To the Editor:

The Guilderland Garden Club, the Helderview Garden Club, and the Guilderland Historical Society will be hosting the 2024 Open House and Greens Show at the Mynderse-Frederick House at 451 Main Street (Route 146 West) in Guilderland Center. 

This year’s theme is “Deck the Halls.”

The dates are Friday, Dec. 6, from 4 to 8 p.m.; Saturday, Dec, 7, from 1 to 5 p.m.; and Sunday, Dec. 8, from 1 to 5 p.m.

There will be musical entertainment and refreshments. Santa will be making an appearance on Saturday from 3 to 4 p.m.

On Sunday, there will be guided tours with a program of the Mynderse-Frederick House at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. A history of the historic house, owned by the town of Guilderland, concludes this letter.

A portion of the proceeds from sales will benefit a scholarship fund to aid a local high school student.  Please bring a nonperishable donation for a local food pantry. 

There will be ornaments, wreaths and arrangements for sale.

There is ample parking available. Thank you for thinking of us.

Mynderse-Frederick House

The Mynderse-Frederick House was originally built as a tavern in 1802 on the Old Schoharie Road, a single-track dirt road first used in the mid-18th Century as the route used by the early settlers of Schoharie and this part of Guilderland.

Nicholas V. Mynderse, who seems to have come from Schenectady, was the builder and original owner. Within a year, he was chosen as the first supervisor of the newly formed town of Guilderland.

In 1804, he was one of 23 persons to whom a permit was issued “to sell spirits at his public house on the Schoharie Road.” The license cost $5. His name does not show up on either the 1810 or 1820 census of Guilderland.

The house was built in the Federal style of architecture with its large central hall and balanced floor plan, typical during the early years of the republic. The tap room was in the basement with a door leading directly to the outside. The kitchen was also originally in the basement where cooking was done in a fireplace. There are four fireplaces upstairs to heat the house. The entrance to the basement from the inside can still be seen.

Mynderse planted apple trees on his sizable property, producing both vinegar and cider, which then fermented into hard cider — a popular drink in his tap room.

When the building was operated as a tavern for travelers between Schoharie and Albany, there would have been sheds for horses, a barn and pens for animals, and other outbuildings including a privy. Travelers would have been put up for the night in the second-floor rooms; strangers often shared a bed.

At some time in the 1820s, the property was purchased by Michael H. Frederick, a descendant of one of Guilderland’s earliest families who settled here circa 1740. The Fredericks lived in the building as well as running it as a tavern.

On the first floor of the tavern was a large meeting room that was used for many purposes: political meetings and caucuses, dances and social gatherings, as well as for the occasional “bees.” These were get-togethers of neighbors helping someone in need such as a person whose house had burned down.

At some point, Michael Frederick turned over the operation to his son, William D. Frederick.

In 1849, the rutted dirt Schoharie Road was planked with wood and became the Albany-Schoharie Turnpike. The investors who planked the road began charging tolls for travelers to use it.

A regular stage coach traveled back and forth between Albany and Schoharie at that time. The Fredericks decided that traffic would increase a good deal with the improvement of the road and built a new larger tavern they named the Centre House just to the west of their original tavern.

In 1860, the group Wide Awakes held a great rally in front of these two buildings. The Wide Awakes were groups of men in the northern states who backed the candidacy of Abraham Lincoln and the banner the local group carried remained in the house until the historic textile disintegrated.

The “M/H. Fredericks Hotel” is shown on the 1866 Beers Map of Guilderland.

In the 1860s, the Fredericks added a wing to the back of the house, enlarging it. They also added a Victorian porch to the front of the house and during the last years of the 19th Century took in summer boarders who wanted to get away from the heat of the city to spend time in the country. Whether or not the tap room in the cellar was used to serve drinks is not known because the Centre House next door was the active tavern.

In 1901, Michael Frederick sold the Centre House to Seymour Borst who modernized it, changing its appearance. He ran the tavern until 1938 when he sold it to Joseph Banks who continued to operate the tavern until about 1968 or 1969.

At that time, Fortunato Real Estate Interests purchased the Centre House, demolishing it as part of the construction of its Park Guilderland complex. In the meantime, the Frederick house next door was owned by William D. Frederick until 1940 when it was sold out of the family.

The real estate advertisement at the time stated there were five acres with the Mynders-Frederoick House, which was described as the “oldest and largest colonial in the western section.” There was also a barn on the property. The price was listed as $10,500. It was purchased by Andrew and Margaret Ulrich.

The Ulrichs put the house up for sale in 1963, this time for $27,000. School tax was $197.73 at that time. There were still five acres with the house.

It was purchased by Mr. & Mrs. Kent Brown who lived there until 1972 when the house and property was sold to Fortunato Realty Interests. The house, although not the original five acres of property, was deeded to the town of Guilderland with the provision that it be used for “historic purposes.” Soon after the town took ownership, it became the headquarters of the Guilderland Historical Society.

Most of the furniture and decorative accessories on display reflect the decorative periods up to about 1860 when mass production replaced skilled hand workmanship in the furniture industry.

There are several pieces of artwork in the house. Nothing is known about the portrait hanging in the center hall. It is typical of folk art portraits of the first half of the 19th Century when itinerant painters traveled from place to place, painting portraits for anyone who could afford them.

In the meeting room is a picture of French’s Hollow done by David Coughtry who grew up in Guilderland. He is a professional painter who became a college professor in the Midwest.

The picture of the Dutch barn was painted by Joan Howe, daughter of Victor Anderson, a famed illustrator early in the 20th Century. She is also a professional artist. Her father owned a farm which the family used as a summer home just over the New Scotland border and the painting may well have been a picture of the barn that once stood on that property.

In the ladies’ parlor is a large drawing of the Helderberg Reformed Church that once stood at Osborn Corners and was taken down in the late 1890s, artist unknown. Over the sofa hangs a picture of the Van Rensselaer mansion in North Albany, now gone.

It is appropriate to the house because once the family owned all of Guilderland as part of its patroonship and local farmers had to pay annual rent for their farms. The rents collected from the hundreds of farmers on the huge patroonship enabled Van Rensselaers to acquire the wealth to have such a mansion.

Over the chest of drawers is a picture of an Altamont house painted by Ed Cowley, a professional artist, head of the University at Albany art department for many years and an Altamont resident.

John B. Haluska

Second Vice President

Guilderland Garden Club

Vice President

Guilderland Historical Society