Introduction
This work focuses on the unique architectural and historical
significance of the building at 96 Madison Avenue, built for John
Stafford about 1811. To do so introduces us to some of the most
privileged of Albany’s residents in the city’s early 19th century history.
First-generation immigrant families eventually owned and occupied the
Stafford House and operated various stores there before 1900.
Thereafter, owners made drastic changes and left it in startlingly poor
condition by the time Historic Albany Foundation, Inc., bought the
house in 1985.
Overall, what is left looks to most unfamiliar with the house like a
major disaster. Why should the house be restored rather than just
renovated to modern standards? Hopefully the following chapters will
illustrate the value of going the extra mile for this building. This is not
an exhaustive study. Although considerable research has been
conducted, it is intended as an introduction to various people and ideas
not previously discussed at any length - all associated with a building that
by some miracle is still standing. Perhaps it will lead to more discussion
and a happy ending.
Yankee Changes
The story of the John Stafford house begins in one of the most
active transitions in Albany history. Before the Revolutionary War, the
influence of the mostly Dutch and Flemish-descended settlers of Albany
gave it the social and physical character of small towns in Northern
Europe. By 1820, Albany was the state capital, a transportation hub and
a site of commercial and industrial enterprise. There was a progressive
city suddenly emerging in the wild reaches of the Hudson Valley.
The split between England and the American Colonies played a large
part in this change. East Coast ports paid a price in widespread financial
depression for being so entwined with the British economy. After the
British gave up their land claims in the American Midwest in the Treaty
of Paris, a great migration of families from the coast scattered settlers
across New York state and westward toward the Mississippi River. Sited
between the Catskill, Heldeberg and Adirondack Mountains, much of
this exodus was funneled through Albany, beyond which travelers found
relatively flat ground out to the Great Lakes. Contemporary accounts
say that on some days as many as 500 wagonloads a day of immigrants
and their possessions, mostly from New England towns, passed through
Albany in the 1790s. Many recognized that Albany was an ideal place to
start a new business. The process was not without its drawbacks.
Although people of various nationalities lived in Albany since its
founding in 1652, the city clearly was dominated by the Dutch. New
Englanders had a different social and cultural background, and friction
between the old Albany families and the newcomers was inevitable. A
tongue-in-cheek reference to the matter was made by a newcomer who
wrote “The people were Dutch, the houses were Dutch, and even the
dogs were Dutch… The Yankees were creeping in…and the unhallowed
hand of innovation was seen pointing its impertinent finger at the
cherished habits and venerated customs of the ancient burghers
…Before they awoke new swarms had arrived and a complete and
thorough revolution had taken place…Even the dogs began to bark in
broken English.”(1)
The opportunism of the newcomers was tempered with good intent.
Elkanah Watson, an entrepreneur who came to Albany in 1789, recounts
in his journal “...no street was paved, no lamps, no library; not a public
house of any decency; and water spouts projecting from the eaves of the
houses deluged unwary night travelers sunk in mud
and darkness.”(2) He goes on to say that “Just after State Street had been
paved at a heavy expense [at his own instigation], I sauntered into it
immediately succeeding a heavy thunderstorm, and whilst regretting...to
observe the cellars filled with water, I heard two women in the act of
clearing their invaded premises from the accumulation…cry out ‘Here
comes that infernal paving Yankee!’ They approached me in a menacing
attitude...Prudence dictated a retreat to avoid...the infuriated Amazons,
although I did not run as some of my friends insisted, but walked off at
a quick pace.”
Leaders in Albany’s growth were such out-of-towners as Watson,
who also co-founded the New York State Bank (Albany’s first); Ezra
Ames, an accomplished portrait painter; Aaron Burr, a prominent
lawyer; Philip Hooker, the region’s first resident architect; Eliphalet
Nott, founder of Union College; the Websters, who started their far-
reaching book concern on State Street hill, and the Stafford family, who
found great success in making and selling hardware. Among the Dutch
“burghers” were several men who shared in the vision of a more
culturally developed city, including scions of the Van Rensselaer and
Schuyler families.
Only with this germination of a very different city was the stage set
for the creation of John Stafford’s elegant and stylistically mysterious
house at 96 Madison Avenue. It is not just a rare physical artifact of
early 19th century Albany. With its successive occupants, it was part of
the social drama as the small Dutch town dissolved into memories. The
following chapters will first introduce the major players involved with
the Stafford House during its period of architectural and historical
prominence, then open a discussion about the architectural significance
of the house and the role in it that Philip Hooker appears to have
played.
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1. Gorham A. Worth, Random Recollections of Albany from 1800 to 1808 (Albany:J. Munsell, 1866), p. 27.
2. George Rogers Howell, Bi-centennial History of Albany County, N. Y., from 1609 to 1886 (Albany:W. W. Munsell & Co., 1886), p. 509.