17 Front St Schenectady

Myndert Ten Eyck / Joseph C. Yates House
 
The Ten Eyck/Yates House was constructed on land that was part of Arent Bradt’s pasture lot in the early 18th century.  In 1773, Tobias Ten Eyck, a merchant who had settled in Schenectady in c.1750, purchased a lot of land and it is likely that he constructed a large gambrel-roofed house in c. 1774 following the marriage of his son Myndert Schuyler Ten Eyck to Elsje Sanders, a daughter of John Sanders, perhaps as a wedding gift.  It has been suggested that the house was designed by Samuel Fuller, the architect/builder who designed St. George’s Church on Ferry Street and Johnson Hall, the home of Sir William Johnson in Gloversville, NY.  Myndert inherited the house upon his father’s death in1785 and, in May 1792, sold the house and lot to Joseph C. Yates, a prominent local attorney, who had married Ann, the widow of James Ellice, in September, 1791.  Yates was appointed as the first mayor of the City of Schenectady in 1796, elected state senator in 1807, judge of the New York State Supreme Court in 1808, and governor of the State of New York in 1823-24.  He died in 1837 and left the house to his widow Ann Elizabeth Delancy Yates, his third wife.  In 1856, she in turn left the house to her nephew, John Delancy Watkins.
 
The Ten Eyck/Yates House was originally constructed as a formal Georgian style two-story 5-bay house with a gambrel roof and center hall floor plan.  The facades are raised on a stone foundation and constructed of brick laid in an English common bond pattern at the first and second floors, but are laid in American common bond above with a belt course at the second floor level.  The outline of the former gambrel roof profile can be seen on the west end wall above the office wing as the English common bond pattern gives way to American common bond where the wall was raised for the third floor.
 
The present appearance of the house reflects a remodeling that may have occurred in the 1840s in the then popular Greek Revival style.  The gambrel roof was removed and a full third story added, with brick parapet side walls and grille-covered windows in a wide frieze band in the fascia band of the cornice at the new attic level.  The house has been enlarged since then, and extensively remodeled in the 1950s and 60s.
 
The elliptical fan light transom and sidelights with leaded glass, an 8-panel door, classical pilasters and plain rounded half-columns, are reflective of the Georgian style.  The first floor window lintels are decorated with three-part panels while lintels above second and third floor windows have splayed double keystones which may have been relocated from the first to third floors at the time of the remodeling.  The French door with sidelights above the entrance has a three-part paneled lintel and iron railing at a shallow balcony.
 
The small attached building on the west side at the corner of Governor’s Lane is believed to have served as the governor’s law office, suggesting that it was constructed after 1792.  Originally having two windows on the first floor and an entry door at the right, with a gabled pediment with fan light attic window facing the street, the office was altered before the 1960s by the replacement of the two windows with a single window flanked by sidelights.  Later, during the 1960s, the gabled roof was removed and a full second story added.