porte-cochere

 

 

Many thanks to the Schuyler County Historical Society, Kimberly Voorheis and Jim Treakle for their significant contributions to these pages, and for their enthusiasm.

Glenfeld, front view

Glenfeld - Home of General George J. Magee and family, Watkins, NY

"The delightfully located residence of Gen. G. J. Magee, on Madison Ave., in this village (Watkins), is now nearly completed, and is to be one of the most costly and splendid mansions in the interior of the State. It contains an incredible amount of room, much more than is indicated by its exterior appearance, and is finished from basement to tower in the highest and richest styles of woodwork and fresco, embracing a great variety of elaborate designs, which may be studied with increasing interest and pleasure for hours." Watkins Express - July 16, 1874

"One of the most complete structures of its kind in this section of the State, is the Pump House attached to the grounds of Gen. G. J. Magee's imposing residence on Madison Avenue. It is a fire-proof building, conveniently located upon the lake-beach and is twenty-four feet in width by thirty in length. Its exterior presents a neat and substantial appearance and its interior is conveniently arranged and well adapted to the purposes for which it was intended, and since the placing therein of the pumping apparatus, its entire management has been under the control of its present engineer, Frank McCall, who has been one of General Magee's most efficient and faithful employees for many years. A Preston and Herman boiler generates the enormous power required to force a stream of water four inches in diameter to an elevated reservoir nearly one quarter of a mile away. The pump is of the Blake pattern, manufactured at Boston and New York, and at each stroke of the piston-rod delivers at the receiving reservoir one and one-half gallons of water. It is manually regulated to deliver three gallons per second, but it can be increased so that the reservoir, holding thirty-five hundred barrels, can be filled in less than four hours." Watkins Express - August 3, 1882

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