1832 Deed Diagrams, Albany County Historical Association

1832 Deed Diagrams, Albany County Historical Association

The Albany County Historical Association presents the following two pages from two different 1832 deeds relating to property at the Ten Broeck Mansion. Both of these deeds are located at the Albany County Hall of Records, liber 41 page 119 and liber 42 page 13.

The first shows the Ten Broeck Mansion as "dwelling house" and two symmetrical outbuildings. Such outbuildings often would have functioned as kitchens or work spaces for slaves and are still commonly seen in plantation homes of the American South. They may have served a similar purpose at the Ten Broeck Mansion. At one point in time (probably the 1830s) the bricks of the outbuildings were repurposed to make a butler's pantry as an extension of the mansion. Since the house was originally called “Prospect” that the use of one of the pavilions was just as likely to have been an open garden house. Other uses that these pavilions could have been put to include office, potting shed, tool shed, privy, and woodhouse.

The second deed shows how the property expanded to Swan Street, and highlights a vault that was the original resting place of both Abraham Ten Broeck and Philip Schuyler, among others, and was legally separated from the rest of the property as an official burial ground. The vault later collapsed and the bodies were moved first to the Van Rensselaer Manor, then to Albany Rural Cemetery. Itt collapsed in part because of the lowering of the elevation of Livingston Avenue.

Much of the recent research on these topics has been undertaken by Matthew Kirk of Hartgen Archeological Associates.

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