I said goodbye to my childhood home for a second time today. The first time was when I left 40 years ago to begin my career at Bell Laboratories in Indianapolis. I was filled with mixed emotions on that day; happy to have graduated to adulthood, sad to be leaving my parents and siblings and the place I grew up. Today I drove to Schenectady, NY to retrieve all remaining items of artistic and/or sentimental value and to leave it ready for the new owners who will take possession next week assuming the closing goes off without a hitch. The house was built in 1908 by Percival Lewin in what is now designated the General Electric Realty Plot Historic Neighborhood (locally known as the “GE Plot”).
The GE Plot is an area of approximately 90 acres just east of Union College. Originally an undeveloped tract owned by the college, it was sold to General Electric at the end of the 19th century to help the college pay off a debt. The company’s executives subdivided it, laid out streets according to a plan (see an updated drawing of the plan made by my mother below) inspired by New York’s Central Park and built houses on the land, with covenants requiring a minimum lot size and house value. This was done to create a neighborhood that would help attract executives and scientists to Schenectady when the company was still in its infancy.
By 1927 approximately a hundred houses had been built for some very notable residents:
- 1297 Wendell Ave. Home to Charles Proteus Steinmetz, a genius in both mathematics and electronics, he did work that earned him the nicknames “Forger of Thunderbolts” and “The Wizard of Schenectady”. Steinmetz’s equation, Steinmetz solids, Steinmetz curves, and Steinmetz equivalent circuit theory are all named after him, as are numerous honors and scholarships, including the IEEE Charles Proteus Steinmetz Award, one of the highest technical recognitions given by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers professional society. His home (pictured below), located immediately adjacent to ours was torn down in 1938 and is now Steinmetz Memorial Park.
- 67 Union Avenue. In 1900, the first home built for Edwin W. Rice, a GE executive and president of Schenectady Realty, considered one of the three fathers of General Electric.
- 1155 Avon Road. One of the first all-electric houses in the country when built in 1905.
- 6 Douglas Road. The first all-electric “Gold Medallion” house in the nation in 1901.
- Ernst Alexanderson House, 1132 Adams Road. Alexanderson, a pioneer in radio and television development, held 322 patents. The first television broadcast was received here in 1927. GE used it as a model for such houses
- Ernst Julius Berg House, 1336 Lowell Road. Home of the producer of the first two-way radio program in the U.S.
- William D. Coolidge House, 1480 Lenox Road. Home of the inventor of the modern X-ray tube. He served in his later years as GE’s director of research.
- Albert Hull House, 1435 Lowell Road. Home of the inventor of the magnetron, the later foundation for the development of radar and microwave ovens. He held 94 patents.
- Irving Langmuir House, 1176 Stratford Road. From 1919 until his death in 1957, this was the home of Irving Langmuir, winner of the 1932 Nobel Prize in Chemistry and the first industrial chemist so honored.
- George R. Lunn House, 1299 Stratford Road. Lunn was the first Socialist elected mayor of a city in New York. He later served as lieutenant governor for a term under Alfred E. Smith.
- Chester Rice House, 1161 Lowell Road. One night in the 1930s, Rice, a GE engineer, directed radio beams at nearby vehicles and got them to bounce back, one of the earliest practical demonstrations of radar.
