Elk Streets. The driving force behind the Cathedral was Albany's first Episcopal bishop, the Right Reverend William Croswell Doane, for whom Doane Stuart School is named, along with Sister Janet Erskine Stuart, RSCJ.

Tickets for the full evening, including cocktail and dessert receptions and dinner, are $75 per person. For those who would like to attend the before- and after-parties, but choose to make their own plans for dinner -- perhaps at one of Albany's historic restaurants -- tickets are available for $50 per person.

For more information or to make a reservation, call the Foundation at 518/465-0876.