I’VE BEEN TO TROY, N.Y. (and blogged about it here), and to Albany (likewise) and was impressed with both, but never to Schenectady, the third sister city in New York State’s Capital District.
But I’m not averse to covering a place I’ve never visited when photos come my way. These were taken by my wasband, Jeff Greenberg, who was in Schenectady recently for the first time and was wowed by the abundance of historic architecture, like the c. 1760 Dutch Colonial above.
Turns out that Schenectady’s Stockade Historic District is the oldest residential neighborhood in the country, where more than 40 pre-Revolutionary buildings survive, along with many from the 19th century in a wide range of styles.
Settled on the Mohawk River by Dutch fur-traders nearly 400 years ago, the area played an important role in Revolutionary war supply lines and became prosperous in the 1800s when the Erie Canal was built half a mile away.
Read more (much more) about its history on the Stockade Association’s website here, and listen to block-by-block narratives about the city’s historic architecture here.
Meanwhile, have a little taste of what Schenectady has to offer old-house aficionados, below.
Below, a Renaissance Revival style mansion with original woodwork, ironwork and tile intact. A similar house next door, which has been chopped up into 14 apartments, is on the market for $725K. Find the listing here.
casaCARA 
Nice house paint colors and inspiration! I like the yellow with the red door :-)
Interesting. This summer I took my granddaughter to look at Union College in Schenectady, which I heard was a fine school, and we drove around a bit. The area adjacent to the school is really dreary & unappealing. I asked people about it and was told that the town had a lot of problems but that it was starting to turn itself around. Surely the houses in the district you’re showing are beautiful, but it sure wasn’t all like that.
Re the previous comment, the city took a huge hit economically when GE (which had been formed there by Thomas Edison in the 1880’s) basically decamped for greener tax havens, reducing a workforce of some 40,000 to 4,000. (This, of course, after polluting a few great American rivers like the Hudson, the Housatonic and the James.) The town is making a comeback though, like many upstate factory towns, judging by the lively bar scene and renovated downtown.