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THE STORY

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VAN CORTLANDT

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Katharine M. Beekman

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Norman Morrison Isham, F. A. I. A.

Printed by the Colonial Dames

of New York.

1917.

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THE STORY OF VAN CORTLANDT
By Katharine M. Beekman

North of the Island of Manhattan, and across the
Harlem River lies a long flat valley, bounded on one
side by the wooded hills which, crossing the state
boundary, form the mountain ridges of Connecticut,
and on the other by those which gradually rise into
the Highlands, bordering the Hudson. Watering
this valley is a brook, known as Tibbits brook, but
called Mosholu by the Indians, which, as it ap-
proaches the Spuyten Duyvil Creek, loses itself in
ground so low that it is wet by the tide when high;
and just at the head of this Marsh stands Van Cort-
landt House, in Van Cortlandt Park.

This valley was originally the hunting ground of
a tribe of Indians, members of the Mohican family,
who had settled in a large village, near where
Yonkers now stands, on the bank of a stream which
there emptied into the Hudson. They called the
valley Neppenhaem, and used its flat fertile centre
to grow corn, while the wooded hills were cleared
of underbrush, for hunting. They were friendly
Indians until 1642-43, when, through the misman-
agement of Governor Kieft, there was a rising of
the tribes, and of the inhabitants of Westchester,
called by the Dutch, "Oost Dorp," or East Village;
some fled to Fort Orange, or Albany, and some to
Holland, while many were massacred, among whom

[3]

was the well known Anne Hutchinson and her
family. The settlements on the west side were all
destroyed, and the county abandoned.

In 1645 a peace conference was held in New
Amsterdam. Governor Kieft met the chiefs of the
different tribes, the pipe of peace was smoked, and,
before they left, the Indians were all given hand-
some presents. To buy these presents, Kieft bor-
rowed the money from Adrian Van der Donck, a
gentleman who had come over with Killian Van
Rensselaer in 1641, and was at this time the Schout
Fiscaal, or High Sheriff, in charge of that patroon's
property, at Rensselaerwyck near Albany. Van der
Donck desired to be a patroon himself, and had tried
to get a grant of land near Catskill; but this debt
from Kieft gave him another opening, and in 1646,
just before the arrival of Stuyvesant and the resigna-
tion of Kieft, he bought from the Indians, and had
confirmed to him by a grant from the Governor, land,
embracing the country from Spuyten Duyvil Creek,
along the Hudson to a creek called Amackasson, and
then inward to the Bronx River. This was called
Colen Donck, and it represents the only patroonship
in Westchester, and the first large grant, made in
that county. Van der Donck, in spite of the late
Indian Massacres, which kept many settlers away,
took possession of his land, built a sawmill near
Yonkers, on a stream still called Sawmill River, the
same on which stood the Indian Village, and a bow-
erie or farmhouse not far from the present Van Cort-
landt House.

In the fall of 1910, while laying a sewer across the
Park, the workmen found the foundation of a house

[4]

directly in front of the present one. These founda-
tions of stone were in good repair, about ten feet
underground, and still with the whitewash on their
interior surface. They showed a house about twenty-
five feet deep by fifty feet long, facing east and west,
and with a wing at the south side. It was built of
flat, red, Holland brick; and, as much black brick
was also found, the walls were probably picked out
in pattern, in black. The windows had lead frames
and exceedingly thin white glass, quite different
from the window glass of the later colonial houses.
Bits of delft china, and a silver button found, of a
kind made in Zeeland, showed that not only the
house, but its furnishings, and the dress of its in-
habitants, were all of Dutch manufacture.

This is all that remains of Adrian Van der
Donck's home, evidently one of the best of its kind.
In plan it seems to have been much like Governor
Stuyvesant's bowerie, which was built a few years
later and stood in Second Avenue, near St. Mark's
Church. Van der Donck did not live much at his
bowerie. He was too busy in New Amsterdam, for
it was he that arranged for the incorporation of that
town, and instituted the first municipal organization
of what is now the City of New York. He was one
of the two lawyers in New Netherland, had been
educated at Leyden University, and was well fitted
to take a leading part in the government of the col-
ony, while his birth was such as to command respect.
To this the city of Yonkers owes its name, for his
property there lost the name of Colen Donck, and
was called Jonk Heers, or the young nobleman's
land. He was a friend of the Indians, and describes

[5]

them in a book published in Holland in 1655. Their
dress of skins and ornaments of shells, or red dyed
hair, their upright carriage, and out-of-door life, are
all described ; and he exclaims at the fact that they
had no set time for meals, but ate when they were
hungry. To a conservative Hollander, accustomed
to regular hours in all things, such habits must have
been the most surprising of any.

The first picture, then, of Van Cortlandt Park
is of the fields and woods around the low Dutch
farm house of Adrian Van der Donck. Its double
pitched roof, covered with dark-red tiles, its walls
of richer red, ornamented with lines of black, and
its hinged windows, reflected the sunlight from bril-
liant diamond panes, of thin, perfectly annealed
glass. Its wide oaken door, with the upper part
flung back, opened on the stoop, which no doubt had
seats on each side; and there the patroon could sit,
and see his fields beginning to show the effect of
labor and planting, or turn to the salt marsh at the
south, which would bring remembrances of his old
home in Holland, until, perhaps, his reveries were
interrupted by a visit from his Indian friends, ad-
vancing from out the woods in single file, to squat
on the ground beside the stoop. Then no doubt
clouds of smoke filled the air; for the Hollanders
and Indians had two tastes alike, they loved silence,
and they loved tobacco.

It is too long a story to tell why Adrian Van der
Donck, after all his work for New Amsterdam, was
forced in 1653 to sail for Holland, to plead his own
and the colony's cause before the States General.
There he was detained until 1655, when, having

[6]

gathered much to add to his home on this side, a
vessel was loaded ready to sail for America. But
he was not to see his comfortable "bowerie" again,
for he died and was buried in Holland. He is said
to have had children, who were probably very
young, as his property was inherited by his wife.
This lady made a second marriage soon afterwards,
and accompanied her husband, whose name was
O'Neale, to his home in Maryland, and for ten
years Colen Donck lay quite uncared for.

In 1666 the colony had come under English rule,
and all the great land owners proceeded to make
their titles perfect by procuring a further grant from
the English Crown. Among the patentees who ap-
peared before the Governor were the O'Neales; and
after the Indians had been questioned and had re-
plied that Van der Donck had honestly given them
all that they asked for the land, the patent for all
the Colen Donck property, except the most southern
part, which was taken into the Fordham Manor,
was made out to the O'Neales. It was then sold in
small parcels; and the purchase of a part of it by a
man named Tibbits, gives its present name to the
brook, through which Van Cortlandt lake empties
into Spuyten Duyvil Creek. The ferry, where the
Kingsbridge is now, was so much used at this date,
that a causeway was built from its terminal to the
land. The tide, in rising, formed a second tideway
near the Westchester Shore; and across this the
causeway was built, it being the first step in the
Albany Post Road which was to come later. Travel
toward Albany at that time was entirely by water,
and not until 1694 was the Kingsbridge built; but

[7]

as early as 1673 a post rider crossed the ferry once a
month for Boston, to carry the mail between that
city and New York, the letters being paid for when
received, like any other package. The bridge was
built by Frederick Philipse, to take the place of the
ferry. This gentleman was Lord of the Manor lying
north of the O'Neale patent, and he gradually by
purchase added property to that which he already
possessed, until his land extended from the Croton
River to Spuyten Duyvil Creek.

Frederick Philipse married a Van Cortlandt,
from the manor at Croton, for a second wife, and
her brother Jacobus proceeded to fall in love with,
and marry, Philipse's adopted daughter Eva. To
fit themselves out with a home, he purchased from
his father-in-law, in 1699, the fifty acres now in-
cluded in Van Cortlandt Park, the same land which
was conveyed to the city in 1889 by the direct de-
scendant of Jacobus and Eva Van Cortlandt. In
1700 another house was built, at a point nearer the
stream than Van der Donck's and the brook
was dammed to give power for a mill, to be used
both for sawing wood and grinding corn. This mill
endured until 1889, after which it fell into disrepair,
and was finally burnt during a thunder storm in
1901. All that remains of it is one of the mill stones,
which, being cut from a single rock, instead of being
in several pieces, bound by iron, serves as a base to
the sun dial in the present garden.

We must try and understand how far away
Jacobus Van Cortlandt lived from any town, to im-
agine life in Van Cortlandt Park early in the 18th
century. To ride from the little city of New York,

[8]

all of it below Wall Street, on not the best of roads,
the length of Manhattan Island, was really a jour-
ney; so his place at Little or lower Yonkers, as it
was called, had to support itself, and all living on
it. Thus the second picture of Van Cortlandt is a
busy place, where all are at work. Sheep must be
raised to provide wool, which was spun and woven
on the place, flax must be grown to make linen, and
both then used to make the clothing needed by
Master and Mistress, as well as the family and the
slaves, who were the servants. Wood was cut and
sawed, not only for building purposes, but also to
burn. In the fall, great wagons filled with grain
from the outlying lands were brought in, drawn by
patient oxen; and it must be ground and stored, or
sent away for sale. At the same time of the year the
smoke house begins to work; and hams, bacon, and
brisket are made ready for the winter's food, while
sausages and head cheese are made, to be eaten
sooner. Then there was cider, blackberry, and cherry
brandy, and currant wine, to make; rose water for
flavoring, and innumerable preserved or dried fruits
and vegetables; while all the seed for the coming
spring planting had to be prepared and carefully
kept, and the various roots, vegetables, and apples
stored in the deep cellars, dug to keep them from
freezing. There was the raising and care of the
stock needed on such an estate, while artisans of
every kind, from cobblers to wheelwrights, and car-
penters to masons, were busy on the place. Van
Cortlandt Park was then a Southern plantation, or
Western ranch, within what is now the limits of our
city; and so successful was the place that, at the

[9]

death of Jacobus, his son Frederick van Cortlandt
inherited a flourishing estate, and was ready in 1748
to build the present larger house.

By this time New York had begun its commer-
cial existence, and most of the gentlemen of that time
were interested in the importation and distribution
of the necessaries and luxuries demanded by the in-
habitants of the Colony. Up to 1700 there had been
no money to speak of, and all trade was a matter of
exchange of commodities. Now this was changed,
and men were growing rich in the sense of the word
as used at present. This made much more passing
to and fro through Westchester, over the Boston, or
the Albany Post Road ; and, running as the last did
directly past Cortlandt House, many more visitors
were brought to the place, while the growing settle-
ment about it and the Manor Houses on the near-by
estates, also supplied many guests, who were enter-
tained with that hospitality which made America
known throughout the world. It is hard in these
days of hotels and rapid transit, to understand the
continual and open handed hospitality of the times,
when travelers could move no more rapidly than a
horse would take them, and inns were few and far
between. Then no one was turned from the door,
and the fact that the rooms of a house were already
filled was no reason for refusing an added guest.
For evening parties the guests came from far off;
and they were expected to stay the night, the latter
part being spent on any couch which could be pro-
vided by the host, and sometimes that was the floor.

The wine cellar was stocked by private importa-
tion in those days, and well stocked, direct from

[10]

Madeira or Spain. So generous was the supply that
it was used by some of the gentlemen to purchase
goods from the pirates and freebooters, who were
able to supply articles unique of their kind, and bet-
ter and cheaper than those ordinarily brought to the
colony; and to them good wine was the best pay-
ment. Each householder had his own bottles, with
his name blown in the glass; and some of these,
marked Van Cortlandt, can be seen now at the house.
This then is the third picture of Van Cortlandt, a
charming country house, filled with joy and hospi-
tality, sunshine and laughter all about it. The
garden filled with flowers behind the box borders,
lies in front of the house; and the trees, grown large,
shade it on each side, while both in summer and
winter gay parties in post-chaise, or in sleigh, come
and go to its hospitable doors, always welcome,
while, in the dreaded cholera years, it was filled
with those seeking refuge.

And so the years rolled by, until the horrors of
war arose; for the colonists protested against their
government by men so far away and so little con-
cerned for their prosperity. The proprietor of Van
Cortlandt at this time, having inherited it from his
father in 1750, was a man of such character, that all,
of every shade of opinion, trusted him, and it is said
that he was even able to influence the British Com-
manders, at times, in favor of the Americans. West-
chester County, however, was, more than other
counties, divided in opinion between those who asked
for liberty and those who remained loyal to the
Crown. These last were somewhat in the majority,
and bitter party feeling at once began to show itself;

[11]

some of the inhabitants going into the different
armies, but a large number remaining to harry one
another and the country side.

In 1775 the Sons of Liberty in New York City
managed to transport a quantity of cannon from
there to Kingsbridge, only to have them spiked and
rendered useless by a band of Tories. Afterwards,
in anticipation of the arrival of British troops, it
was decided to carry more cannon to Kingsbridge;
but horses could not be found to do the work, and
General Charles Lee, when appealed to, said "Chain
twenty damn Tories to each and let them drag them
out," evidently thinking that a fit retaliation for the
spoiling of the others. The first orders of General
Howe, in 1776, when he arrived in New York, sent
vessels of war up the Hudson to Kingsbridge, which
was then held by the Americans under General
Mifflin; and from that time until 1783 that bridge
was in the hands of one side or the other, the fighting
between them being continual except in winter, when
the British retired to quarters on Manhattan Island.
Before the battle of White Plains, the Continental
army, under Washington, passed from Harlem
Heights across Van Cortlandt Park; and, after that
battle, a military order of General Howe, dated
from the house, shows that it was headquarters for a
short time. Augustus Van Cortlandt, who had been
Clerk of New York, brought away with him the
records of the city; and, as a really safe place, buried
them on Vault Hill, just back of the house, the place
of burial of his family — while an old servant of the
family emptied the wine closet, placing all the bot-
tles in the vault dedicated to the departed Van

[12]

Cortlandts. This wine was afterwards brought back
to the house, none the worse for its ten years or so
in the tomb, and was afterwards called "Resurrec-
tion Madeira."

Later, in 1776, General Howe ranged the front
of his army at the Kingsbridge, while the Americans
placed theirs at Tarrytown, and so they remained
for seven years. The intervening land, wThich a
glance at the map will show, was mostly the Van
Cortlandt property, was called the Neutral Ground;
but, alas, its name did not mean that hostilities
ceased there. On the contrary, it was one continual
scene of skirmish fighting. Twice during that time
the Continental army pushed its outposts to Kings-
bridge, and twice the British pushed theirs to Tarry-
town; while time out of number strong detachments
from either side made forays across the country,
always crossing what is now Van Cortlandt Park.
Worse almost than the movements of the regular
troops were the marauding expeditions of the guer-
illa companies, formed of the natives, who, as I
have said, were opposed in politics. The American
sympathizers were called "Skinners"; the Tories,
"Cow-boys," this name being gained by their acting
as guides and guards to parties of farmers who
wished to bring their cattle within the British lines
at Fordham, for the price they could get in New
York was better and surer than that gotten from the
Continentals. These trips were made at night
through the woods or over untraveled roads, and al-
ways under guard. To head of! these parties was
the business of the Skinners, and warfare between
them was more like that of Indians than of civilized

[13]

beings. They had no pity on the inhabitants of the
countryside, who woke to be plundered by one party,
only to be tortured by the other before nightfall;
and, when the two met, the results may be judged
of by the story that an oak tree not far from Van
Cortlandt House was found one day to have thirty
cow-boys hanging from its limbs.

In 1780 Washington returned to Westchester and
took command of the Continental Army. Aaron
Burr was given command of the neutral ground, and
the French officers, who had come to help the
Americans, were with General Washington. These
foreign officers were most anxious to force battle
with Lord Howe, and take New York. If their
plans had been carried out, Van Cortlandt might
have been a battlefield renowned in history; but the
decisive battles were, in the end, fought far away
from there, when Vault Hill played its part, for on
it was lighted one of the watch fires by which Wash-
ington misled the British, who fancied his army still
there, after they had started their long march to
Virginia, and to victory at Yorktown.

It was in the year 1780 that the Van Cortlandt
property was filled with British troops. An officer
of the Green Yagers, named Von Kraft, has left a
diary of that year, which he passed with his regi-
ment, and two others, in huts, which they built on
Spuyten Duyvil Hill, and, as he says, "near Cort-
landts." He complains of being kept awake by
mosquitoes, and of the lack of food, and especially
that they had neither beer nor vinegar. Whether
one was considered an equivalent of the other, as a
beverage, he does not say. In August they held a

[14]

large Church parade, under the apple trees at Van
Cortlandt; but by October they had evidently left
the house, as he records the fact of an attack on his
outposts by some rebels who came from "Cortlandts."
These rebels gave the sentries a sound drubbing,
took their horses and their arms, and then let them
go free. Though pursued, they were not caught, at
which the captain says the Yagers were much
ashamed. This was on the 11th of October; but on
the 22nd the English were back at Van Cortlandt
house again, while, on the 26th, they patrolled as
far as the Philipse Manor House in Tarrytown;
and by December Van Cortlandt House was the
headquarters for Sir Henry Erskine, who, in con-
junction with a force going up the Hudson by boat,
marched from there to Tarrytown, to crush the Con-
tinentals, only to find that they had left two days
before. It was these Hessian Troops, the Green
Yagers and Emmerich's Chasseurs, who fought with
and exterminated the band of Indians who are
buried in the park, in what is called Indian Field.
Beside the regular troops and the guerilla bands
who harried the neutral ground, a company of
devoted men acted as guides and as spies for the
Americans, who should not be forgotten. They must
have been well known at Van Cortlandt House. The
names of several of the best known were Oakley,
Odell, Young and Dyckman, a name kept alive by
a street and a station on the subway. There were
two brothers Oakley, and two brothers Dyckman;
and as one of each couple had a tavern, one on
Manhattan Island, and one on the Post Road in
Westchester, the brothers had the best of chances to

[15]

gather news, and outdo the enemy. They were not
afraid of a fight, indeed gloried in it, as one of their
adventures show. Three of these men were guiding
a company of Continentals, who were in pursuit of
a party of British troops, guarding some cattle to
Fordham. They failed to catch their prey, but were
persuaded by a unanimous request of the guides to
follow across the Van Cortlandt property, and into
the camp at Fordham. There the Hessians had re-
tired into a house for the night. Nevertheless, the
guides who were in advance, stole up on the sentries,
whom they seized and gagged; and then Dyckman
climbed up on the windowsill, and tried to look
through the crack of the heavy shutters. All the
soldiers within were asleep, except four who were
playing cards. These men were disturbed by the
movement of the shutter, and Dyckman, seeing he
had no time to lose, threw himself through the glass
of the window, falling full length on the floor. He
was instantly followed by the other guides, and their
rather surprising entrance so paralysed rh^ soldiers
that there was time to pick themselves up and un-
lock the door for the American troops, before they
were attacked. All the British were taken prison-
ers, and led quietly ofT without alarming the rest of
the camp.

This will give some idea of the fourth picture of
Van Cortlandt, in the seven years that it was the
centre of the neutral ground. Its beautiful fields a
wreck, its woods filled with Skinners, or Cow-boys,
both utterly unthinking of the rights or life of any
one. Its mill still working, sometimes at the order
of the British, and sometimes at those of the Con-

[16]

tinentals, but always under such orders, so that the
owners could not profit by its work. At times, the
old-time hospitality is shown. Generals Washington
and Rochambeau dined at Van Cortlandt House on
January 2nd, 1781, as the guests of Mr. Van Cort-
landt; and no doubt at other times, there were guests
of the same quality; but even though the house itself
and its inhabitants escaped real hurt, they must have
been made unhappy by the miseries suffered by all
about them.

In November, 1783, Washington was again at
Van Cortlandt House, where he supped and slept
before leaving the next morning, surrounded by a
brilliant staff of American and foreign officers, to
ride to New York, on its evacuation by the British.

Since that time the Van Cortlandt House has
been the home of the family until 1889, when it
passed to the city. During those years it was kept
up in the same hospitable way, a way inherited, like
other virtues, in our older families. Among the
distinguished guests were the Duke of Clarence,
afterwards William the Fourth of England, and
Admiral Digby of the British Navy. This gentle-
man left behind him two rather impressive black
and white fowl, made in India and captured on a
Spanish Man-of-War, called Vultures, though of
rather a conventional type. These birds ornamented
the gate-posts of the place for years, and may now
be seen in one of the rooms of the house, attracting
much attention, in as far as they are so very different
from any known fowl, even transcending our own
national bird as he appears on the shield of the
United States.

[17]

In 1896 the city leased Van Cortlandt House to
the Society of Colonial Dames of the State of New
York, and by them it has been set apart and dedi-
cated to giving the school children and public of
New York some idea of what life was in the days
of the Colonies.

To achieve this end, a special Act of Legislature
was necessary and this was gotten by the work of a
few devoted members of the Society, headed by its
first president, Mrs. Howard Townsend, under
whose ennobling influence the Society had so grown
in its few years of existence, that it was ready to
undertake successfully the work entailed in the hold-
ing of this house as a trust, for the City, and for the
public.

To her indomitable energy, which brought every
influence possible to bear in Albany, the public is
indebted for a museum, visited each year, by from
seventy-five to a hundred thousand children, and its
work towards Americanizing the many foreigners
among those children, is acknowledged to be of the
greatest importance, by the other museums, and by
the teachers of the City. It stands also as an added
honor to the wisdom of Mrs. Townsend, whose name
was already known, in the annals of the Women's
Auxiliary, to the Sanitary Commission of the Civil
War, and by her services at Mount Vernon, the
home of Washington, the saving of which from ruin,
is perhaps the greatest monument to the power of
women's work in the United States. This sacredly
historic spot was first acquired by a corporation of
women, representing the States of the Union, in
1856, but the breaking out of the Civil War, stopped

[18]

any work of improvement upon it, although it was
held to be neutral ground, and passed through those
years of conflict, unharmed by the soldiers of either
side.

By 1876, the year that Mrs. Townsend was ap-
pointed vice-regent at Mount Vernon, she had al-
ready shown her interest in the work, as the head
of a Mount Vernon Aid Society, in this State, and
through this Society, passed the first really large sum
of money to the endowment, while by 1879, this was
added to so materially, that the special work of her
State, the renovation and furnishing of the Banquet-
ing Hall, was assured. In 1891 Mrs. Townsend was
elected Regent in Chief, and by that time, owing
largely to her wisdom and energy, Mount Vernon
had begun to be, what we know it has since become,
under her care, a fitting resting place for America's
greatest hero, and the end of many a pilgrimage,
from the world over. Mrs. Townsend was honorary
Regent of Mount Vernon, and Honorary President
of the Colonial Dames of the State of New York,
and of the National Society of the Colonial Dames
of America until her death, but no honor shown her
can be a full expression of the gratitude and admira-
tion the women of those Societies feel they owe to
one whose patriotism and public spirit suggested
their work, and whose wisdom guided their course
and whose unstinted affection and approbation helped
their efforts and rewarded their success.

In May, 1897, the Van Cortlandt House was
opened to the public, furnished as a residence of a
Colonial family, though with rooms set aside for
museum exhibits. In these rooms were to be found

[19]

the Revolutionary relics picked up about the park
property, the remains of the many forays made
across it; or, as in the case of a collection of bone
buttons partly cut or entirely finished, the reminder
of those Hessians who lived in huts on Spuyten
Duyvil Hill for so long a time that they started a
button manufactory.

And thus we reach the last picture of Van Cort-
landt. Its fields still lie green and fertile about the
house, while the wooded hills rise on each side. But
no longer are they used to grow the corn, or shelter
the game used by the Indians, or to support the
patriarchal surroundings of its early proprietors.
Tibbits brook flowed is changed, for that part which
sunlight and shade, and find rest and recreation
within its borders. Only the marsh through which
Tibbitts brook flowed is changed, for that part which
falls within the Park boundaries has been re-
deemed, and is now a garden.

This garden is in the same place as the one which
Frederick Van Cortlandt laid out; and for a second
time the land is reclaimed from its swampy condi-
tion. In the older garden, the terrace at the west
side was planted with apple, plum and pear trees,
while that to the east was filled with flowering
shrubs, such as althea, snowballs, lilacs and flower-
ing currants. Across the top of the north terrace ran
a hedge of box trees, planted to keep the north
winds away from the garden; and the huge size this
hedge attained gave rise to the idea that the air,
blowing over it, caused the curious disintegration of
the glass in the windows of the house. To the west
of that building a lawn stretched beyond the present

[20]

Broadway, then called the "Turnpike," to the old
Albany Road; and, on the west, the entrance to a
lane which ran down the hill to the mill, and on to
the farmer's house, was guarded by gate posts,
crowned by the vultures already mentioned. The
dyking of the lowland then was more perfect than
the present draining of the garden, for the land to
the south of it was in good grass for hay and graz-
ing while now it is useless swamp land, and can only
be crossed by the causeway on the southern boundary
of the park.

The garden has been a pet scheme of the Society
of Colonial Dames, who have watched with interest
the draining of the land by canals and its filling in
with loam. Of its kind it is the only one in the
parks about New York; and it is becoming more
perfect each year, so that the hope that it may in
time be the model for more old-fashioned gardens
does not seem misplaced. Van Cortlandt House
stands firm and strong in spite of its many years of
life, and its door is still hospitably opened to all
visitors. Beside it lie two cannons from Fort Inde-
pendence, perhaps some of those sent from New
York by General Charles Lee; and another re-
minder of the time when Van Cortlandt was neutral
ground is a window from one of the sugar houses,
though not the oldest, used as prisons in the city,
when every large building, even the churches, were
filled with American prisoners.

One of the reasons for the existence of the Society
of Colonial Dames, is to stimulate a spirit of true
patriotism and a genuine love of country, and to
impress upon the young the obligation of honoring

[21]

the memory of those men of the Colonial period,
who, by their rectitude, courage and self-denial, laid
the foundation of this nation; and the holding of
Van Cortlandt House in trust for the public by the
Colonial Dames of the State of New York, beside
being the preservation of an old and historic build-
ing, is an effort to teach such history. The land
bears -the name of a family whose roll of honor shows
a Governor of the State, an Officer high in the ranks
of the Continental Army, and, earlier still, a man
who filled with honor almost every office in the gift
of the Colony. To study their lives, and those of
others of the same name, in the long list of the men
who, from Colonial times have filled their years with
right living, would teach much that I have men-
tioned ; but when we turn to the history of the ground
in the last two hundred and fifty years, and add to
that the history of others of the Colonies to which
the many exhibits draw attention, it seems not too
much to claim a great usefulness for the Museum,
and to hope that it may be open to the public for
all time.

[22]

A STUDY OF VAN CORTLANDT HOUSE
By Norman Morrison Isham, F. A. I. A.

The taking of the Dutch Colony by the English
in 1666 marked the beginning of a change in the
architecture of the New Netherlands. This change
seems, however, to have been of exceedingly slow
development, and, in the remoter settlements, of
almost no effect. The farmers and the village peo-
ple generally would have little to say to the English
fashions. The mercantile class would be the first
to show the effect of the new style, and even this was
probably very slow to take up with it. The com-
mercial supremacy of England, as the eighteenth
century grew older, began, however, to show itself
in the buildings of the wealthier classes, at any rate
in the large towns, which show dwellings like the
Van Rensselaer and the Schuyler house at Albany.
Another instance of the English character of even
the later country dwelling built when the wealth
of the family had increased, is the new mansion
erected on the banks of the Mosholu Brook by
Frederick Van Cortlandt in 1748.

Yet the Van Cortlandt mansion is not thoroughly
English. It has an English dress, indeed, for the
State apartments are quite in the new manner, but
some of the more domestic rooms show stronger
Dutch influence, till we come to the kitchen which
is the most Dutch of all.

[23]

The plan of the building has the L-shape which,
whether it was built at one time, or was the result of
additions, was beloved of the Dutch craftsmen.

Neither wing of the "L" is more than one room
deep. In the main block, which faces about south,
are two rooms, an East Parlor and a West Parlor,
which have each a chimney, and which are sep-
arated by an entry or passage containing the prin-
cipal stairs. The fireplace of the West Parlor is on
the outer wall of the house, and that of the East
Parlor is on the same wall which is continued east-
ward along the south side of the passage, or entry,
in the "L." This passage, which also contains a
staircase, separates the East Parlor from what was
probably the original Dining Room at the north end
of the "L."

Both these stairs are carried up into the garret.
There is a little Dutch feeling in the main flight,
but it is not obtrusive. The strongest touch of it is
in the balusters of the last run of the staircase in the
passage. These are sawed out of boards and not
turned, but the profile is quite Netherlandish.

The West Parlor has now a late mantel of 1835
thrust into the old panelling, while the fireplace
which it surrounds has been built into the older and
larger one. The whole end of the room is panelled,
with a closet in each side of the chimney, and this
work is probably contemporary with the house. It
seems to be entirely English in its character, and
shows that this room was originally meant to be the
finest in the house.

If the East Parlor was originally panelled like
the West Parlor that panelling was soon taken out

[24]

and a mantel put in which is a beautiful example of
the Georgian manner, and which very probably was
imported. It seems certain, however, that this was
not at first the principal room, that it had originally
no panelling at all and that the mantel was put in
only when it was thought proper, after fashion had
changed, to finish up the apartment, so as to make it
the chief room of the house. Our ancestors did much
more of this piecemeal finishing than we have yet
given them credit for. Indeed, we are learning some-
thing new about their building methods almost
continually.

At some later time the room was done over in
the style of the Greek Revival, with a plaster cor-
nice.

In restoring this room it was determined, with-
out disturbing the mantel of course, to panel it as it
might have been panelled from floor to ceiling, on
all four sides, with the raised and bevelled panels
which succeeded those with the heavy bolection
mouldings so much liked by Wren.

The "L" was not occupied by the Kitchen, as it
would have been in a colonial house of the English
type, but by the Dining Room in which the present
woodwork is later than 1800. The Dutch tradition
prevailed and the Kitchen, in many ways the most
interesting room in the house, was put in the Cellar.
Its fireplace, with an oven at one side, is a veritable
cavern, though it is small compared to some of the
seventeenth century specimens. There is no mantel-
tree, but a bent iron bar sustains the very flat ellip-
tical arch which spans the opening. The ceiling is

[25]

not plastered and the beams of the floor above, 5x10
nearly, and about 1 1 inches apart are plainly to be
seen with all the marks of the broad-axes of the old
workmen. It is a mistake to call these old cuts adze
marks. The adze was a tool for use when the surface
to be cut was horizontal and could not be turned to
a vertical position, and thus could not be attacked
with the axe. It is more a shipwright's than a house-
wright's tool.

In the chambers the west room is panelled on
the fireplace end with considerable elaboration,
while the East Room is quite plain, showing indeed,
only a mantel, a fact which supports the theory that
the East Parlor below it was originally a very plain
room and that the mantel, one of the best on the
seaboard, was added later. The North Chamber is
more elaborate again than the East Room, though
not so much so as the West Room, which was evi-
dently the State Sleeping Apartment. It is this
North Room which has been fitted up as the princi-
pal apartment of a prosperous Dutchman of the late
seventeenth century. The transition from the
negative type to that which came in during the
eighteenth century, under the English rule, can thus
be very clearly seen within this one building.

In the garret of the front block are two rooms,
one of which has been fitted up with New England
panelling. In the "L" garret there are several rooms
which probably do not go back to the original house.
The Dutch flavor here, however, is more pro-
nounced. There are two doors and some hardware
which are strongly of that character. Perhaps the
doors were brought from the story below, for it is

[26]

not certain that the present roof and garret are orig-
inal, even if there were rooms in the third story at
the beginning. A hip roof, however, was to be ex-
pected, as in the Glenn-Sanders house at Scotia, and
the pitch of the roof is what we should look for.

It has been the general intention to keep the
house furnished as it would have been in its prime —
the time from the date of its building to the Revo-
lution. The Dutch Room, of course, is a thing by
itself, and even in the other rooms some fine seven-
teenth century pieces have been displayed for their
educational value. Now and then, also, a late piece
of exceptional merit has been used.

In the East Parlor a fine secretary of about
1760 stands between the windows on the eastern
wall. It once belonged to Mr. Canfield and is
very probably an early piece by John Goddard, of
Newport, one of the finest of our Colonial cabinet
makers. It is the eighth of his secretaries known to
be in existence.

The lowboy between the southern windows was
made by William Savery, of Philadelphia, another
noted Colonial craftsman, whose advertisement is
pasted in the top drawer.

All Sorts of Chairs and
Joiners Work
Made and Sold by
WILLIAM SAVERY
At the Sign of the
Chair, a little be-
low the Market, in
Second Street.

PHILADELPHIA

[27]

Over this piece is a fine gilt mirror of Chip-
pendale type.

Two other Chippendale pieces are the elegant
sofa against the west wall, north of the door, and the
delicately beautiful Pembroke table in the corner
next to the chimney.

The middle of the room is occupied by two won-
derful Chippendale seats and a magnificent tripod
or tip table with a pie-crust and claw-and-ball feet
— an astonishing specimen — a present from General
Nathanael Greene, of Rhode Island, to Madam Van
Vechten, of Finderne, New Jersey, at whose house
he stayed in the winter of Valley Forge. From the
Misses Frelinghuysen, descendants of Madam Van
Vechten, the table came to Mrs. Margaret Elmen-
dorf Sloan, whose children gave it to the Society
of Colonial Dames of the State of New York.

In the center of the present Dining Room, the old
West Parlor, is an American gate-legged or "thou-
sand-legged" table with an oval top. It has beside
it two very fine walnut chairs, one with cane seat and
back, of about 1700, the other with a banister-back,
of a little later date.

Another seventeenth century American piece is
the fine oak chest with one drawer. This stands be-
tween the southern windows and has beside it still
another early example in the very interesting but-
terfly table on the west wall. On the other side is a
Turkey work chair that can hardly be excelled.

On the east wall is an extremely good six-legged
highboy with a cushion-front drawer just under its
flat top.

[28]

In the East Parlor Chamber there is, on the
door to the north stair hall, a very curious bolt
which, by means of a cord, could be released by a
person in bed without getting up, so that the servant
could come in to make the wood fire in the morning.

On the south wall of this room is a fine block
front dressing table of mahogany, possibly by John
Goddard, while the walnut period is represented by
the highboy with its curved broken pediment. Near
by is a notable "wing" or easy chair with claw-and-
ball feet.

The Dining Room Chamber — once the West
Parlor Chamber — contains a bed of the early eigh-
teenth century with hangings covering all its posts,
as was the fashion at that date.

Over the mantel is a mirror of 1680. Near the
bed is an excellent example of a couch or day-bed,
the precursor of the couch of the present time, and
against the wall stands an inlaid lowboy.

The Dutch Room has a very fine painted Kas
cupboard, and a most interesting model of a Dutch
sloop. This model, which dates from 1705, came
from the counting room of an old shipbuilding firm
after the last member had died. It was wont to be
taken out and blessed whenever the real vessel which
it represented put out to sea.

The sleigh is Dutch also, that is, Holland Dutch,
and was brought over by the first Van Rennselaer
who came to this country.

In the further left hand or northwest corner is an
excellent example of a ship's treasure chest of paint-
ed iron — one of the kind which figures in the fabled
burials of money by Captain Kidd. Above it is a

[29]

very noteworthy Dutch china cupboard with a curv-
ing, well carved, and with glazed doors.

On the floor is a real Dutch rug or carpet.

A beautiful maple desk and a wagon chair, as
it was called, are notable exhibits in the Southeast
Chamber of the Garret.

Perhaps the most interesting piece in the South-
west Garret is the Doll's House made for a mem-
ber of the Homans family, of Boston, in 1744. It
is now being filled with furniture which repro-
duces in miniature that in the Van Cortlandt House
itself.

There are also some remarkable early toys in this
room, a cradle covered with leather and a very good
gate-legged table.

The preservation of this house means far more
than the maintaining of a museum, and thus of an
object lesson in the domestic life of our fathers.
Such a house is not a mere landmark in our social
or military history, it is a monument in the history
of our architecture as well. Even with the restora-
tions which have been made for the purpose of
showing special periods in the manner of a museum,
the house is practically undisturbed and forms, just
as a fabric, just as a matter of design and construc-
tion, a most important and valuable example of the
Georgian or English type of Colonial house, tinged
in the most interesting way with the Dutch influence
of the former New Amsterdam.

Norman Morrison Isham.

[30]

Ll2

U

H

AUTHORITIES REFERRED TO
"History Westchester Co."

Shonnard and Spooner

"Journal of Lieutenant John Charles Philip Von Kraft
of the Regiment Von Bose, 1776-1784."

"Westchester Guides"

Manuscript in New York Historical Society, by
John M. McDonald

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