The Landmarks Society's 2008 collectible ornament honors a building sure to inspire nostalgia in those who were educated in its stone and brick classrooms throughout nearly nine decades.
This year's ornament commemorates Utica Free Academy.
In announcing its decision, President Michael J. Bosak stated: “The UFA building is very high in significance and importance, not only because of its architecture, but because of the lives that it touched and the sentiment it evokes”.
The Utica Academy, UFA's predecessor, opened in 1814 and was Utica's original secondary school. Several fires and community need eventually let tot the construction of the Kemble Street UFA building, which welcomed its first students on September 11, 1899. Another fire and population increases led to an expansion of the building that doubled its size by 1917. UFA closed in 1987. In the summer of 1995, the building re-opened for use as the Loretto Utica Center.
Purchasing The Ornament - The UFA ornament will become available at a special reception Thursday, Nov. 6 from 5 to 8 p.m. at the Loretto Utica Center, the former UFA on Kemble Street. Ornaments can be purchased at the event for $22 plus tax. They will also be available for purchase by calling the Landmarks Society at 315-732-7376; one the Landmarks' Web site, http://www.uticalandmarks.org/; and at several local retail outlets:
Lennon & W.B. Wilcox Co.
McHarris Gifts, Clinton
Dannella Photographic
Oneida County Historical Society
Munson- Williams -Proctor Arts Institute Gift Shop
Landmarks' Annual Collectible Ornaments - The Utica Free Academy ornament is eighth in the Landmarks' popular series that has included the Whitestown Town Hall, Union Station, F.X. Matt Brewery, Utica Public Library, SBU Bank, Hotel Utica, and Old Main. A limited supply of previous years' ornaments are available on the Landmarks' Web site. The Hotel Utica and Brewery ornaments are sold out.
UTICA FREE ACADEMY Class of 1967
"Are you one of our missing classmates ?"
