17 N Ferry St Schenectady

 Wemple/McDougall/Swits House
 
The house on at No. 17 N. Ferry Street has a complicated pedigree.  The property once included the land of the present lots at Nos. 13-15-17 N. Ferrt St.  The front part of the house likely dates to 1768 when Myndert M. Wemple appears to have converted an existing blacksmith shop into a dwelling house, and at the same time built a new blacksmith shop on the site of No. 13 N. Ferry Street.  Sometime before 1783, Wemple sold the property to Duncan McDougall, a Scotsman who had come to Schenectady in the late 1760s.  McDougall sold the property to Walter Swits, another blacksmith, in c. 1791 or 92, who used the blacksmith shop at the site of No. 13 and lived in No. 17.  The blacksmith shop on the site of No. 13 was converted into a residence in the early 19th century, and replaced between 1880 and 1884 by the side-by-side pair of Italianate townhouses presently Nos. 13 and 15 N. Ferry St.  In the late 1950s, the house at No. 17 was remodeled with the addition of the Greek Revival style elements, including the flush board siding, classical columns, and balcony above the entry porch.
 
A second structure that was once used as a separate dwelling and later as a kitchen to the front house is attached at the rear.  This structure has been identified by some local historians as an earlier structure that may have been the village house of Jan Mabee.  Since the house’s sill plate does not align with the stone foundation wall of the main house, the rear wing may have been moved to this location after the main house was constructed.  Regardless of its origin, the rear “kitchen” wing appears to be an early 18th century Dutch post and beam frame structure.