Defreest Homestead | |
Location | RPI Tech Park, U.S. 4 and Jordan Rd., Troy, New York, USA |
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Coordinates | 42°40′32″N73°41′39″W / 42.67556°N 73.69417°W |
Area | 22 acres (8.9 ha) |
Built | c. 1765 [1] |
NRHP reference No. | 77000978 [2] |
Added to NRHP | August 2, 1977 |
The DeFreest Homestead is a historic house and barn located in the Rensselaer Technology Park in North Greenbush, New York, United States. The homestead and surrounding land are owned and managed by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. It was the original home of Philip DeFreest, one of the first Dutch settlers to arrive in the mid-18th century. The land includes historic buildings typical of a working Dutch farm: a farmhouse restored in 1984 to house the park's administrative offices, and a Dutch barn.
The DeFreest House was built around 1765, partially constructed of European brick used as ballast in Dutch fur trading ships that sailed up the Hudson. Between 1630 and 1850, Dutch barns dominated the landscape in the Hudson Valley. They were distinguished by their H-shaped structural frame. The DeFreest barn was constructed around 1820 of thick, 50-foot beams of hemlock more than a hundred years old when hewn, and wood re-used from earlier structures on the site. [3] The house and surrounding homestead were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.
The DeFreest Homestead has been the interest of honorary trustee C. Sheldon Roberts (RPI class of 1948), and wife, Patricia. Roberts was one of the founders of Fairchild Semiconductor. [3]
A donation from the Roberts family allowed for a renovation to make the historic barn into a modern classroom for local schoolchildren. [3]
Patricia Roberts recalls, “I can remember first seeing the DeFreest House at the end of a muddy path and realizing that it must be saved in order to preserve our past but also, as importantly, to become the centerpiece of the Technology Park. We also recognized that the nearby Dutch barn could serve a similar purpose by preserving some of its history and giving it a new purpose — to become a launch pad for our children’s future.” [3]
North Greenbush is a town in Rensselaer County, New York, United States. North Greenbush is located in the western part of the county. The population was 13,292 at the 2020 census.
Troy is a city in the U.S. state of New York and the county seat of Rensselaer County. The city is located on the western edge of Rensselaer County and on the eastern bank of the Hudson River. Troy has close ties to the nearby cities of Albany and Schenectady, forming a region popularly called the Capital District. The city is one of the three major centers for the Albany metropolitan statistical area, which has a population of 1,170,483. At the 2020 census, the population of Troy was 51,401. Troy's motto is Ilium fuit, Troja est, which means "Ilium was, Troy is".
The Mabee House, on the grounds of the Mabee Farm Historic Site,, is the oldest house still standing in the Mohawk Valley. It is located in the town of Rotterdam, New York, in the hamlet of Rotterdam Junction, New York, along New York State Highway 5S, about six miles (9.7 km) west of the city of Schenectady.
The Van Wyck Homestead Museum or Van Wyck-Wharton House is an early 18th-century Dutch colonial house in the Town of Fishkill, New York, United States of America. It served as a headquarters to a major military supply depot during the American Revolutionary War and has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since April 13, 1972; the adjoining Fishkill Supply Depot Site has been listed on the NRHP since January 21, 1974. It is located on US 9 just south of Interstate 84. Excavations during the construction of a nearby gas station and the Dutchess Mall in the early 1970s unearthed many artifacts at the site, particularly materiel.
Blackacre State Nature Preserve is a 271-acre (110 ha) nature preserve and historic homestead in Louisville, Kentucky. The preserve features rolling fields, streams, forests, and a homestead dating back to the 18th century. For visitors, the preserve features several farm animals including horses, goats, and cows, hiking trails, and a visitor's center in the 1844-built Presley Tyler home. Since 1981, it has been used by the Jefferson County Public Schools as the site of a continuing environmental education program. About 10,000 students visit the outdoor classroom each year.
The Crailo State Historic Site is a historic, fortified brick manor house in Rensselaer, New York which was built in 1707. The word Crailo is derived from kraaien bos and refers to Kiliaen van Rensselaer's estate in Huizen, Holland, which is also named "Crailo". Fort Crailo is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The historic Simi Adobe–Strathearn House served as the headquarters of Rancho Simi, also known as Rancho San José de Nuestra Senora de Altagracia y Simi, one of the land grants in Alta California by the Spanish government. The name derives from Shimiji, the name of the Chumash village here before the Spanish. Rancho Simi was the earliest Spanish colonial land grant within Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties. At 113,000 acres, Rancho Simi was one of the state's largest land grants.
The Central Troy Historic District is an irregularly shaped, 96-acre (39 ha) area of downtown Troy, New York, United States. It has been described as "one of the most perfectly preserved 19th-century downtowns in the [country]" with nearly 700 properties in a variety of architectural styles from the early 19th to mid-20th centuries. These include most of Russell Sage College, one of two privately owned urban parks in New York, and two National Historic Landmarks. Visitors ranging from the Duke de la Rochefoucauld to Philip Johnson have praised aspects of it. Martin Scorsese used parts of downtown Troy as a stand-in for 19th-century Manhattan in The Age of Innocence.
The Buckner Homestead Historic District, near Stehekin, Washington in Lake Chelan National Recreation Area incorporates a group of structures relating to the theme of early settlement in the Lake Chelan area. Representing a time period of over six decades, from 1889 to the 1950s, the district comprises 15 buildings, landscape structures and ruins, and over 50 acres (200,000 m2) of land planted in orchard and criss-crossed by hand-dug irrigation ditches. The oldest building on the farm is a cabin built in 1889. The Buckner family bought the farm in 1910 and remained there until 1970, when the property was sold to the National Park Service. The Buckner Cabin was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. The rest of the Buckner farm became a historic district in 1989. Today, the National Park Service maintains the Buckner homestead and farm as an interpretive center to give visitors a glimpse at pioneer farm life in the Stehekin Valley.
The Masten-Quinn House is located on First Street in the village of Wurtsboro, New York, United States. It is a wooden Greek Revival house built in two phases in the 1820s, the center of a farm that remained working until the mid-20th century. Today it is one of the few remainders from the area's agricultural past as a canal town.
The Winslow Chemical Laboratory was a laboratory of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute campus in Troy, New York, United States, which finished construction in 1866. It is named in honor of the 5th President of RPI, John F. Winslow, who donated half of the construction cost. The building is brick with stone trimmings and was originally constructed with butternut, chestnut and black walnut. The whole building was fitted for complete courses in general and analytical chemistry. The design and construction was overseen by Professor Henry B. Nason, head of the department of chemistry at the Institute. The lower story contained the metallurgical laboratory and second story contained the chemical laboratory, store rooms and work rooms. The laboratory could accommodate about 40 students. The third story contained a lecture room, a private study, the library and a recitation room. The library of chemical books was established by a donation of several sets of journals and a gift of three hundred dollars from John F. Winslow.
The Rensselaer Technology Park is a technology park in North Greenbush, New York, USA operated by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. As of 2009 the park has over 70 tenants representing a diverse range of technologies and employing over 2,400. The park is located along the Hudson River approximately five miles south of the RPI campus.
The Poesten Kill is a 26.2-mile-long (42.2 km) creek in upstate New York located entirely in Rensselaer County, which flows westerly from its source at Dyken Pond in the town of Berlin to its mouth at the Hudson River in the city of Troy. The Poesten Creek has historically been used as a source of water for the local inhabitants and farmers. during the Industrial Revolution it became even more important as a source of water power, and many mills and factories sprung up along its banks
The McClelland Homestead is a historic farm in western Lawrence County, Pennsylvania, United States. Located along McClelland Road northeast of Bessemer, the farm complex includes buildings constructed in the middle of the 19th century. It has been designated a historic site because of its well-preserved architecture.
The Avery Homestead is a two-story Colonial-style home in Ledyard, Connecticut that was built circa 1696. Evidence suggests that the house may have begun as a single-story, one-room house and later expanded to a two-story, two-room house by 1726. The house underwent major additions and renovations by Theophilus Avery and later his grandson, Theophilus Avery. In the mid-1950s, Amos Avery began a decade-long restoration effort to return the house to its 18th-century appearance. The Avery Homestead is historically significant as a well-preserved example of an 18th-century farmhouse with fine craftsmanship. The home is also historically important because more than twelve generations of the Avery family have resided there over the course of three centuries. The Avery Homestead was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992.
Jacob Rutsen Van Rensselaer House and Mill Complex is a historic home and mill complex consisting of 14 interrelated buildings and located at Claverack in Columbia County, New York.
The Goll Homestead is a historic farm complex in far western Fulton County, Ohio, United States. Located in German Township northwest of Archbold, the farm has been declared a historic site because of its role in the region's settlement.
Van Alstyne Homestead is a historic home located at Canajoharie in Montgomery County, New York. It is a long, low rectangular house with a steeply pitched gambrel roof in the Dutch Colonial style. The original fieldstone house was built before 1730 and has three rooms with a garret under the roof. A 2+1⁄2-story frame addition runs across the rear.
The Craver Farmstead was established circa 1790 consisting of 225 acres with a farmhouse and a barn. Today, the Craver Farmstead is both architecturally and historically significant. The farmhouse was built prior to 1790 and stands as one of the oldest and best preserved examples of Federal-style architecture in upstate New York. The Federal style evolved as the dominant classicizing architecture in North America between 1780 and 1830 as the new republic of the United States sought to define itself as independent in literature, art, and architecture just as it was politically.
The historical buildings and structures of Grand Teton National Park include a variety of buildings and built remains that pre-date the establishment of Grand Teton National Park, together with facilities built by the National Park Service to serve park visitors. Many of these places and structures have been placed on the National Register of Historic Places. The pre-Park Service structures include homestead cabins from the earliest settlement of Jackson Hole, working ranches that once covered the valley floor, and dude ranches or guest ranches that catered to the tourist trade that grew up in the 1920s and 1930s, before the park was expanded to encompass nearly all of Jackson Hole. Many of these were incorporated into the park to serve as Park Service personnel housing, or were razed to restore the landscape to a natural appearance. Others continued to function as inholdings under a life estate in which their former owners could continue to use and occupy the property until their death. Other buildings, built in the mountains after the initial establishment of the park in 1929, or in the valley after the park was expanded in 1950, were built by the Park Service to serve park visitors, frequently employing the National Park Service Rustic style of design.