George Felpel House

The George Felpel House is a residential building on New York State Route 9H in Claverack, New York in the United States. The stone-built house was built in the 1920s. The stones used are remnants of Claverack College, which existed on the property from 1779 to 1902. It was designed by the local architect Henry Mouls in the style of Colonial Revival, taking into account some aspects of the regional colonial architecture. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.

Estate

The house stands on a 4.5 acre lot on the east side of Route 9H, directly south of the Reformed Dutch Church of Claverack, some of the road set back at the end of the northern branch of a Y-shaped unattached driveway. At the other branch a garage, the other contributing structure stands on the property. The complex includes a number of mature trees that provide shade and privacy. The rear part of the land slopes gently to a pond, which was once part of the college campus. The surrounding neighborhood consists of other older homes on large plots.

The building itself is a two-story building with three bays, the roof consists of a Gambreldach with shingles roofing felt. The facades of the house consists of unbleached locally hewn stone, with the exception of the gable ends, which are covered with shingles made of asbestos. A porte cochère juts out from the southern entrance, at the rear of the east wing with a Gambreldach is grown. A glassed-in porch is located at the northern end.

In the middle of the front, the western facade, sits a portico, which covers the main entrance. Its pediment resting on two -story Doric columns. An oversized gable roof, which is supported by corbels, sheltered the main entrance. On the second floor above the main entrance, a triple window.

The main entrance consists of a Klöntür with a fighter window. It leads to the large central hall with a striking staircase. The spindle pole and the banister reflect the Arts and Crafts Movement; all other woodwork in the house are running in the Colonial Revival.

North of the central hall is a large living room. The fireplace has a wooden mantelpiece in the Federal style and is flanked by two French doors that lead to the glassed-in porch. On the other side of the hall is the dining room and another room are housed. You have the living room like window. In the kitchen wing to the south, the furniture is original. The rooms upstairs are similarly divided as the rooms on the ground floor.

The garage has a gable roof and the walls are covered with planks. It was extended to the east to accommodate longer vehicles it can. In addition to the plot, there is a modern shed and a modern fountain house type of building that covered a cistern, which is on the rückwäartigen meadow and was used by the previous college. Some parts of the original water supply lines were found in the vicinity of the house.

History

The Claverack College, which was also known by the name of Washington Seminary and Hudson River Institute, was founded by John Gabriel Gebhard, a pastor of the Reformed Church, during the American Revolutionary War. It was until its closure in 1902 on the property and an adjacent property. During its existence, were trained here under different Martin Van Buren, Margaret Sanger and Stephen Crane. The buildings of the college were razed to the ground shortly after the closing.

Some of the stones remained in place, and ankaufte as George Felpel, a successful farmer from the nearby town of Ghent, one half of the former campus, he wanted to take advantage of these stones. He commissioned Henry Moul, an architect from Gloversville, who was pulled from the Hudson there to build a stone house in the then new style of Colonial Revival.

Mouls draft went very cautiously to the architectural traditions of the colonial period. He uses many features from the buildings of the Colonial Revival, about Colonnade, pediment, ornamented entrance and the central hall, but also uses the special regional characteristics of architecture. The many early buildings customary from the time of Dutch colonization in the Hudson Valley indoor stairs with two landings are rarely preserved. The use of the Gambreldachs is a feature of English architecture, which was later copied by the Dutch. He also built a the stone benches that flank the stairs at the entrance, similar to those that are visible on old representations of the streets in Albany.

The house is still used for residential purposes. It has not changed significantly.