48 Washington Ave Schenectady

 Abraham Van Ingen / Benjamin Mumford House

The fur trader, Hendrick Brouwer, is reputed to have owned “an old wooden gable-ender” house at this location as early as 1746.  The property was sold by Brouwer’s heirs to Abraham Van Ingen, a local attorney, in 1796 and it is believed that the earlier house was replaced in c.1800 by the present Federal style brick house.  Benjamin Mumford, who had been engaged in “mercantile enterprises” in New York City, purchased the house in 1817 shortly after he moved to Schenectady, and lived there until his death 26 years later.  The house survived the Great Fire of 1819 and Mumford published in a local newspaper his statement of thanks to the citizens and students of Union college for their help in saving the house from destruction.  The two-story brick house has stepped-pediment side walls and a side hall floor plan.  The front facade features Flemish bond brickwork above a dressed bluestone foundation with brownstone watertable, splayed flat-arch brick lintels above windows, and a six-light semi-circular transom window above the front door.  The cornice is composed of wood modillion blocks and a running dentil course.