The Jan Pier House is a historic home located at Rhinebeck, Dutchess County, New York. The farmhouse was built about 1761 and remodeled about 1881 in a Second Empire style. It is a one- to two story, asymmetrical stone building built into a hillside. It features a Mansard roof sheathed in polychrome slate. Also on the property are two contributing barns, a smoke house, wellhouse / well, and a cistern.[2]
Brief history of the Jan Pier House (Rhinebeck, NY)
The Jan Pier House is a stone farmhouse originally built about 1761 on what is now Route 308 in Rhinebeck. It was erected by a member of the local Pier family — part of Rhinebeck’s early Dutch-origin settlers — and represents one of the older surviving house sites in the town.
In the late 19th century the house was remodeled in the then-fashionable Second Empire style: a full second story and a mansard roof (with polychrome slate and gabled dormers) were added around 1880–1881, giving the 18th-century stone core the Victorian silhouette you see today. The property also retains several outbuildings (barns, smokehouse, well) that reflect its long agricultural use.
Local histories note that the Pier family were long-time local landowners; some accounts describe family loyalties and land exchanges typical of the Revolutionary and post-Revolutionary era in Rhinebeck (local records are sometimes fragmentary, so descriptions vary across sources). The house’s 18th-century origins and later Victorian makeover make it a clear example of how Rhinebeck’s colonial fabric was adapted across generations.
Notable later owners include members of the Tremper family. County and cemetery records indicate that Benjamin Tremper (1878–1957) “always resided in the family homestead, the old Jan Pier stone house,” showing the Pier house passed into local family ownership and occupation into the 20th century. Other 19th- and 20th-century owners/occupants appear in local deed records and town inventories, reflecting the property’s continuous domestic and farm use.
In recognition of its architectural and historical significance the Jan Pier House was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987. In recent decades the property has appeared in local real-estate and historic-home writeups (including a public listing and feature articles), and it remains a visible piece of Rhinebeck’s layered history.
Date
Owner
Notes
c. 1761
Jan Pier (builder)
The house’s stone core is dated to about 1761. Wikipedia+2rhinebeckhistory.org+2
Late 18th century
Pier family holdings
The Pier family retained the property and allied lands; local tax/assessment maps show alteration of occupation and land use. ia801609.us.archive.org+1
19th century (c. 1880)
Remodel/second-story addition (same ownership)
Around 1880 the house was remodeled in the Second Empire style (mansard roof added) while still under the Pier (or descendant) ownership. rhinebeckhistory.org+1
Early 20th century
Benjamin Tremper (and Tremper family)
Benjamin Tremper is recorded as residing in the “old Jan Pier stone house” — indicating that by the first half of the 1900s the Tremper family held the property.
1987
Historic recognition
The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1987, confirming its historic provenance. Wikipedia+1
The Jan Pier House stands on the south side of Route 308, a busy east–west route through the village and town of Rhinebeck. The area today is characterized by mixed commercial and residential development. The house sits close to the road, screened by a tall fence, on gently rolling land that slopes southward to meet the Landsman Kill. The creek defines the property’s southern boundary. Behind the house, open pasture and lightly wooded sections recall its original rural character.
Five original outbuildings remain: a cistern, well with wellhouse, smokehouse, and two barns. Together, these structures preserve the integrity of the property’s historic agricultural function.
Architectural Description
The Jan Pier House began as an 18th-century stone farmhouse in the German vernacular tradition and was extensively remodeled in 1881 into a fashionable Second Empire-style residence.
The earliest portion—the north block—was likely built around 1761. The two-story, asymmetrical stone structure is built into a hillside and capped by a polychrome slate mansard roof with modest overhanging eaves and a plain frieze.
The five-bay, center-hall façade faces Route 308. It features two-over-two sash windows with wooden trim and shutters, a recessed central entry with paired arched lights, and a Victorian verandah spanning the center bays. The mansard roof is pierced by three pedimented dormers with arched windows. The east and west elevations mirror this symmetry, each with two dormers and brick end chimneys.
Two rear wings extend from the south elevation. The first, a two-story block, has a tripartite bay window on the west façade and a simple porch on the east. A one-story mansard-roofed addition and a small shed-roofed vestibule provide access to the basement level.
Inside, much of the 19th-century remodeling survives—narrow staircases, restrained wood trim, and original room layouts. Evidence of the 18th-century construction remains in the basement beams and wide floorboards.
Outbuildings
Barn #1: A large, one-and-a-half-story frame structure once used as a slaughterhouse, reflecting the Tremper family’s butchering business.
Barn #2: A smaller, one-story frame barn.
Smokehouse: Brick and fieldstone with a gable roof.
Cistern and Well: Both date to the 18th century; the accompanying wellhouse is from the 19th.
All outbuildings contribute to the property’s historic character.
Significance
The Jan Pier House is a notable local example of the Second Empire style, incorporating an earlier 18th-century stone dwelling. Its mansard roof, ornamental verandah, and bay windows demonstrate the period’s architectural fashion and the 19th-century tendency to update earlier homes to reflect contemporary tastes.
In contrast to the grander Second Empire houses in the Rhinebeck Village Historic District—such as those on Livingston and West Market Streets—the Pier House represents a more modest, rural interpretation of the style.
Historical Context
The original farmhouse was built circa 1761 by Jan Pier, a descendant of one of Rhinebeck’s earliest settlers. His father, Tunis Pier, appears in town records as a Surveyor of the Fences in 1722, indicating the family’s early establishment in the community.
Later owners included the Davis and Traver families. By 1876, the property was owned by the Tremper family, who were prominent local butchers. It was during their tenure that the house received its Second Empire transformation. The existence of a commercial-sized smokehouse and slaughterhouse equipment in the large barn underscores its agricultural and commercial history.
Notable Events
During the American Revolutionary War, a local man named Tunis Pier (also recorded as Teunis Peer), who may have been the father of Jan Pier, was implicated in a 1777 Loyalist plot in Rhinebeck, New York. According to the Minutes of the Commissioners for Detecting and Defeating Conspiracies in the State of New York, Pier was accused of attempting to incite arson against the barn of Captain Isaac Sheldon, a known Patriot, and of conspiring with other Loyalist sympathizers and emissaries from British-held New York City.
Testimony from a man enslaved by Hendrick Freligh, named Jack, described meetings with Tunis Pier in a cellar — possibly that of the Jan Pier House — where Pier allegedly encouraged rebellion against local Whigs and proposed burning Patriot property. These events were part of a broader Loyalist network active in the Hudson Valley during the war.
As a result of the investigation, the Board resolved that Teunis Pier and several others, including Abraham and Thomas Whiley, be confined aboard the “Fleet Prison” at Esopus Creek until further order. This episode provides insight into the deep divisions within local communities during the Revolutionary period and situates the Jan Pier House within a notable moment of regional conflict and espionage.
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