217 Union St Schenectady

 Charles G. Ellis House

Built in 1885 for Charles G. Ellis who served as the President of the Schenectady Locomotive Company from 1878 until his death in 1891.  Charles Ellis made a contribution of $25, 000 which was used to found Ellis Hospital in memory of his father, John Ellis, who founded the Schenectady Locomotive Works in 1851.  From 1948 to 1979 the building was called “Amity Hall” and used as an Italian-American community center.  With a modern addition at the rear, the building was converted into a apartments in the early 1980s.

The house was designed in the Romanesque Revival style popularized by Henry Hobson Richardson in the 1860s and 70s, which draws on the architecture of the late middle ages for ornamental details, and is characterized by the asymmetrical massing of the building elements, and the contrast between rugged stonework and smooth brickwork.  The Ellis House is composed of a tri-part asymmetrical massing of corner tower, main block with roof gable facing the street, and a recessed off-center entry and porte cochere.  Highlighted features include the entry porch with curved bay, a recessed porch at the third floor level in the gable, and oriel tower above the entrance.
 
Rising from a rough-hewn brownstone foundation and first floor, the brick upper walls feature carved brownstone belt courses, window sills and lintels, and parapet cap stones.  The projecting third floor porch is carried on brownstone blocks, and the gable peak above is decorated with pattern of contrasting triangular blocks of grey and brown stone surmounted with a finial cap stone.  Brownstone capitals at the entry porch pilasters and piers supporting the roof of the porte cochere, trim around the dormer window in the southeast corner of the corner tower, and elsewhere display hand-carved floral decoration suggestive of leaves and vines.  The entrance doors are oak, style, rail and panel construction, with small glazed panels in the upper halves and decorative wrought iron strap hinges.  Although the house originally was roofed with slate shingles, those have been replaced with asphalt shingles, although the original ornamental copper roof cresting and finial caps have been retained.  The original carriage house remains at the rear of the house and has been used for professional offices for many years.  The carriage house is a picturesque shingle style composition with a brick faced first floor and wood shingle walls and roof.  The design is highlighted by round roofed dormer windows in the broad roof planes.

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