Abraham Glen House, historic house
The Abraham Glen House is an 18th-century residential building in Scotia with Dutch colonial architecture and white wooden walls. The two-story structure features a steeply pitched roof, small multi-pane windows, and a fieldstone foundation, while two wings added later extend the original form.
The house was built around 1730 for Abraham Glen using Dutch building techniques of the time, including traditional mortise and tenon joints. After 1842, Charles and James Collins purchased the property and ran farming operations plus ice harvesting, while the village of Scotia acquired it in 1924.
The house is named after Abraham Glen, an early settler who shaped the community in the 18th century. Its white wooden construction with a steep roof reflects the building traditions of Dutch settlers and now serves as a place where visitors can encounter this early settlement history firsthand.
The house sits on Mohawk Avenue near the historic Great Western Gateway Bridge and is easy to locate. Today it functions as a branch of the Schenectady County Public Library, so visitors should note typical library hours and policies.
The house now functions as a library branch, an unexpected conversion that keeps it alive and serving the community. This use shows how historical buildings were revived in practice to meet modern needs while retaining their historical identity.
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