Madam Brett Homestead

Last updated
Madam Catharyna Brett Homestead
Madam brett homestead beacon 2006.jpg
Front side of the house in 2006
Location50 Van Nydeck Ave.,
Beacon, NY
Built1709
ArchitectRobert Dengee
NRHP reference No. 76001212
Added to NRHPDecember 12, 1976

The Madam Brett Homestead is an early 18th-century home located in the city of Beacon, New York, United States. It is the oldest standing building in this part of Dutchess County and has been listed in the National Register of Historic Places since 1976. It is also listed on the NYS Independence Trail. [1]

Contents

Madam Brett

Catheryna Rombout Brett (1687–1764) was the daughter of Helena Teller Bogardus Van Ball Rombout and Francis Rombout. Helena Teller was the daughter of William Teller, of Albany, one of the original patent holders of the area around Schenectady. Francis Rombout served as a lieutenant during Stuyvesants' expedition against New Sweden. In partnership with Gulyne Verplank, Rombout became a successful merchant-fur trader, and in 1679, Mayor of New York. In 1683, Rombout and Verplanck purchased about 85,000 acres from the Wappinger native Indians. The purchased was confirmed, 17 October 1685 as the royal Rombout Patent issued by King James II to Francis Rombout, Jacobus Kipp (who married the widowed Henrica Verplank) and Stephanus Van Courtland. The original document is on display at the Homestead. Francis Rombout died in 1691, leaving his estate to his only surviving heir, Catheryna.

In November 1703, at the age of sixteen, Catheryna Rombout married Roger Brett, [2] who had arrived in the New World with Lord Cornbury, governor of New York. Brett was a well-respected lieutenant in the British Royal Navy. After their marriage, the Bretts moved into the Rombout family home, which consisted of a large house and spacious grounds on lower Broadway, not far from the present site of Trinity Church on Broadway. [3] Roger Brett was a vestryman of Trinity Church from 1703 to 1706.

History

About 1708, the Rombout Patent was partitioned: the Van Cortlandt family was allotted substantially all the land lying along both banks of what was called Wappinger Creek; the middle portion fell to the heirs of Gulian Verplanck, and the lower part along the Fish Kill, fell to the Brett's. Catheryna inherited around 28,000 acres. [2]

The homestead, which during the 19th century was referred to as the "Teller House", is now named for Catheryna Rombout Brett, who was the first to develop the patent by selling property. After the death of Catheryna's mother, the couple mortgaged the manor house in New York and moved to the wilderness of southern Dutchess County. [4] The home was built around 1709 or shortly thereafter. Roger Brett drowned in the Hudson River, leaving Catheryna a widow at age 31 with the surviving three of her four sons. The homestead is notable as the residence of this woman who as a widow organized with twenty-one men the first produce cooperative in the Hudson River highlands. The homestead was subsequently occupied by her descendants until 1954, spanning a total of seven generations.

During the American Revolutionary War, the homestead remained in the family by Madam Brett's granddaughter Hanna Brett Schenck and husband Major Henry Schenck and the building was used for shelter and as a storage facility by the Americans. Revolutionary leaders such as George Washington, the Marquis de La Fayette, and Baron von Steuben are said to have been guests in the house. [5]

In 1800, Catheryna Rombout Brett's great-granddaughter Alice Schenck Teller purchased the house from her widowed mother and together with her husband Isaac Teller remodeled it. After Isaac's death the house opened as a boarding house and "Teller's Villa" was advertised in New York City during the Cholera epidemic. John Pintard, the founding-father of the New York Historical Society, wrote to his daughter of his stay there during the summer of 1833. [6] It was called the "Teller Mansion" because so many members of the Teller family were involved in politics, and after one hundred years the fifth generation were of the Teller name. Teller Avenue in Beacon, New York, was the cow path to the family barns. See "Historic Houses of the Hudson Valley" by Harold Eberlein and Cortlandt Van Dyke Hubbard.

Description

Catheryna Brett sold nearly a third of her inheritance before her death. The property now consists of nearly six acres of Madam Brett's original inheritance and features a garden, woodlands, and a meandering brook with a New York Big Tree. The homestead's notable features include hand-hewn scalloped cedar shingles, sloped dormers, Dutch doors, and a native stone foundation. Original furnishings include a significant collection of China-trade porcelain and many fine pieces of 18th and 19th century furniture. Also noteworthy are the wide-board floors, hand-hewn beams, and the large hearth of the kitchen fireplace. [4]

Today

In 1954, the building was considered for demolition to make room for a supermarket. Instead, it was purchased by the Melzingah Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and turned into a museum preserving a total of seventeen rooms.

The Madam Brett Homestead is located near Fishkill Creek, at 50 Van Nydeck Avenue, Beacon, New York 12508, USA.

Madam Brett Park

Madam Brett Park's 12 acres hug Fishkill Creek, which played a prominent role in Beacon's development. Along it stood a gristmill owned by the park's namesake – Catheryna Rombout Brett (1687–1764), with her husband Roger the first European settlers in the present-day city. The mill was an important gathering place for farmers and Native Americans inhabiting both shores of the Hudson River hereabouts. In the 1800s, the creek powered a profusion of hat factories (including the Tioronda Hat Works, located in the brick building adjacent to the park), which earned Beacon the nickname "New York's Hat-Making Capital."

Fishkill Marsh supports a variety of wildlife. It furnishes a home for amphibians and aquatic mammals, including muskrats; serves as a hunting ground for ospreys, bald eagles and other raptors; and is a stopover for migratory birds. A boardwalk and observation platforms afford up-close discoveries of these and other creatures. A waterfall at the park's eastern end is impressive in spring or after heavy rains. [7]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dutchess County, New York</span> County in New York, United States

Dutchess County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 295,911. The county seat is the city of Poughkeepsie. The county was created in 1683, one of New York's first twelve counties, and later organized in 1713. It is located in the Mid-Hudson Region of the Hudson Valley, north of New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beacon, New York</span> City in New York, United States

Beacon is a city located in Dutchess County, New York, United States. The 2020 census placed the city total population at 13,769. Beacon is part of the Poughkeepsie–Newburgh–Middletown, New York Metropolitan Statistical Area as well as the larger New York–Newark–Bridgeport, New York–New Jersey–Connecticut–Pennsylvania Combined Statistical Area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wappinger, New York</span> Town in New York, United States

Wappinger, officially the Town of Wappinger, is a town in Dutchess County, New York, United States. The town is located in the Hudson River Valley region, approximately 60 miles (97 km) north of Midtown Manhattan, on the eastern bank of the Hudson River. The population was 28,216 at the 2020 census. The name is derived from the Wappinger Native Americans who inhabited the area. Wappinger comprises three-fourths of the incorporated Village of Wappingers Falls, several unincorporated hamlets such as Chelsea, Diddell, Hughsonville, Middlebush, Myers Corners, New Hackensack, and Swartwoutville, and a number of neighborhoods.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fishkill, New York</span> Village in New York, United States

Fishkill is a village within the town of Fishkill in Dutchess County, New York, United States. The village is in the eastern part of the town of Fishkill on U.S. Route 9. It is north of Interstate 84. NY 52 is the main street. It is part of the Poughkeepsie–Newburgh–Middletown, NY Metropolitan Statistical Area as well as the larger New York–Newark–Bridgeport, NY-NJ-CT-PA Combined Statistical Area. The first U. S. Post Office in New York state was established in Fishkill by Samuel Loudon, its first Postmaster.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fishkill (town), New York</span> Town in New York, United States

Fishkill is a town in the southwestern part of Dutchess County, New York, United States. It lies approximately 60 miles (97 km) north of New York City. The population was 22,107 at the 2010 census. Fishkill surrounds the city of Beacon, and contains a village, which is also named Fishkill.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fishkill Creek</span> Tributary of the Hudson River in southern Dutchess County, New York

Fishkill Creek is a tributary of the Hudson River in Dutchess County, New York, United States. At 33.5 miles (53.9 km) it is the second longest stream in the county, after Wappinger Creek. It rises in the town of Union Vale and flows generally southwest to a small estuary on the Hudson just south of Beacon. Part of its 193-square-mile (500 km2) watershed is in Putnam County to the south. Sprout Creek, the county's third-longest creek, is its most significant tributary. Whaley and Sylvan lakes and Beacon Reservoir, its largest, deepest and highest lakes, are among the bodies of water within the watershed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mount Gulian</span> Historic house in New York, United States

Mount Gulian is a reconstructed 18th century Dutch manor house on the Hudson River in the town of Fishkill, New York, United States of America. The original house served as the headquarters of Major General Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben during the American Revolutionary War and was the place where the Society of the Cincinnati was founded. The site is registered as a National Historic Landmark.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Van Wyck Homestead Museum</span> Historic house in New York, United States

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United States Post Office (Beacon, New York)</span> United States historic place

The U.S. Post Office in Beacon, New York, is located on Main Street. It serves the ZIP Code 12508, covering the entire city of Beacon and some of the neighboring areas of the Town of Fishkill. It is a stone structure in the Dutch Colonial Revival architectural style built in the mid-1930s. In 1988 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places along with many other older post offices in the state.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daniel Nimham</span> Wappinger leader

Daniel Nimham (1726–1778) was the last sachem of the Wappinger people and an American Revolutionary War combat veteran. He was the most prominent Native American of his time in the lower Hudson Valley.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stony Kill Farm</span> United States historic place

Stony Kill Farm is located on NY 9D in the Town of Fishkill, New York, United States. It is a 1,000+ acre (3 km2) working farm owned and operated by the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) as an environmental education center.

Francis Rombouts was the 12th Mayor of New York City,, from 1679 to 1680. He was one of three proprietors of the Rombout Patent, and father of pioneering Colonial businesswoman Catheryna Rombout Brett.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Storm–Adriance–Brinckerhoff House</span> Historic house in New York, United States

The Storm–Adriance–Brinckerhoff House is located on Beekman Road in East Fishkill, New York, United States. It is a wooden building in three parts, the oldest of which dates to the mid-18th century.

Wheeler Hill Historic District is a federally recognized historic district located at Wappinger in Dutchess County, New York. Along the eastern shore of the Hudson River, atop of the Van Wyck Ridge is the "estates region of the Town of Wappinger". A scenic location, with roads lined with stone walls, properties greeting guests with magnificent stone pillars and iron gates, it includes 49 contributing buildings, 15 contributing sites, and four contributing structures. It encompasses the estates of Obercreek, Elmhurst, Edge Hill, Henry Suydam, William Crosby, and Carnwath that were developed between 1740 and 1940. Also included are two 18th century riverfront commercial structures, the Lent / Waldron Store and Stone House at Farmer's Landing. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1991. Today the historic district is mostly made up of residential houses, but Carnwath and Obercreek are opened to the public.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jacobus Swartwout</span> American politician

Jacobus Swartwout (1734–1827) was an early American landowner, statesman, and military leader. Swartwout served as a brigadier general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War under General George Washington. He was a close ally of many key Founding Fathers of the United States, and a delegate to New York State's convention for ratification of the US Constitution.

Abraham Isaacsen Verplanck (1606–1690), also known as Abraham Isaacse Ver Planck, was an early and prominent settler in New Netherlands. A land developer and speculator, he was the progenitor of an extensive Verplanck family in the United States. Immigrating circa 1633, he received a land grant at Paulus Hook in 1638.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rombout Patent</span> American colonial era land patent

The Rombout Patent was a Colonial era land patent issued by King James II of England in 1685 sanctioning the right of Francis Rombouts and his partners Stephanus Van Cortlandt and Jacobus Kip to own some 85,000 acres (34,000 ha) of land they had purchased from Native Americans. The Patent included most of what is today's southern Dutchess County, New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Catheryna Rombout Brett</span> American landowner

Catheryna Rombout Brett was the daughter of New York City mayor and land baron Francis Rombouts and Helena Teller Bogardus Van Ball. She inherited a one-third interest in the sprawling Rombout Patent in today's southern Dutchess County, New York, at just four years old. At 16 she married a formal British naval lieutenant, Roger Brett, and the two relocated afterwards from the family home in New York City to their land upstate, reportedly the first permanent White settlers there.

Gulian Verplanck (1637–1684) was a Dutch-American fur trader and merchant in colonial New York.

John Peter De Windt Jr., known as J. P. De Windt (1787–1870) created the Long Wharf, later known as the Long Dock, in Beacon, New York in 1815 and owned an enormous estate in Dutchess County, which was eventually broken up into the streets of Fishkill-on-the-Hudson, or present day Beacon. He was a manufacturer and investor in steamboats and railroads during the immense boom in transportation in the mid 1800s along the Hudson which linked New York City to the rest of the country. He was married to the grand-daughter of John and Abigail Adams.

References

  1. NYS Independence Trail
  2. 1 2 "Brett", Schenectady Digital History Archives, Schenectady County Public Library
  3. Notable Women
  4. 1 2 Madam Brett Homestead - Melzingah Chapter House, DAR
  5. Poughkeepsie Journal, August 1, 1954, p. 1C
  6. Pintard, J., & Barck, D.C. (1940). Letters from John Pintard to his daughter, Eliza Noel Pintard Davidson, 1816-1833. 4 Volumes. New York, Printed for the New-York Historical Society.
  7. Madam Brett Park

Further reading