7th Annual Pinkster Celebration 

In the spring of 1811, the Albany Common Council banned Pinkster Day celebrations because of “rioting and drunkenness.” Two centuries later, in an effort to revive a tradition from Albany’s past, members of the University Club petitioned the Common Council to repeal the prohibition. The Pinkster ban was lifted on May 16, 2011.

On Friday, June 2, John Freeman Gill, former New York Times contributor and current architecture and real estate editor for Avenue magazine, will be the keynote speaker for the Pinkster Celebration at the National Register-listed University Club of Albany. He will present an illustrated lecture centered on New York City's landmark Woolworth Building, in which he relates the vivid history of the building’s remarkable gothic terra-cotta facade and the original research he did into its 1970s restoration for his novel THE GARGOYLE HUNTERS (Knopf, March 21, 2017). He'll also read a nail-biting scene from the book that takes place at the top of the Woolworth building.

The Pinkster Celebration will feature a cocktail reception with light fare and cash bar from 6:00 – 7:00 p.m., followed by the presentation by Gill. A book signing will follow, with books available for sale courtesy of the Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza. Tickets for the Pinkster Celebration are $40 per person. Reservations are required and may be made by calling the University Club at 518-463-1151 or online at www.universityclubalbany.com.

The event is co-sponsored by the Preservation League of New York State, a statewide not-for-profit that works to advance the cause of historic preservation. Additional support is provided by the Turpin Bannister Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians.

John Freeman Gill is a native New Yorker whose work has been anthologized in The New York Times Book of New York and More New York Stories: The Best of the City Section of The New York Times. He is the architecture and real estate editor of Avenue magazine, for which he writes “Edifice Complex,” a monthly column exploring the biographies of historic New York City buildings and their occupants. His writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The New York Times Magazine, The New York Observer, the International Herald Tribune, Premiere, The New York Times Book Review, and elsewhere. A summa cum laude graduate of Yale University, where he won two prizes and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, he received an MFA in Writing from Sarah Lawrence College. He lives in New York City with his wife, three children, and a smattering of gargoyles.

According to Doug Liman, director of The Bourne Identity, “The Gargoyle Hunters is that rarest of animals – a beautifully written literary novel that also just happens to be a rollicking, cinematic, ripsnortingly funny tale with action sequences as exciting as those in Hollywood’s best films. Ever wonder how a father and son could steal an entire New York City building, from cornice to curb? Here’s your chance to find out.”

In the spring of 1811, the Albany Common Council banned Pinkster Day celebrations because of “rioting and drunkenness.” Two centuries later, in an effort to revive a tradition from Albany’s past, members of the University Club petitioned the Common Council to repeal the prohibition. The Pinkster ban was lifted on May 16, 2011.

The Club’s first Pinkster Celebration featured readings from four centuries of scholarly and popular publications documenting the people and places of New York’s capital city. In 2012, the University Club Foundation welcomed Albany’s own Pulitzer Prize-winning author, William Kennedy. Additional speakers have included Stefan Bielinski, the director of the Colonial Albany History Project; journalist and author Paul Grondahl; and award-winning author Scott Christianson.

Proceeds from the event benefit the University Club of Albany Foundation, Inc., a 501c3 corporation, and one need not be a member of the University Club to attend. The Foundation was formed to recognize and maintain the unique historic and architectural significance of the National Register-listed University Club building, its historic neighborhood and the city of Albany, where it has been located since its inception in 1901.

Support for educational programming presented by the University Club Foundation is provided by AT&T.