Quackenbush House: Albany's Dutch Heritage Alive
Sitting squarely next to the Albany Heritage Area Visitors Center in Quackenbush Square is one of the oldest buildings in the entire city, Quackenbush House. The Quackenbush House, so named because of the family that called the building home for nearly 150 years, stands as the second-oldest example of Dutch-type architecture in Albany. The Quackenbush family lends its name to the square that both the house and the Vistors Center sit on.
Peter Quackenbush arrived in what would later be known as Albany in the mid-1600s (approx. 1653 to 1660), and soon purchased a brickyard on the Hudson River. His son Wouter followed in his footsteps and bought the land the house currently stands on in 1683. The house as it stands right now, however ,dates from 1736, though the foundation may be as old as 1680.
By far the most intriguing part of the house is that the portion of it nearest Broadway is built in the Dutch style common to Albany homes in the late 1600s to the early 1700s, and is constructed of bricks that may have come from the on-site brickyard. In contrast, the rear section of the house is in the Federal style of nearly a century later.
The house would gain its real fame in 1777, when its then-owner Colonel Hendrick Quackenbush escorted British General John Burgoyne to Schuyler Mansion after Burgoyne’s surrender at the Battle of Saratoga. Burgoyne even stopped at the Quackenbush House before his internment and was served refreshments by Colonel Quackenbush’s daughters. Hendrick was by far the most famous of the Quackenbushes to live in the “mansion,” as the family called it. At one point, he loaned $60,000 in gold to the nascent U.S. government.
Quackenbush family members resided in the house until 1864, when they rented it to a baker named John Meyer, who both lived in and worked out of the house. Only four years later, the family sold the home to a local lawyer for roughly $15,000. After that, the home served time as a tavern, lithographer, antique store, boarding house, drug store, and even furniture store until the Quackenbush Square rehabilitation project in the 1970s.
There used to be a historical marker next to the house, but it was removed during a major landscape restoration in 2010. A walking tour past the building is unfortunately the only way you'll see the Quackenbush House. The building has been in private hands for years, and there are no tours of the interior. Until recently, the building was the home of Nicole's Bistro, but has been empty for some time. A new restaurant is slated to open there later this year.
Posted on Feb 4, 2011 by Matt Delman
