Roughly bounded by Oxford Pl., Union Ave., Nott St., Lenox and Lowell Rds., Schenectady, New York. County/parish: Schenectady.
Added to the National Register of Historic Places November 18, 1980. NRIS 80002763.
125 contributing buildings.
The General Electric Realty Plot, often referred to locally as the GE Realty Plot, GE Plots or just The Plot, is a residential neighborhood in Schenectady, New York, United States. It is an area of approximately 90 acres (36 ha) just east of Union College. In 1980 the entire neighborhood was recognized as a historic district and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Originally an undeveloped tract owned by the college, it was sold to General Electric (GE) at the end of the 19th century to help the college pay off a debt. The company formed a subsidary to subdivide and develop it, laid out streets according to a plan inspired by New York's Central Park and built houses on the land, with covenants requiring a minimum lot size and house value. Two of them were among the first fully electric houses in the U.S., used as models by GE.
Alongside top GE executives, local businessmen, and community leaders settling in the neighborhood were scientists who worked either at the company's GE research laboratory or at nearby Union College, which abutted the Plot's western border. The latter were collectively responsible for over 400 patents, with mathematician and electrical engineer Charles Steinmetz alone accounting for 200 patents between his work at GE and as a professor at Union. Some of the key events in their research happened within the Plot, as many took their work home with them.
By 1927 approximately a hundred houses had been built, including the home later occupied by Nobel laureate chemist Irving Langmuir, a GE researcher, during his later life. It has subsequently been designated a National Historic Landmark in recognition of Langmuir's scientific accomplishments, including the Nobel in Chemistry.
The Plot is no longer so heavily dominated by GE employees, due to the company's greatly reduced presence in the city. Houses in it remain highly valued, and residents pay some of the Capital District region's highest property taxes. Rules enforced by both the neighborhood association and the city's Historic Commission preserve its historic character.
(read more...)National Park Service documentation: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75321677