Houses in Historic Districts customarily may display a plaque on the
facade, giving some information about the house. The building date
is commonly prominent, and the name of the house based on the
name(s) of the first owner(s) may be included. The sponsoring
organization, or the name of the Historic District may also be
shown. Some may include an indication of the profession, or some
distinctive achievement, of the first or an early occupant.
Here are examples from the City of Albany, where the Historic Albany
Foundation has sponsored a house plaque
program.
The McKownville Improvement Association sponsored a house plaque
program for the McKownville - Country Club Highlands Historic
District. The plaque design is shown below, based on the more recent
Historic Albany example.
In late 2024 the manufacturer we used (and also used by Historic
Albany) closed its business. We are (early 2025) looking for an
alternative source offering comparable prices. For the 7" by 5½"
design shown below, the last quoted price was $203 in bronze, or
~$164 in aluminium.
Shown adjacent to a sample design is a photo of an actual plaque to
this design, in aluminium, obtained for 16 Elmwood Street.
The design requires some abbreviation of the Historic District
title, because a minimum lettering height (¼inch) is required for
the text to be legible from the casting process.
The design above is linked to a letter-size pdf page which will show
the plaque at full size when printed (click on the image). Or you
can just print the one for your house as all are provided on the
same size page; find it through the link to the street it faces,
below.
Sets of images using the design for plaques for each of the
contributing houses in the McKownville - Country Club Highlands
Historic District are shown on these pages:
Western Avenue | Waverly Place | Norwood Street | Glenwood Street | Parkwood Street | Elmwood Street
A list of the occupancy and date
information used to make these designs
return to Historic
District page
