Mabee House

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Dating from the 17th century, the Mabee House at the Mabee Farm Historic Site is the oldest house still standing in the Mohawk Valley. It is located in Rotterdam Junction, New York, along New York State Highway 5S, about six miles west of the city of Schenectady.

The oldest building on the property is the stone house. It has been in the Mabee Family for almost three centuries The current 9-acre property, including the house, inn, slave building, a family cemetery, and more, were obtained by the Schenectady County Historical Society in 1993. An H-bent frame Dutch barn, dating from the 1760s, was later acquired from the Nilson family and moved to the Mabee Farm Historic Site. Various educational programs and events are now offered to the public there.

[edit] History

The property was first acquired and settled by Daniel Janse Van Antwerpen in 1671. He purchased the property from the Mohawks and received a grant from the English Governor Andros to establish it as a fur trading post to meet the Native American traders before they reached Schenectady. Van Antwerpen, a neighbor and mentor to Jan Mabee in the Schenectady stockade, sold the westerly half of the farm property to Jan in 1706. The original deed was given to the Historical Society along with 582 other documents and over 1,000 artifacts. The other original structures on the farm are a frame pre-Erie Canal inn, in which Revolutionary War General Philip Schuyler stayed in 1792 while surveying for the Western Inland Navigation and Lock Company, and a half brick and half wood probable “slave house.” The Farm's original barns, however, were consumed by fire in the 1870s and 1970s. There is also a family cemetery, which has graves dating from the 1700s.

George Franchere, the last owner from the Jan Mabee line, donated the property to the Schenectady County Historical Society, with the intention that it would be maintained as a museum and educational center. To that end, volunteers from the Society have worked to preserve the property and its donated artifacts and to develop educational programs and events that present colonial American history to visitors. They have recently built a dock on the bordering Mohawk River and acquired two replica bateaux built by students of the Alplaus Maritime Academy for use and demonstration near the river’s edge. The property is open to the public from May to October each year.

[edit] References

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