Emma Van Loan, the Pitkin-Witbeck Realty Company, and the
McKown Farm Realty Corporation
Caroline Witbeck obtained sole ownership of the unsold parts of the
McKown Hotel Farm tract 1 October 1930
Deed book 834 page 524.
Emma E Van Loan was the third of the four daughters of Benjamin F
and Caroline L Witbeck.
Emma Van Loan was deeded by her mother the remaining unsold lots and
other areas of unsold property in the McKown Hotel Farm tract, 14
May 1940
Deed book 917 page 142
and also (7 February 1944) title to the lots and house at 1443
Western Avenue, Deed book
963 page 17.
And there was some legal cleanup, a quitclaim deed (from the former
interest of A F Pitkin, BF Witbeck, and spouses) to ensure clear
title to this property
Deed book 917 page 241,
and minor correction in Deed
book 1160 page 305.
At first, she operated under her own name. For example, the sale
dated 9 August 1940 of the strip of land for the major power line
now crossing Western Avenue near the Schoolhouse Road intersection.
Deed book 917 page 264
Then (or alternatively) she sold parcels doing business as the
Pitkin-Witbeck Realty Company,
for instance the land and reservoir sold 1 April 1949 to the
McKownville Water District.
Deed book 1160 page 193
However, on 1st November 1950 she and her three sisters incorporated
this real estate business as the McKown Farm Realty Corporation.
In this process, two of the sisters deeded property to the three
others just before all four jointly transferred their holdings to
the new Corporation.
Deed book 1246 page 303
recorded 6 December 1950
(preceeding deeds: book
1244 page 463, recorded 24 November 1950; book 1245 page 5;
recorded 24 November 1950)
These deeds make it quite clear that unsold pieces of the 1912
Country Club Highlands subdivision, including the alleys and private
streets, were part of this property transferred to the McKown Farm
Realty Corporation.
All sales after this date were signed by Emma E(lizabeth) Van Loan,
who later on preferred to sign as Emma W(itbeck) Van Loan, as
president of the McKown Farm Realty Corporation.
Sales of streets and alley segments, and lot pieces containing
drains from the alleys
map
of alleys and streets of Country Club Highlands as they were about
1935
[click on the map to view enlarged]
Sale of the private streets in the Country Club Highlands
development to the Town of Guilderland:
Deed book 1270 page 279,
dated 10 May 1951, recorded 18 June 1951, McKown Farm Realty
Corporation, grantor.
"... all those ... parcels of land ... known as ... "Waverly
Place", "Norwood Street", "Glenwood Street", "Parkwood Street" and
"Elmwood Street" ... as laid down on a certain map entitled "Country
Club Highlands (Revised Map)" filed in the Albany
County Clerk's Office on December 31, 1912, in Book 27, Map No.
808"
Sale of small sections of two of the
common alleys (in 1941, 1959, and 1960) by Emma Van Loan, or
the McKown Farm Realty Corporation.
The last transaction by the McKown Farm Realty Corporation recorded
in the deed indexes of the Albany County Clerk is dated 25th July
1962
Deed book 1726 page 139,
grantee August J Domenico. No transactions by this Corporation
are listed after this date (index search up through 1979).
This last transaction as far as we can tell was the very last unsold
splinter of the Country Club Highlands lots. It contains the drain
running from the west Elmwood alley, specified in this deed.
The previous year another 15 feet wide partial lot, containing the
drain running from the west Norwood-east Glenwood alley, was sold by
McKown Farm Realty on 17 April 1961 to the purchaser of the lots for
1441 Western Avenue. Deed
book 1695 page 425, grantee Boris Grechan.
Another similar drain segment ran under the easterly 5 feet of lot
51, another orphaned lot splinter sold by McKown Farm Realty
Corporation to Frank G and Kathryn M Coburn 31 May 1961, Deed book 1685 page 102.
The sale of these lot splinters, all containing drains coming from
the alleys, shows they were aware of these drains, and retained them
after the adjacent lots had been sold. The one exception is the
drain from the east Parkwood-west Glenwood alley, which lies near
the east side of lot 37, a lot sold entire in 1916 along with lot 38
to build 1449 Western Avenue.
alleys
and drains of the Country Club Highlands area about 1962
[click on the map to view enlarged]; this map shows the small
segments of alley that were sold
Unsold portions of the original Country Club
Highlands alleys (and that is most of them) were at this time (July
1962) clearly still the property of this corporate entity, or its
successor. The fact that small
segments of two alleys were previously sold, by Emma Van Loan,
and by the McKown Farm Realty Corporation, also shows that they did
hold legal title to the alleys, or acted as if they did.
Search at the online OpengovNY
(NY Dept of State) website shows no trace of this Corporation.
However, in an Agreement (to modifying a restriction in a previous
deed) dated 26 June 1967, there is this statement: "McKown Farm
Realty Corporation was voluntarily dissolved on May 23, 1960 by
certification of dissolution filed in the Secretary of State's
Office on May 24, 1960, pursuant to section 105 of the Stock
Corporation law....
and, the parties of the first part (Emma W Van Loan, Mary W
Chaplin, Louise W Perry, and Ruth W Snowden) are the former
officers, directors and stockholders of the McKown Farm Realty
Corporation and the sole successors in interests to the rights,
privileges and interests of said corporation and holders of any of
the real property owned by said corporation at the time of its
dissolution....."
Deed book 1913 page
529-34.
In April 1961, three conveyances of property in McKownville,
formerly parts of the larger Witbeck holdings, are listed from the
McKown Farm Realty Corporation to Emma Van Loan and her three
sisters, and one from that corporation to Wesley and Emma Van Loan.
The properties defined in these deeds were later sold to others, the
last in 1976, with one confirmatory deed
in 1972 for a parcel sold in 1968. All property previously
held by the McKown Farm Realty Corporation was sold, except for the
alleys in the Country Club Highlands development, which appear to
have been quietly abandoned.
Emma Van Loan died in 1980; her husband Wesley Van Loan in 1971.
There were presumably heirs to her estate, and to those of her three
sisters.
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