Luykas Van Alen House | |
Location | 2589 NY 9H, Kinderhook, NY |
---|---|
Coordinates | 42°22′51.94″N73°41′29.10″W / 42.3810944°N 73.6914167°W |
Area | 33 acres (13 ha) |
Built | c. 1737 |
Built by | Luykas Van Alen |
Architectural style | Dutch Colonial |
NRHP reference No. | 67000011 |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | December 24, 1967 [1] |
Designated NHL | December 24, 1967 [2] |
The Luykas Van Alen House is an historic Dutch Colonial farmhouse at 2589 New York State Route 9H in the town of Kinderhook, Columbia County, New York, United States. Built about 1737 and enlarged about 1750, it is one of the finest surviving examples of Dutch colonial architecture in upstate New York. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1967. [2] It is now an historic house museum operated by the Columbia County Historical Society, and open for tours on weekends from June to October.
The Van Alen House is located in a rural setting of the upper Hudson River valley, on the west side New York 9H, about 2 miles (3.2 km) south of its junction with U.S. Route 9. It is a 1+1⁄2-story brick structure, with a steeply pitched gabled roof. It has three chimneys, one at each gable end, and one between two of the three rooms that make up the ground floor. The brick is laid in a typical Dutch style, with the gables also finished in brick. The gable lines differ from typical urban Dutch architecture of the period by being straight lines, rather than stepped or curved. The house's three rooms each have separate entrances, with reproduction sash windows beside them. The interior retains a number of features original to its construction or later alteration, but some features (notably the staircase) have been brought in from similar period houses. [3]
The house was built about 1737 by Luykas Van Alen, who purchased the land from Mohican Native Americans. As built then, it was just two rooms, with no internal connection between them, and a sleeping loft above. The third room was added about 1750. The house remained in the hands of the Van Alen family until 1961, undergoing numerous alterations before falling into disrepair. It was given by them to the Columbia County Historical Society, which undertook a complete restoration. It is now operated by the Historical Society as an historic house museum illustrating 18th century Dutch Colonial life.
The Van Alen House and its farm are believed to have served as the inspiration for homestead of the Van Tassel family in Washington Irving's short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow". Irving established a decades-long close friendship with Jesse Merwin, a teacher of a nearby school, and was a close friend of Kinderhook native (and U.S. President) Martin Van Buren, a neighbor of the Van Alens and a frequent guest in the town. [4]
This property (interior and exterior) was a location scene in the 1993 Martin Scorsese film The Age of Innocence, starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Daniel Day-Lewis.
Stuyvesant is a town in Columbia County, New York, United States. The population was 1,931 at the 2020 census, down from 2,027 at the 2010 census. The town is in the northwest corner of Columbia County. U.S. Route 9 crosses the southeastern corner of the town.
Kinderhook is a town in the northern part of Columbia County, New York, United States. The population was 8,330 at the 2020 census, making it the most populous municipality in Columbia County. The name of the town means "Children's Corner" in the language of the original Dutch settlers (Kinderhoek). The name "Kinderhook" has its root in the landing of Henry Hudson in the area around present-day Stuyvesant, where he was greeted by Native Americans with many children. With the Dutch kind meaning "child" and hoek meaning "corner", it could be that the name refers to a bend in the river where the children are. The eighth president of the United States, Martin Van Buren, was born in Kinderhook and retired to it.
Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site is a historic house museum in Hyde Park, New York, United States. It became a National Historic Landmark in 1940. It is owned and operated by the National Park Service.
Sunnyside (1835) is an historic house on 10 acres along the Hudson River, in Tarrytown, New York. It was the home of the American author Washington Irving, best known for his short stories, such as "Rip Van Winkle" (1819) and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" (1820).
New York State Route 9H (NY 9H) is a state highway located within Columbia County, New York, in the United States. It runs in a north–south direction for 18.70 miles (30.09 km) from an intersection with U.S. Route 9 (US 9), NY 82, and NY 23 in Bell Pond to a junction with US 9 in Valatie. Most of the route is an easterly alternate route of US 9; however, the two routes cross near Valatie, and the northernmost mile of NY 9H runs west of US 9. NY 9H was assigned in the early 1930s to the part of its modern alignment south of Valatie. It was extended to its current length around the end of the 1930s.
Martin Van Buren National Historic Site is a unit of the United States National Park Service in Columbia County, New York, 1 mile (1.6 km) south of the village of Kinderhook, 125 miles (201 km) north of New York City and 20 miles (32 km) south of Albany. The National Historic Site preserves the Lindenwald estate owned by Martin Van Buren, the eighth president of the United States. Van Buren purchased the 36-room mansion during his presidency in 1839, and it became his home and farm from his leaving office in 1841 until his death in 1862.
James Isaac Van Alen was an American politician from Kinderhook, New York. A Democratic-Republican, he served as a United States representative, a member of the New York State Assembly, and Surrogate Judge of Columbia County, New York. Van Alen was the elder half brother and law partner of U.S. President Martin Van Buren.
Dutch Colonial is a style of domestic architecture, primarily characterized by gambrel roofs having curved eaves along the length of the house. Modern versions built in the early 20th century are more accurately referred to as "Dutch Colonial Revival", a subtype of the Colonial Revival style.
Historic Huguenot Street is located in New Paltz, New York, approximately 90 miles (140 km) north of New York City. The seven stone houses and several accompanying structures in the 10-acre National Landmark Historic District were likely built in the early 18th century by Huguenot settlers fleeing discrimination and religious persecution in France and what's now southern Belgium. After negotiating with the Esopus Indians, this small group of Huguenots settled on a flat rise on the banks of the Wallkill River in 1678. The settlers named the site in honor of Die Pfalz, the region of present-day Germany that had provided them temporary refuge before they came to America. Archaeological finds indicate that the immediate area settled by the Huguenots was occupied by Native Americans prior to European contact. The site is one of the oldest continuously inhabited settlements in the United States.
The Bronck House, also known as the Pieter Bronck House, is a historic house museum west of Coxsackie in Greene County, New York. With a construction history dating to 1663, it is believed to be the oldest surviving building in Upstate New York, and is a well-preserved example of early Dutch and Swedish Colonial architecture. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1967. It is now a museum property managed by the county historical society.
Jan Van Hoesen House is an early-18th-century house in New York State. Northeast on NY 66 of Hudson towards Chatham, just east of Claverack Creek, stands a vacant medieval-looking brick structure over the Dutch Acres Mobile Home Park. Like the Columbia County Historical Society's Luykas Van Alen House in Kinderhook, the steeply-pitched roof, parapet-gabled house is a rare surviving example of a type of rural house characteristic of the upper Hudson Valley in the first half of the 18th century. Van Hoesen House is located on Route 66, north of the City of Hudson.
The Kinderhook Village District is located in the central areas of the village of Kinderhook, New York, United States. It is a 612-acre (248 ha) area covering both developed and undeveloped land centered on US 9.
The First Columbia County Courthouse is located along NY 23B near the center of the hamlet of Claverack, New York, United States. It is a brick building in the Federal style constructed in 1786 and renovated in the mid-19th century.
The Claverack Free Library is located on NY 23B near the center of the hamlet of Claverack-Red Mills, New York, United States. It is located in the renovated former A.B. Shaw Firehouse.
The George Felpel House is located on NY 9H in Claverack-Red Mills, New York, United States. It is a stone Colonial Revival and Dutch Colonial Revival house built in the 1920s.
Dutch colonial architecture is the type of architecture prevalent in the construction of homes, commercial buildings, and outbuildings in areas settled by the Dutch from the early 17th to early 19th century in the area encompassing the former Dutch colony of New Netherland in what is now the United States.
The Ichabod Crane Schoolhouse is an historic wooden one-room schoolhouse built in approximately 1850 in the Hudson River valley. Located on NY 9H, about 1 mile (1.6 km) south of Kinderhook village in Columbia County, New York and 2 miles (3.2 km) south of US 9, the schoolhouse is named after author Washington Irving's fictional character, Ichabod Crane in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
Founded in 1916, the Columbia County Historical Society and CCHS Museum & Library collects, preserves, interprets, and presents the history, heritage, and culture of Columbia County, New York, and serves residents of all eighteen Columbia County towns and the city of Hudson.
Martin Van Buren, the eighth president of the United States, was the son of Abraham Van Buren (1737–1817) and Maria Hoes Van Alen (1747–1818).
Abraham Van Buren was an American businessman and local public official from Kinderhook, New York. A Patriot and militia veteran of the American Revolutionary War, he was the father of Martin Van Buren, the eighth president of the United States.