17 -19-1/2 Sherman Avenue
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Last modified 06/19/04
Building Name: The Argent
Street Location: 17-19-1/2 Sherman Avenue, Glens Falls, NY
Use: Original: multi-family
residential
Use: As of 1981, Multi-family Residential
Date of Original Construction: ca. 1895 for Merritt Ames
Architect: W. E. Lawrence, Glens Falls
Builder: W. E. Acker and Son, Contractors, Glens Falls
Historical and Architectural Importance: This building was designed as a real estate investment property for local silver and gold refiner, Merritt Ames, by Glens Falls architect W. E. Lawrence. Named "L'Argent" or "Silver", the structure was, along with the Pruyn Flats on Elm Street (13-19 Elm St.), an early model apartment building in the community. It was not built specifically for workers employed by the M. Ames Chemical Works nearby. The building originally provided space for 6 flats: two on each of three floors -- including that of the Mansard roof.
William E. Lawrence, who had settled in Glens Falls in 1881, gained a reputation by 1897, as a talented local architect, over-shadowed only by his contemporary, Ephraim B. Potter. Lawrence had entered into partnership with local builder Herman Krum in 1883, building among other important downtown structures, the William E. Spier House (Spier House Fence, Glen St.), designed by noted Albany architect Robert W. Gibson and illustrated in Sheldon's Artistic Country Seats, 1886. Lawrence is credited as the architect of several major residential institutional and commercial structures in the city and elsewhere in the region including: the Merchants Block of Fort Edward, the Frederick Kilmer House (479-481 Glen St.), 462 Glen Street, the South Street Union School at Union Square (demolished) and St. Patrick's Church in Port Henry, Essex County, NY.
The Argent represents architecturally, a vernacular Queen Anne apartment house style employed nearby at Bemis Place (No.2 and No.3); Bemis Place 5 and 7, Sherman Avenue, ca. 1895) by E. B. Potter. These Bemis Eye Sanitarium Boarding houses present a strikingly similar treatment of 2 tiered galleries, which frame a central doorway, and slate-sheathed Mansard roof. The Argent, however in scale and complexity, offers a richer combination of popular late 19th century architectural forms, including: projecting pyramidal-roofed towers with recessed porches, a prominent gambrel-roofed, wood-shingled gable end front and decorative pressed metal panels. The Argent is one of the best examples of W. E. Lawrence's work extant in Glens Falls. It survives with a great deal of original integrity.
SOURCES:
Name of Collector: Richard C.
Youngken
Collected on: Feb. 4, 1981
Organizations: City of Glens Falls, Community
Development Office
Previous ownership:
Previous occupants: