KATE MULLANY HOUSE RESTORATION & FURNISHINGS FUND
The Kate Mullany House at 350 Eighth Street in Troy is an important part of Troy and the Capital
Region’s rich history and cultural heritage.
Mullany, and her mostly Irish immigrant female colleagues, formed America’s first bona fide allwomen’s union in 1864 – the Troy Collar Laundry Union - and conducted a successful strike resulting in a
25 percent wage increase and improved safety and working conditions in Troy’s burgeoning collar and
cuff industry.
She went on to serve as the nation’s first female officer of a national union and became a model for
generations of women workers in the decades that followed.
As a result of a National Theme Study on American Labor History conducted by the National Park Service
(NPS), the Mullany House was designated a National Historic Landmark by the Secretary of the Interior
in 1998. Then First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton dedicated the new Landmark on July 15, 1998. It was
designated a National Historic Site (a unit within the National Park System) on May 3, 2004, as a result of
legislation sponsored by then United States Senator Clinton and Congressman Michael McNulty. In
2007, it was included in New York States Women’s Heritage trail, the only site representing working
class women.
There are 91 National Historic Sites in the United States including ten in New York State. Most are the
homes of past presidents, other famous people or historic battlefields. The Kate Mullany House is
unique among all 91 because it is the only one in America that celebrates and commemorates the life
and achievements of a working class woman, a young Irish immigrant, who had the courage to organize
her coworkers into a union and lead them on a successful strike in order to achieve dignity and respect
in the workplace and improve the lives of their families. It is the only National Historic Site in the Capital
District.
The restoration and furnishing of her home will tell a story not found anywhere else in the entire
National Park System. It will also highlight the story of the industrial revolution in the mid-1800s in
Upstate New York, particularly at the convergence of the Mohawk and Hudson rivers that industrial
historian Dr. P. Thomas Carroll has termed the “Silicon Valley of the nineteenth century.”
In 2000, Mullany was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls with the
inscription, “As a labor leader and organizer, Mullany is one of early American labor history’s most
important women.” She will be enshrined in the International Labor Hall of Fame on May 19, 2016.
The property is owned and being restored and furnished as an Affiliated National Historic Site by the
American Labor Studies Center (ALSC). The ALSC has been successful in winning a number of New York
State competitive grants to underwrite the restoration including a current grant from the Office of
Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (OPRHP) for $179,790 to complete the restoration of the
Mullany third-floor apartment, historic stairwell, exterior stairs and back porch framing. The grant
requires a 25 percent match from the ALSC of $59,930. The architectural work is being done by John G.
Waite Associates, Architects (an internationally recognized historic architecture firm) and Troy-based
Duncan and Cahill as the contractor, a firm that has done extensive historic preservation work.
While the Capital Region Building and Construction Trades Council and the executive director of the
ALSC are contributing “volunteer labor” to count toward the match, it is unlikely to be sufficient to meet
the $59,930 requirement of the grant.
To help meet the full match obligation, the ALSC is launching A Campaign to Restore and Furnish the
Kate Mullany House in order to seek community support to insure that the restoration process is
successful as well as to seek donations and funding to furnish the apartment with period appropriate
furnishings consistent with the Furnishings Study completed by Waite Associates.
The campaign will be overseen by The Committee for the Restoration and Furnishing of the Kate
Mullany House including prominent area residents, historic preservationists, the Irish-American
community and labor representatives. The campaign will be directed and coordinated by the Troy firm
of Grammercy Communications. The campaign funding accountability will be managed by the ALSC’s
accounting firm of Slocum and DeAngelus of Latham, New York.
A Grand Opening ceremony is tentatively scheduled for September 5, 2016, Labor Day.
A variety of options for donors will be available including naming rights for the Mullany parlor, kitchen,
four bedrooms, historic stairwell and back porch. Other donors will be able to choose from various
contribution levels including Sustaining, Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Patron. Each category will
receive an array of benefits including complimentary visits to the Site, invitations to specific events and
programs such as the May 19 induction of Mullany into the International Labor Hall of Fame on May 19
at the House and following reception, recognition in the Grand Opening Commemorative Journal, listing
on a plaque and others.
A successful campaign is imperative to the successful completion of the Mullany House restoration. It
deserves the support of everyone who cares about our history and the role that ordinary Americans
played in accomplishing extraordinary things.