136 Front St Schenectady

 Catherine Glock House
 
After the graves of the old Dutch Church Cemetery were removed in 1879, a map was filed in the Schenectady County Clerk’s Office in April 1880 to subdivide the plot into 17 building lots, all with 28 to 29 feet of street frontage and varying depth.  Many new houses of brick or wood were built on these lots in the period between 1880 and 1890 in the Italianate style, and are characterized by ornamental wood cornices with brackets and decorative fascia panels, decorative lintels above windows and doors, paired entry doors that display a mix of glazed and solid wood panels, projecting bay windows above the entry doors, and two-light over two-light double-hung wood window sash.  Due to the narrow lots, the ornamental features were concentrated on the street-front facades while side and rear facades displayed simplified details and features.  
 
The house at 136 Front Street is representative of the wood sided houses built at that time.  Lot No. 10 was purchased by Catherine Glock in February 1886 and the house was likely built shortly thereafter.  Many of these “cemetery lot” houses have been altered in the 20th century by the removal or concealment of ornamental lintels and cornices, and the addition of aluminum or cement shingle siding.  An example of this type of simplified alteration can be seen next door to the east at 138 Front Street, where aluminum siding was installed over the original wood board siding and ornamental lintels removed.  The only trace of the original ornamental features remaining is in the bracketed wood cornice.