The thirty Italianate townhouses that comprise Brick Row were built in 1866 for the employees of the newly constructed Saratoga and Hudson Railroad, whose terminal was located directly behind the houses, on the Hudson River. The short-lived railroad ceased its operations in 1876, when its terminal and adjacent docks were destroyed in a massive fire. The only structures that survived the fire were the houses of Brick Row. Today, the neighborhood is the only 19th century workers’ housing development still standing in Greene County, and it still looks much like it did a hundred years ago.

John Kisselburgh, who was born on Brick Row in 1908, paints an evocative picture of growing up in the neighborhood in his memoir, Shadows of the Half Moon. By the early twentieth century, immigrant families, primarily Italian, lived on Brick Row alongside the old-timers. Kisselburgh describes a poor but harmonious community, where children of varying backgrounds played together while their parents supported each other through tough times. Men worked in the brick yards and ice houses in Athens. Children walked to the village school and spent their leisure time skating on ponds, bobbing for eels, and hunting small game. Each family “owned a flat-bottomed skiff” to get around. They grew their own food, kept animals, and bought non-perishables from itinerant vendors or from catalogues, getting together with their neighbors to place bulk orders. Being somewhat removed from the lower village of Athens brought the residents of Brick Row closer together than they might otherwise have been, creating an integrated and dynamic community where the concerns of the individual easily became the concerns of the whole.

This spirit of community and cooperation continues on Brick Row today. Children play in the street, and adults know each other and take care of the neighborhood together. In 1980, Brick Row was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 2019, the neighbors formed the Historic Brick Row Association (501c4) to advocate for the quality of life and continuing preservation of the historic character of Brick Row. In 2024, the Historic Brick Row Association became Friends of Historic Brick Row.

Read select chapters from Shadows of the Half-Moon

read More about Athens and brick row from the greene county historical society