The Museum and Headquarters

This Georgian style building, which displays aspects of Federal and Greek Revival throughout the house, is in the Stockade: Schenectady's oldest Historic District adjacent to the waters of the Binnekill and the Mohawk River.

Built in 1895, on land on which the house is now situated, by Jones Mumford Jackson for his mother, Dora Jackson, widow of Alonzo Clinton Jackson.  Dora had only four years to enjoy her new home before dying at age 68 in 1899. Jones continued to live there until 1905 when he died of sunstroke while working in the garden. He left the house to his sister Helen who then sold it to the GE Women's Club. In 1960, The Historical Society, which previously rented quarters in several different locations, received the deed from the Women's Club for $1.00. Under the Society, the original building has had several expansions, including a large, modern research library for historical records, photography, and genealogy.

Visitors can admire the front hall's cherry wood handrail to the second floor and the hand stenciled floor of a kind that was very popular during the Victorian Age. In the study one can see a center table built for the son of Eliphalet Nott, long time president of Union College, and an Edison graphaphone, which, unlike the later gramaphone, used cylinders rather than flat disks. The Music Room features a pianoforte from the Glen Sanders Mansion, built in Wyck Street, London, in 1794. The other rooms are the Dining Room, Front Parlor, the Glen Sanders Bedroom, a Children's Room that exhibits a large 1834 doll house, and a Shaker Room.  The third floor houses other museum pieces and one of two Revolutionary-war-era Liberty flags of 1771 known to exist.  Both the museum and the Grems-Doolittle research library in the rear are open to the public.

Collections:

The museum maintains wonderful collections that document domestic and industrial life from 1690 to today.

Collection of Paintings and Decorative Arts

SCHS is home to more than 60 portraits and landscapes related to Schenectady County people and places. Portraits include the Van Eps, Veeders, Glens, Sanders, Wemples, Marcellus, De Graff, Jacksons, Barneys, Yates, Rosa, Waltons, Potters, Stauring, and Schermerhorns.

There are several paintings of the historic covered bridge over the Mohawk designed by Theodore Burr, a vibrant Erie Canal scene, and early 19^th century street and farm scenes.  Artists include Ammi Phillips,  Asahel Powers, Ezra Ames, Cornelius Van Patten, John Wilkie, Samuel Sexton, and other regional artists.

Other Collections:

In addition to the Society's art collection there are other treasures of the past.

The Glen Sanders Room holds furniture from the historic Glen Sanders Mansion in Scotia, one of the earliest houses in the Schenectady area. Included are an 18^th century Kas and a Hepplewhite sideboard by William Whitehead, a well-known NYC cabinetmaker circa 1790.

The Shaker Room, though more usually associated with Colonie and Niskayuna, were once part of a large area called "Watervliet" that was much larger than the present city of that name, they came first to Schenectady. Their commune was known as Wisdom's Valley, and this room features many Shaker arts and crafts.

The children's room features a giant doll house complete with 14 rooms full of period style furniture. The doll house was designed and built by J. R. Wendell in 1834 and painted by Victor D.A. Browere. According to family tradition, the house was built for the Governor (1823-1824) Joseph C. Yates' granddaughter, Susan Watkins, and is the only known documented doll house of its era in New York State. It was donated by Mrs. de Lancey Walton Watkins, a descendant of Joseph C. Yates.

Content contributed by - Ona Curran, Wayne Harvey and Jo Mordecai