File:20220507 - 30 - Albany, New York - Morris L. Ryder House.jpg

English: The Morris L. Ryder House, 317 State Street, Albany, New York, May 2022. Dating to 1899, this three-and-a-half-story rowhouse exemplifies the Dutch Colonial Revival style with its Classical ornamentation, the unusual curved pitch of its side-gabled roof, and of course, the Dutch gable that looms at the top of the façade. However, eagle-eyed observers will note the intricacy of the architectural detail: said Dutch gable comes trimmed with scroll-shaped filigrees and topped with a finial, while the third floor is accented with ornamental dagger-shaped ironwork. The windows are crowned mostly with jack arches, with the exception of the small projecting bay on the second floor where a blind semicircular arch caps things off. On the first story, the windows are set within fluted recesses and sport elegant stained-glass transoms. The house was built for Morris Leslie Ryder (1852-1918), a locally prominent figure in both the financial and real estate sectors: over the course of his career he served as a director of the Albany Trust Company and the Commercial Insurance Company, but was best known as the namesake owner of the M. L. Ryder Building Company, which was responsible for the construction of much of the turn-of-the-century housing stock in the Center Square/Hudson-Park Historic District where he himself resided. He lived at 317 State Street until his death during the Spanish flu pandemic.