Russell Sage College Holds Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony for Historic Sage Hall After $10.5 Million Renovation Project

Elizabeth Boisvert, a first-year nursing student who starts her journey at Russell Sage College this fall, couldn’t wait another minute to see her room in Sage Hall.

So she and her mother, an alumnae of the college, attended the August 11, 2026, ribbon-cutting ceremony for the residence hall, which just wrapped up $10.5 million in renovations.

Boisvert will be moving in on August 21 with 55 first-year students who are the hall’s first residents after its makeover, which included completely renovated rooms and common areas and a new HVAC system. The spaces boast bathrooms that offer greater privacy, panoramic views of Sage Park, and brand-new furnishings.

“I’m super excited. My mom is an alumni and worked in this building. My sister is also an alumni, and I get to see the building that I’m moving into,” Boisvert said. “Being in such a historic dorm really truly means a lot to me because I end up being part of the new generation that gets to write my own history in this building.”

The $10.5 million project was funded primarily by donors and grants, including a significant gift by alumna Donna Robinson Esteves ’70. 

Many partners were involved in its renovation, including John Zajaceskowski, assistant vice president of facilities, and the rest of Russell Sage’s own facilities team, LeChase Construction, architecture+, Engineered Solutions, M&T Bank, and Russell Sage’s recently retired Associate Vice President for Finance Maryjo Valentine.

Sage Hall was built in 1895 by Russell Sage, husband of the college’s founder, Margaret Olivia Slocum Sage, for the Troy Female Seminary (now known as Emma Willard School). In 1916, it was used as a dormitory when Russell Sage College opened. Designed in the Romanesque Revival style by prominent Troy architectural firm M. F. Cummings & Son, which shaped the Gilded Age streetscape of Troy and the surrounding Capital Region until the 1930s, the building features quarry-faced brownstone, limestone accents, and yellow brick.

“In 1916, when our college was founded, Sage Hall became a residence hall, and it has watched over generations of students ever since,” said Russell Sage President Matthew Shaftel. 

“And this building has been tested. A fire in 1911 took the spires and the top floor. Another in 1928 started in the linen room and caved in the roof. Sage Hall has been knocked down once, burned twice, and rebuilt every single time, and each time it came back a little different and a little stronger,” Shaftel continued. “That roofline above us matches nothing else on this block. If you are looking for the character of this institution, you are standing in front of it. … This fall, for the first time in this building’s long history, first-year students will live in Sage Hall. They will move into fully renovated rooms and bathrooms, and they will wake up to the best view on campus of a city having its own renaissance, our beautiful, rejuvenated Troy.”