File:Utica, New York - 03 - Italianate houses alongside Steuben Park - 20210828.jpg

English: A trio of boxy two-and-a-half-story Italianate Villa-style residences cluster around the corner of Park Avenue and Hopper Street, at the southwest end of Steuben Park in Utica, New York, as seen in August 2021. This corner of the city is home to the National Register-listed Rutger-Steuben Park Historic District, which is particularly notable for architecture of this style. The neighborhood's genesis dates back to the 1830s and '40s, an era in which the basis of the local economy was transitioning from westward shipping of people and goods along the Mohawk River and the Erie Canal to manufacturing, especially of textiles and knit goods. The newly wealthy industrialists who were spearheading this new economy sought desirable places to live away from the increasingly congested city center, and the high ground on what was then the southwest outskirts of town was one of the places where they clustered. To this day, most of the housing in the district dates to the middle 19th century.