The Van Ostrande-Radliff House is one of Albany's most important early buildings, a rare survivor from the city's Dutch colonial past. Its steep roofline and compact form are easy to miss in the modern downtown fabric, but the house is a reminder that Albany is one of the oldest continuously settled European cities in the United States.
Restoration work has helped bring attention back to the building after a long period of neglect. For travellers interested in architecture, it is a worthwhile stop because it adds a much older layer to the usual Albany circuit of state government buildings, 19th-century streets and Empire State Plaza modernism.