Building 2 and the “tower” at NETL in Albany as seen from Broadway Street on July 20, 2025.
The federal government will go ahead and demolish an old and dilapidated building at the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), but it is considering steps to preserve two other buildings on the Albany campus.
NETL announced plans last year to raze Building 2, unused since the 1990s. The Albany Landmarks Commission, among others, urged that the building be saved but, if it isn’t, that items of historical interest be salvaged.
Last week Chad Robinson, chairman of Landmarks, said he had received the draft of an agreement between NETL and the Oregon State Historic Preservation Office. The commission and Friends of Historic Albany, a private group, also are part of the proposed deal.
Among other things, the draft agreement says:
- The demolition will take place, but if it uncovers items that could be salvaged, that possibility “will be evaluated.”
- NETL will develop at least two 3-by-5-foot interpretive panels. One on the history of Building 2 will be placed outside the fence on Broadway Street. The other will cover the Albany Research Center in general and be placed outside the gate on Queen Avenue.
- “NETL shall, in cooperation with the Oregon Encyclopedia, develop an on-line entry on the history and significance of Building 2, including information on the role of Building 2 and its significance to the community originally functioning as an orphan’s home, then as a part of the Albany College campus, and finally the scientific contributions made by the scientists and engineers at the U.S. Bureau of Mines.”
- NETL will donate any artifacts from Building 2 to the Albany Regional Museum and pay for the cost of displaying them.
- The government will renovate the six-story tower and a one-story corrugated metal building with a curved roof on the NETL campus. Now unused, the tower was completed in 1952 and built for the purification of zirconium metal. The other building dates from 1941. It first was used for youth vocational training. Now it houses the campus carpentry, machine and plumbing shops.
The draft of the agreement that was forwarded to me is undated. It says it takes effect when everybody has signed it, but it doesn’t say just when Building 2 will come down.
The building was constructed in 1875 and was moved to its present site in 1926, according to NETL. It’s neglected, obviously, but looking at it from Broadway Street, for being 150 years old it really doesn’t look too bad. (hh)
Destined to be demolished, Building 2 has been unused and uncared for since the 1990s.
I’m just sick at heart that the government is demolishing the old brick building on the old Bureau of Mines campus. It was constructed in 1875. But, when you get my age, you realize, if you have any sense, that is, that you can’t expect much out of the government (or the human race, for that matter).
Yes, that pesky government, always sending out those darn Social Security checks.
Oh, aren’t you clever!! Such a clever boy!!!
The only thing that the government did for social security is set up the fund with employers and employees money and then President Johnson stole the money for his war on poverty and to fund the Vietnam war. The government takes a 7% fee to administer the fund. All retired people would live comfortably and the fund would be secure for future generations if the money would have been invested in the stock market as the Dow Jones hit 1000 in 1965 so do the math.
Well if your math is correct then we must assume that Johnson and the democrats really messed things up. Sounds like we’re lucky to be getting any Social security at all.
PS. Would we really want the government investing in the stock market?
Thanks for keeping up with what’s going on with B2. I was just wondering yesterday if the administration change had delayed the plans/funding to demolish. Sad to see it go.
Those MAGA guys are so incompetent they probably don’t know it exists.
“for being 150 years old it really doesn’t look too bad”, especially for having been moved twice – once from the Goltra section of Albany where it was an orphan home and then from its previous college site where Central School is now.
Are you SURE the City of Albany doesn’t want to buy it?!!
Pay someone to fix it, then tear it down and sell it for 1.5 million dollars less than they have invested in it, while adding 600 thousand dollars worth of property to make it sweeter for the guy who wonders if he is getting a great deal?
This is heartbreaking to be losing a major historical building in our community.
It’s senseless!
Brick buildings can last so much longer than others. I think it’s shameful that they couldn’t find another use for it. We have so many needs in this community.A building like that could be used by several businesses or non-profits. It could be turned into studio apartments for low income renters.
Unfortunately from what Hasso reports it’s a federal building, that Albany has tried to reverse the outcome of federal decisions for this property.
I had hoped the city would have invested more money, and energy into saving this property, than many other useless endeavors that only seem to revolve around the downtown district.
The city wasted millions in a smaller use zone over all than the larger surrounding areas that we all can enjoy as a community.
The Riverfront will definitely look updated, and pretty, but overall how many of our citizens actually walk those paths, and drive those streets … other than the few who don’t live in Albany to see the limited summer events?
Take drive around numerous other streets that our daily patrons drive every day.. it’s despicable, and then the city wants to tax said citizens to pay for the “beautification” of those lesser used areas!!
This is sad! Perhaps a federal grant could be obtained to renovate the building and use as a community center?
A community center is a good idea. I do know that CARA (that is, the City of Albany) does not want the former Sr. center, which they changed to a community center to get a grant from the feds during the pandemic. (The federal government had the idea that community centers could administer Covid shots. That didn’t pan out, and now an old person can’t even get a Covid shot at Fred Meyer without a prescription from their doctor. Thanks, Donald, the birthday note writer Ha!!) Anyway, what I mean by CARA not wanting the present community center on Water Street is that it is obvious. CARA/the City has cut off practically all their front parking. They have two handicap parking spaces in front is all. Then, it is one way east on the first part of bricked-over Water St. as far as the length of the community center building. So when trying to park at community center in their back lot, if it is full you can’t drive back to the front of the building and try for a parking space at Monteith Kiddie Park. You would have to go to Second Street and loop around on Washington back to front of community center. If you were taking a class, by the time you found a place to park you would be very late for class.
So, if Building 2 at old Bureau of Mines site was made into a community center, the City and Lepman would love it. The City could then sell to Lepman, at a ridiculously low price, the old Sr. Center. And, he can put a boutique hotel on that site. What, you say Lepman has many, many projects on hold? Doesn’t matter. The city would still practically give away the old Sr. center to him.
Oops! It is 1st Street that a person would go to and turn right on and then turn right on Wasington to travel back to the front of the Community/Sr. Center…if that person found the rear parking lot at Sr. Center full. I got my one-way streets mixed up.
I believe this building is not considered structurally sound. I believe there are other issues too (mold)? Can you look into this Hasso? I recall having meetings there back in the day but when the upper floor of the “mole hole” (across from Building 1) was completed the meetings moved there. As I recall Building 2 is just not considered salvageable.