Abraham Glen House

The Abraham Glen House is a former residential building at the Mohawk Avenue (NY 5) in Scotia, New York. It is a white wooden house built in the 18th century, in which a two racks of the Schenectady County Public Library is housed.

Built in the 1730s, the house is one of the few remaining examples of the heavy timber truss structures of the Dutch colonists. It has been modernized extensively in the early 20th century, the basic shape and the original materials remained largely intact. In 2004, the house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Building

The house is located in Collins Park, on the north side of State Route 5, just west of the Western Gateway Bridge, which crosses the Mohawk River to the nearby Schenectady. It is aligned north -south direction and is therefore diagonal to the street. Tall trees standing on different sides of the house; north there is a small parking lot, which is accessible from the Collins Street. A baseball field is located northeast.

The main building is a two and a half floors comprehensive, rectangular timber-framed house with a steeply pitched roof erected, whose six measuring ten meters cellar is built of mortared fieldstone. Two wings that have arisen later, extending on the north end. The larger has a half floors and a basement, the smaller wing has only one floor.

The individual truss beams were connected to each other by slots and cones. Rafters carry the roofed with slate shingle roof, which is broken at both ends of fireplaces made ​​of brick and of three bay windows on the two sides to the east and west. A wraparound porch on the ground floor has turned wooden posts; it is closed in the east. The facade is made of different materials, especially early find attached weatherboard and shingles later.

Inside, the ground floor consists of two large rooms, which open fires are in their original position. The upstairs bedrooms were divided in the 1980s to create spaces for offices. The larger of the two northern wing has three rooms on the ground floor and five on the upper floor, which are accessible via a narrow corridor, the smaller wing has only one room.

History

Scotia owes its name to Alexander Lindsey, the only one of the original founders of Harvey, who was not Dutch. Lindsey was a Scot, who after he had fled to the Netherlands, emigrated to New Netherland. There he received land on the north bank of the Mohawk River.

After his death, shared his three sons the Possession, which was named after Lindsey's country of birth Scotia and changed their family name to Glen, in honor of Scotland (this led to the Town, to which the area belongs, the name of Glenville received ). Later, put one of these three sons firmly in his own will, that on his property a house should be built, which was his son Abraham.

This house, the main part of the current building was built in 1730. His vernacular architecture in the Dutch trade house style made ​​for the steep roof erected. Fragments of the walls in the basement indicate that it probably had the usual open fires in the Dutch style at the time of its construction.

The larger of the north wing was added to a not yet well-defined time in the late 18th century. The Glens descendants owned the house until 1842 when it was sold to Charles and James Collins. This continued farming on the property and broke the ice of the nearby lake for cooling.

1880 James Collins walked the land around the house in a garden and parkland around. When was the last member of the family died in 1924, the Village acquired the title to the property and five years later a public library was opened in it. This since 1948 is part of the public library system of the county. The interior of the building was renovated in the 1980s and in the upper floors of the room layout was changed.