Verbeck House

The Verbeck House is a former residential building on Church Street ( NY 50), just south of the center of Ballston Spa, New York. There is a built in the late 19th century building in timber frame construction.

The house was one of the last buildings designed by the regionally influential architect Marcus F. Cummings. It is one of the few houses that he planned towards the end of his career and one of the few of his works in the Queen Anne style. Much of the rich ornament decorative elements from that era has been preserved inside.

It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. Thereafter it was used for some time by the National Bottle Museum; this facility received state funds as matching funds to reconstruct the building. After a dispute with the parent organization, the museum moved into larger premises in the town center. Today in the building some offices are housed by freelancers.

Building

The house stands on a small parcel of land on the west side of the road, just south of the High Street (NY 67) and is partly shaded by tall trees. A parking lot was built on the south side and is used for the name of the house clerk. The surrounding area consists mainly of residential development.

The two and a half storey building with four to six Jochen stands on a stone foundation. The façade is covered mostly with narrow wooden planks, the supporting elements are emphasized in shape and color. The slate roof is surrounded by a molded cornice. Two-storey bays on the southern and eastern side of the house stand out, a veranda with balustrade is located east of the main entrance. The lintels are decorated with. A brick brick fireplace with console rises near the southeast corner of the house.

The main entrance is a wooden door with six panels and side stained glass windows as well as a fighter window. It opens into a central hall, which is decorated with embossed floral patterned wallpaper in the early style of Art Nouveau and runs almost the entire length of the house, allowing access to lounge rooms and other spaces that are paneled with cherry wood. A staircase made of walnut wood with turned balusters leads to the two floor. The doors on the west end of both corridors have stained glass windows in the pattern of the decoration of the entrance hall.

The parquet floor oak wood is original. The house features an unusual chandelier that could be powered by either gas or electric lights lighting fixtures. The heated with steam radiators work, the pantry for the butler is still intact. There is no evidence of former outbuildings.

History

The house was for James Verbeck, a prominent local lawyer, planned; it was one of the last built by Cummings houses before the architect in 1891 withdrew into retirement. Cummings is primarily known for its commercial buildings in the Central Troy Historic District. Most of his previously -built houses were built prior to 1869 after a great fire that destroyed Troy and corresponded to the Italianate architecture or the Second Empire. His use of elements of the Queen Anne Style was thus a stark contrast to his earlier work in the field of residential building planning.

Verbecks descendants owned the house until 1978 and held it together with the interior almost in original condition. The following year, it became the Federation of Historical Bottle Clubs and the National Bottle Museum rebuilt. The museum received in 1989 a government grant in the amount of $ 46,000, and had the house redecoration in the original colors.

Three years later, it came between the Federation and the museum operators, the National Bottle Museum Society to a dispute and the usage agreement for the house through the museum was terminated. A side agreement in the deed by which the family Verbecks had donated the house, though, provided for the return to the family, if it was not used for at least 23 years as a museum; but this was lifted when the government subsidy was granted for reconstruction. The Federation offered the house finally for sale. It hosted the 2009 offices of an insurance agency and a financial services provider.