The General Electric Realty Plot , commonly referred to locally as GE Realty Plot, GE Plots or just The Plot , is a residential neighborhood in Schenectady, New York, United States. This is an area of ​​about 90 hectares (36 ha) east of Union College.
Originally an undeveloped channel owned by a college, it was sold to General Electric (GE) at the end of the 19th century to help colleges pay off debts. The company executives shared it, putting the streets in line with a plan inspired by Central Park New York and building houses on the ground, with agreements that require minimum lot size and home value. Two of them include the first US electric house, used as a model by GE. Also settled in the neighborhood are some local businessmen and politicians, and research scientists working in the company's research lab are not far away. They are collectively responsible for more than 400 patents. Some important events in their research occur in the Plot, as many take a lot of things to do.
In 1927 about a hundred houses had been built, including those later owned by the chemist Irving Langmuir, a GE researcher, for the next life. It has since been designated a National Historic Landmark in recognition of Langmuir's scientific achievements, including the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. In 1980 the whole neighborhood was recognized as a historic district and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The plot is no longer heavily dominated by GE employees, because the company's presence is greatly reduced in the city. The houses in it remain highly valued, and residents pay some of the highest property taxes in the Capital District. The rules imposed by the neighborhood association and the city's historic Commission preserve his historic character.
Video General Electric Realty Plot
Geography
The district is largely confined by the streets, making it rectangular. To the west, Lenox Road divides it from college campus. Nott Street forms the northern boundary, separating the Realty Plot from Ellis Hospital to the back line between the houses on Lowell Road and Glenwood Boulevard marking the eastern border. After crossing Rugby Road, the lane turned west to take the houses on the south side of the road, including some at Oxford Place east of the intersection with Wendell Avenue, then follow Oxford back to Lenox.
A small river known as College Creek or Grooteskill flows west through the district to the Mohawk River, creating a 30 feet (9.1 m) deep and 30 foot wide (30 m) depth through the center of the district. It is stretched by four bluestone curved bridges, all included as contributing properties. Many mature trees grow throughout the district.
The houses inside are many with a minimum size of 70 by 140 feet (21 by 43 m), rearranging 35-45 feet (11-14 meters) from their streets ahead. They are mostly in the architectural style of Colonial Revival or the Georgia Awakening, with some in Mission Revival, Queen Anne or Shingle modes.
The Steinmetz Memorial on Wendell Avenue is the only significant open space in the district. Named for Charles Proteus Steinmetz, a German-born electrical engineer whose research allows alternating currents. The Steinmetz house (at 1297 Wendell Avenue) stands in the courtyard of the Memorial. He did research in the backyard lab, and both laboratories and homes were destroyed in 1944. Steinmetz also presided over the municipal school board. A separate public park in Schenectady, known as The Steinmetz Park, is located on Lenox Road but is just outside the GE Realty Plot area.
The building at 1184 Rugby Road was developed as an elementary school and has remained used for that purpose for many years.
Only five buildings have been added to the district since the early period of its development in the first quarter of the 20th century. They include the modern church by Edward Durrell Stone from the late 1950s on Wendell Avenue. Most of them are otherwise unobtrusive, but are not considered to contribute due to their newer construction.
Maps General Electric Realty Plot
History
In 1899 Union College announced that, to repay $ 30,000 ($ 882,000 in contemporary dollars) debt, it would sell two adjacent parcels of land. One, College Meadow, is a package of 30 hectares in the west; the other, College Woods, is 75 acres (30 ha) and is located just east of the campus. Leading townspeople are calling for land to be developed into parks, and petitions for it get 2,200 signatures. The college proposes to lease the land to the city for that purpose, but at a very high annual rate. Shortly thereafter, several members of General Electric's board, which grew rapidly since Thomas Edison transferred Edison Machine Works to Schenectady in 1886, announced that the company would purchase land from a $ 57,000 ($ 1.68 million in contemporary dollar) college university. ), college debt pensions.
They formed a subsidiary, Schenectady Realty Company, to buy and develop land. Their goal is to offer other incentives for corporate executives and researchers to live rather than go for a competitor or start their own company. It took until 1903 to assess the streets and lay down waterways and sewers and build bridges.
The plan for the environment was developed by Parse and DeForrest, a specialist in the new city planning discipline. They took their inspiration from Central Park of New York City, designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux. Instead of being planned around the main road, like the way Schenectady developed along Union Street, thinking that had guided Glenwood and Parkwood boulevards elsewhere in town, they envisioned the area as two small pieces shared by Wendell Avenue, a street that named after the former landowners in the area. They spread the streets with a soft curve, like a street in Central Park. They also tried something new in the city streets at the time: "dirty sewer", where there is no limit on the paved road, to better keep the atmosphere like a park.
The agreement in the deed for each lot of construction is limited on it to a single family home, for sale or valued at no less than $ 4,000 ($ 118,000 in contemporary dollars), almost twice the average home value in Schenectady at that time, its worth later. lifted to take into account inflation. Construction should begin within two years of the purchase of the lot. Setbacks and lot size restrictions are also set at this time. Another provision limits the height of any fence between properties up to 3 feet 6 inches (107 cm), to ensure that the decoration is purely ornamental. When the plan was completed, the property surveyor claimed, "We are here an unquestioned suburban plot between New York and Chicago, either in the layout, restriction, or class of the house above it."
The streets are largely named after the combination of Sir Walter Scott's works and two prominent names in New England history, Adams and Lowell. Rugby Road is named because of the use of a nearby field for rugby matches. Nott Road already exists and is named for Union Union president Eliphalet Nott. Lenox Road was originally spelled with two "n".
Every winter an area behind Brown School is flooded to create a skating pond for Plots residents, who receive a special collar label to identify themselves. Fire hydrants built for this purpose still exist.
Houses built and sold quickly. Some non-GE residents moved in, including the city's F.F mayor. Eisenmanger. In 1912, another mayor, George R. Lunn, the first Socialist mayor of New York and then state lieutenant governor, ordered the city to take over the maintenance of the streets. This leads to the installation of sidewalks, which dilute the look of the original sod-gutter.
The original plot map shows three large packages in the Oxford Street area to the east. Not part of the original College Woods property, they were eventually purchased by the realty company in 1914 and developed. These lots had no agreement at the beginning, and as a result some of the houses on Rugby Road were closer to each other than the rest of the neighborhood.
In 1927 almost all lots were bought and built. Since then only five new buildings have been built in the district.
Preservation
This neighborhood is one of four historic districts recognized by the city of Schenectady. It comes under the scope of its Historical Commission, a body of seven members who meet once a month. Under city zoning regulations, any change to a historic building in a district visible from a public right must be approved by the commission. The houses in the district, already the largest in the city, have some of the highest property tax assessments in the Capital District area, from $ 200-400,000. Many residents pay more than $ 10,000 each year to towns, districts, and school districts. Heating bill also reached thousands.
There is also an environmental association, Unity Realty Plot. It publishes bulletins, The Plot Spotter , sponsors annual home and garden tours and works to preserve the historic character of the neighborhood. Members also greeted new residents with a bottle of champagne and Enclave of Elegance , environmental history.
Union College has several homes, and by the end of the 20th century decided to convert some of them to administrative offices and student housing. Citizens objected, citing the deed and zoning agreements that prohibit the use of business, and filed a lawsuit. In 2001, the state appeals court upheld lower court rulings in support of higher education. As a nonprofit institution, universities are not a business, and their presence precedes the making of plots and established agreements, so that the formulator of the agreement will likely include languages ​​that explicitly restrict activities related to colleges if that is their intent. It transformed the Parker-Rice plantation in 1128 Lenox Road into an office for the fundraising department and its alumni of relationships. Attempts to have the State Court of Appeals, the highest, heard the case was rejected.
Property contributed significantly
Most houses in districts that have additional significance have it because of their inhabitants.
- 67 Union Avenue. In 1900, the first house built for Edwin W. Rice, a GE executive and president of Schenectady Realty, was considered one of three General Electric's father.
- 1155 Avon Road. One of the first electric houses in the country when it was built in 1905.
- 6 Douglas Road. The first "Electric Gold Medal" house in the country in 1901.
- Ernst Alexanderson House, 1132 Adams Road. Alexanderson, a pioneer in radio and television development, holds 322 patents. The first television broadcast was received here in 1927. GE used it as a model for such houses
- Ernst Julius Berg House, 1336 Lowell Road. The home of the first two-way radio program producer in the US.
- William D. Coolidge House, 1480 Lenox Road. Home inventor of modern X-ray tubes. He served in his final years as research director of GE
- Caryl Parker Haskins House, 1166 Avon Road. Home entomologist when he taught at Union College.
- Albert Hull House, 1435 Lowell Road. Home inventor magnetron, the foundation later for the development of radar and microwave ovens. He holds 94 patents.
- Irving Langmuir House, 1176 Stratford Road. From 1919 until his death in 1957, this was the home of Irving Langmuir, winner of the 1932 Nobel Prize in Chemistry and the first respected industry chemist. Designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1985, it is the only property contributing in districts separately listed on the National Register.
- George R. Lunn's House, 1299 Stratford Road. Lunn is the first elected Socialist mayor of a city in New York. He later served as lieutenant governor for a tenure under Alfred E. Smith.
- Chester Rice House, 1161 Lowell Road. One night in the 1930s, Rice, a GE engineer, directed the radio beams to nearby vehicles and made them bounce back, one of the earliest practical radar demonstrations.
- Edwin Rice House, 1050 Avon Road. Rice built this house for herself in 1905.
See also
- List of Historic Historic Places of Interest in Schenectady County, New York
References
External links
- Neighboring website
- Travel brochure running
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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