There are many people in San Francisco, New Orleans, and New York City who just love Troy's architecture. They love it so much they are quite willing to pay thousands of dollars to acquire it!

The recent "disappearance" of several architectural elements from a building on Washington Place, in Troy's historic Washington Park, is the most recent episode of items leaving their original location for destination unknown.

This past summer a set of double doors with hinges were stolen from the Dutch era Winne House in Bethlehem, after some newspaper coverage about the importance of restoring it.

In 1998, the oil portrait of Stephen Van Rensselaer was stolen from the walls at RPI.

I personally watched unknown people removing items from the Water Commissioner building in Lansingburgh a month ago, after my column appeared on its importance to preserve it.

A few weeks ago a marble fireplace mantle netted over $15,000 at auction from the Knights of Columbus building on Third Street (from someone in New Orleans, I'm told ).

Two years ago there was a thriving black market for cemetery items in Texas. At the same time, in Philadelphia's University City neighborhood, more than 10 ornamental doorknobs were taken in one week!

Architectural disposition or theft happens everywhere, but the Capital District is particularly susceptible because we have so much history, most people don't give a damn about it, and certain folks know they can get big bucks for selling to those who do care and will reuse it.

Now there is nothing illegal about removing mantles, doors, windows, or anything else from one's homes and selling them - as long as it's the owner doing it. Theft on the other hand is a crime and punishable by jail!

In this day and age, when everything it seems has a monetary value, it shouldn't surprise anyone when it happens? In some cases the contents are worth more than the building, such as the incident at Washington Place. It's reported that about $30,000 worth of material was taken. I doubt the new owner paid that for the entire building. I'm also told that this is not the first time material has been removed from this and other buildings on the block.

The recent episode on Washington Place will play out its due course, and if it is a theft, hopefully those responsible will be brought to justice.

The underlying problem here though is there needs to be a better way to preserve abandoned buildings in this city before they are stripped. Why no one saw this latest removal in a high traffic area that is clearly visible is interesting by itself.

In this computer age we live in, one simple solution would be to take a quickcam, or other similar video camera, hooked up to a computer, and point it out your window.

A few years ago I wrote a story about a local fellow who caught someone breaking into his apartment and stealing his computer. While the theft was taking place the computer was sending images of the crook back to the owner's office. He called the police and had the thief arrested.

There is software that will send you email, or call you on the phone if it detects movement. There even is software that lets you post your images every few seconds directly to a web site for all to see. A quickcam pointed on Washington Place could have easily recorded the people removing those items.

I'm not a big fan of "Big Brother" tactics, especially since we are already photographed more than 20 times a day without our knowledge, but these are drastic times that require drastic action. If criminals knew there was a chance that their actions were being recorded somewhere they might think twice about committing the act in the first place.

Additionally, with the power of the Internet, text and images can be broadcast immediately reaching millions of people. You can notify Web sites that post and track stolen art immediately after a theft. This alerts thousands of art, antique, and restoration dealers so that they can be on the lookout for the items. A few notable ones are:

The Art Loss Register
http://www.artloss.com/intro.htm

The Art Loss Register is the largest private database of stolen and
missing works of art, antiques and valuables in the world. Since 1991 they have identified and assisted in the recovery of over 1000 items.

Maine Antique Digest Stolen Report
http://www.maineantiquedigest.com/other/stolc.htm

Lists with photographs a wide range of items, and covers news such as arrests and recoveries. It has links to other similar sites.

Collectors.org Theft and Recovery Reports
http://collectors.org/doc/thefts.asp

This site lists items with photos of stolen materials. This information relates to recent thefts of antiques and collectibles reported to the police or other authorities. It has the RPI painting listed, for example.

This site is in partnership with the Antiques & Collectibles Dealer Association and the AntiqueWeek Newspapers. Entries appear on the site for about 2 months, and longer.

We all know a picture is worth a thousands words. John Wolcott, a local historian who was fortunate to have photographed the Winne house in the 60's took his photographs of the stolen doors and visited several dealers as far south as Hudson. I heard through the grapevine recently that one set of doors may even have been returned. Lesson? You should have photographs of all the important architectural items of your home, just in case.

Let's face it, there is a black market for Troy's architecture and it seems that people around the country appreciate our architecture more than we do. They are willing to spend thousands of dollars to acquire and reuse it, while we do little to stabilize or preserve the buildings in the first place.

Instead, we allow developers and others to tear down our architectural heritage and toss it aside. So, who really is the villain?