101 Front St Schenectady

 JOSIAS SWART HOUSE

According to Pearson's First Settlers, "Josias, son of Teunis Swart and Annatje Zeile, married Alida, daughter of Adam Vrooman. He lives in the house still standing which he built in 1803 on the east corner of Front and Ferry." At the time Pearson wrote the present narrow houses at 101 and 103 Front Street constituted a single wide house. Exterior brickwork shows that the doorway now on the east side of 103 was formerly on the west side, where it presumably was the center en­trance of the wide house. Architect­ural modifications on No. 101 have been so numerous that the original build­ing is difficult to visualize. Architect­ural modifications on No. 103 have been less extensive. The division of the original house into two parts is be­lieved to have occurred in 1853 as a result of litigation between Alida Swart, widow of Josias, and Elizabeth Swart Meach, their married daughter.