General Electric Realty Plot

Set on Union Street Hill just east of the Union College campus in Schenectady, this neighborhood of roughly one hundred very large single-family houses was laid out on about seventy-five to ninety acres with ten tree-lined streets. A ravine thirty feet deep, with a stream, crosses the center and is spanned by four arched bridges of Duanesburg blue stone. Lots are at least seventy by one hundred forty feet, and houses sit well back from the street. Most were built between 1900 and 1927, chiefly in Georgian and Colonial Revival designs, with Queen Anne, Shingle, Mission and Tudor examples. Only five later buildings have been added, and they do not intrude on the historic character. The inventory ties many houses to General Electric engineers, inventors and executives. One is described as the site of the first home television reception in 1927, and others as early all-electric homes used to promote electric living. Architects such as W.T.B. Mynderse and Oren Finch designed many of the houses.