A small airstrip known on maps as Jewett
Field was located in the vicinity of Burning Bush Boulevard. The "runway"
was in the vicinity of the present day basketball court by the pool. A couple of
flimsy hangars stood in the vicinity of where the clubhouse is now. The
structure we came to know as "the hangar" (on the corner of Burning Bush
Boulevard) was, in reality, never a hangar for airplanes, but rather a structure
used by Martin Jewett to store his trucks used in his sand mining business.
Mining molding sand was a popular enterprise back then. The land where Country
Knolls stands was famous for its Albany Glacial sand. The hamlet of
Jonesville was the population center of what was truly a rural area.
The land upon which Country Knolls was to be
built was divided into roughly five separate parcels. Landowners included Martin
Jewett, Thomas Oil Company, Gilbert Mauer, Casimir Raylinski and John Bellott.
They were agreeable to selling their land to Robert Van Patten. The land was
valued at about $500 per acre, but Van Patten paid the landowners $750-$1,000 an
acre, payable over a ten-year period without interest. The landscape and rural
nature of the community was about to be changed forever.
On July 15, 1964, Section 1 of Country
Knolls Estates was given final approval by the Town of Clifton Park Planning
Board. Construction commenced immediately.
The original section of Country Knolls is
located off Ushers Road and consists of fifty homes on Ridge Lane, Manor Court,
Hillcrest Drive and Meridian Lane. The houses offered were essentially the five
basic Van Patten styles that, by 1964, had been built for four years down at
Clifton Knolls. However, to entice would-be buyers to move "all the way" to Exit
10, Van Patten offered early buyers a $500 price reduction from the Clifton
Knolls price. These five styles were to dominate the landscape of Country
Knolls. They consisted of two colonials and three ranches. They ranged in price
from the low to upper 20’s. They were all original designs.
Section by section, Country Knolls was built
and slowly began to expand to the north and northeast. A model home was built at
182 Wood Dale Drive at the corner of Ushers Road. The swimming pool was
constructed in 1968, and sales took off, reaching a rate of about 200 homes a
year. The two "duplexes" at the beginning of Burning Bush Boulevard were built
to temporarily house families moving in when their homes were not quite done.
In those days, virtually all phases of
construction were handled by the Van Patten organization. The only parts
sub-contracted out were the driveways (which were put in by King Paving), and
the foundations, with footings hand dug by Sonny Van Wormer and his brother.
Plumbers, masons, electricians and carpenters all worked for Van Patten. Van
Patten himself could be found quite often working right alongside his workers,
which at busy times numbered over 200. In fact, by the mid-1960s, Van Patten was
fabricating his own aluminum siding.
Houses would be built almost assembly line
fashion, street by street. On certain streets, due to their desirable location,
the houses would carry "premiums" of $2,500. Starting around 1968, the framing
lumber for the houses was pre-cut in the newly constructed warehouse (across
from the present day Van Patten Golf Course) in Elnora.The wood would then be
trucked to the site and assembled. An individual by the name of Rocky Graziano
(who still resides in Country Knolls) supervised the warehouse operation.
Virtually all mortgages were written by
Schenectady Savings Band (now Northeast Savings), whose president at the time
was a friend of Van Patten. All it took was a $100 deposit and a handshake.
There were no written contracts. If the buyer didn’t like the house as built,
the $100 would be refunded and the deal cancelled. If by the time the house was
finished Van Patten came to dislike the buyer, he’d refuse to sell the house.
Specific crews who were dedicated to a
particular style home and were led by a foreman working without blueprints
handled framing. Oddly, Van Patten never named the homes, but would refer to
them simply by their style. The ranches were called the 4-bedroom, the 3-bedroom
or the raised ranch and were framed by crews led by Don Ward. The two colonials
began to cause confusion, as they both had the same number of rooms. As result,
these two homes soon each acquired the name of their framing foreman. Hank
Graves was in charge of framing one, and this house was therefore referred to as
the "Hank’s". Stan Marrick was the foreman in charge of the other colonial, thus
the "Stan’s" was born. It was only years later that sales agents attached more
formalized names to these homes. The Hank’s became the Hanover, the Stan’s
became the Standish, the 4-bedroom ranch became the Executive Ranch while the
3-bedroom became the Top-Half (it was essentially the top half of the raised
ranch). The Raised Ranch never acquired a formal name.
By 1972, eight years after construction began,
almost 900 homes had been constructed in the Clifton Park portion of Country
Knolls including 136 homes in the separate "Longkill" section (1970), and 100 in
the "Ashley" section (1971). Occasionally modifications would be made to the
design of a particular style house. For example, around 1970, as a result of an
ambitious homeowner named Phil Lecroix adding a porch to the front of his Stans
on Shawdow Wood Way, Van Patten followed suit, lowering the roofline at the same
time. The "Top-Half" ranch went through three different facades. There were also
variations of particular models, such as the "Short" or smaller Stans and raised
ranch, as well as a 6-bedroom deluxe Stans, which was about a $4,000 option. You
could also order, if there was sufficient space on your lot, a triple garage
Hanover, or a side entry 2-car garage. The raised ranch would eventually be
phased out by Van Patten, but the early 1970s saw the addition of two new
models: the Saratoga and the Saratoga Deluxe, two colonials somewhat smaller
than the Stans.
Van Patten filed plans with the Town of Malta
to extend Country Knolls into that town. Approval was granted, and by April of
1972 the first 30 Malta homes went on the market. They were located on Garrison
Lane, Walden Glen, and Village View Bluff. A Hanover now cost $44,900 while a
Stans went for $40,900. Ranches ranged from $34,500-$38,500.
The Malta section carried an official name of
Country Knolls North. As it eventually merged with the rest of Country
Knolls the "north" designation slowly faded and the entire development was
simply known as Country Knolls. Colored siding eventually became an
option in the Malta section.
By 1974 almost 300 homes had been completed in
Malta and Country Knolls was largely completed. Van Patten shifted his attention
to the newly approved Country Knolls South development off Plank Road.
Construction in Country Knolls soon ceased for a period of 14 years.
Construction equipment returned in 1988 and
Van Patten built almost 60 homes in the area surrounding Huntington Parkway.
Sub-contractors by this time played a much larger role. While some new models
were introduced, many of the original style homes were still being built.
