McKown farmhouse on McKown Road; photo taken 1950
[from W. Mohr archive held by the Albany Pine Bush Preserve;
contributed by Steve Rider]
Fred Abele discusses this house in articles in the Altamont
Enterprise (15 May
1981; also 26 Jan 1984). He states that this Georgian-style
house was built sometime between 1810 and 1820 by John McKown
(1787-1870). This is inconsistent with the purchase of the land in
which this house stood (the Ross Farm) by John McKown in 1824, shown
by the deed dated
that year. It seems plausible to us that this farmhouse was
either built by McKown in or shortly after 1824, or that it was
quite a bit older, being built by Daniel Ross in the late 1780's
after he took the lease of the property from the Van Rensselaer
Manor.
Several generations of the McKown's lived here, the last being
William McKown (1842-1924) and his family; however, it seems that in
1887 they moved, to a new house he had built at the corner of McKown
Road and Western Avenue (1436 Western
Avenue). Between that time and 1926, it is not known who
occupied this old farmhouse, as the censuses in that interval do not
identify at all clearly the location of the houses and families
listed in them.
In 1926 the house and the adjoining McKown Grove were sold to
William J. Knowles. His widow Margaret J. Knowles sold the property
in 1947. In the 1960's it was sold to real estate "developers" who
left the house unoccupied and allowed it to deteriorate; in 1970 it
became, as Fred Abele remarked very accurately, a victim of
demolition. The former house site is west of McKown Road, south of
the west branch of the Krumkill; this can be seen marked J. McKown
on the Beers map of 1866
with the northern part of the present McKown Road leading to it. It
also appears, wrongly placed with respect to the Krumkill, and
marked as J. McCoun, on the 1854 Gould map, but is not shown on the
1851 Sidney map.
Beers map of 1866 showing the area of McKownville and the location
of John McKown's farmhouse on McKown Road
return to McKownville
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