James Hall Office
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James Hall Office
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West profile and south (front) elevation, 2008
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| Location | Albany, NY |
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| Coordinates | 42°38′45″N 73°46′7″W / 42.64583°N 73.76861°WCoordinates: 42°38′45″N 73°46′7″W / 42.64583°N 73.76861°W |
| Built | 1852 |
| Architect | Calvert Vaux and Andrew Jackson Downing |
| Architectural style | Italianate |
| NRHP Reference # | 76001204 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | December 8, 1976 |
| Designated NHL | December 8, 1976 |
The James Hall Office, a part of Sunshine School, is located in Lincoln Park in the city of Albany, New York, United States. It is a small brick Italianate building now annexed to a more modern school building. In 1976 it was designated a National Historic Landmark.
It is one of the few buildings remaining from a brief period of collaboration between Andrew Jackson Downing and Calvert Vaux. Hall, a paleontologist, led research on the geology of North America during the 19th century. He spent much of his time working in this small building, which served him as both office and laboratory. Among his many discoveries here, Hall found that the stromatolite fossils discovered at Petrified Sea Gardens, a site near Saratoga Springs, also a National Historic Landmark, were originally organic.
In the late 20th century it was expanded slightly and annexed to one of Albany's elementary schools. It served that purpose until 2011. After voters approved the school district's plan to sell it, the building and annex is pending purchase by the Boys and Girls Club of Albany.
The former office is located on the northwest corner of the building, in the southwest portion of the park. One of the park's internal access roads, to the south, provides access to a parking lot on the west. Beyond it, Morton Avenue is 300 ft (100 m) to the south. On the west is a large octagonal children's swimming pool, basketball court and tennis courts along Delaware Avenue (U.S. Route 9W).
To the north is another, larger school. A wooded area past it buffers the park from the Center Square/Hudson–Park Historic District to the north. Eastward, the park extends for another half-mile (800 m) to Eagle Street, sloping gently down toward the Hudson River a mile (1.6 km) further to the east. The South End–Groesbeckville Historic District begins along Morton just southeast of Eagle.
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