Major Jacob Hasbrouck Jr. House
Major Jacob Hasbrouck Jr. House | |
Poughkeepsie | |
Coordinates | 41°45′38″N 74°5′11″W / 41.76056°N 74.08639°W |
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Area | 5 acres (20,000 m2) |
Built | 1786[2] |
Architectural style | Dutch Colonial |
NRHP reference No. | 99000808 [1] |
Added to NRHP | July 23, 1999 |
The Major Jacob Hasbrouck Jr. House is located on Huguenot Street in the
Hasbrouck's house shows sophistication and refinement befitting a large landholder who served as
Property
The house is located on a 5-acre (20,000 m2)
Its original section is the front block, a one-and-a-half-story with 20-inch (510 mm) thick load-bearing stone walls. A
The interior of the main block follows the standard 18th-century center-hall plan, with the kitchen on one side and the
In the rear of the lot are three farm buildings: a
History
The Hasbroucks in the 18th century
The land on which the house stands was originally part of Jean Hasbrouck's vast holdings in the area that is today the town and village of New Paltz and the surrounding lower Wallkill Valley. He died in 1714, thirteen years before the birth of Jacob Hasbrouck's youngest son, Jacob Jr., in 1727.[2]
Jacob lived in
The year afterward he served the first of two stretches as
According to Hasbrouck family tradition, Major Hasbrouck built the house in 1786 for Jacob J., the younger of his two sons, to live in after he died, while his brother Josiah lived in the old house. The Major moved in to spend his later years there, no longer extensively involved in either farming the property or land deals, although an assessment done for the 1798 federal Direct Tax, when he still owned both houses, rated him the wealthiest man in New Paltz. He died in 1806, and passed the house to Jacob J. and his growing family.[2]
19th century
The younger man needed more space, and built the rear extension known as the "outlet", from the Dutch uitlayt, a common term for that kind of extension in Dutch architecture. It was 12 feet (4 m) wide, running the entire width of the house and continuing the slope of the roof. Jacob left his initials in the plaster of the north wall interior. A neoclassical-styled archway was the main portal between the outlet and the main house. These renovations were complete by 1810.[2]
In 1825, Jacob J. Hasbrouck moved out to a brick farmhouse two miles (3.2 km) along the Wallkill to retire; his son, Maurice, took over the main stone house and devoted himself primarily to the farm, as most of the family's land had been subdivided and sold. He undertook no major renovations other than whatever routine maintenance the house needed, and moved out in 1870 when his own son, Abram, married and needed the space as his grandfather had before him. The house, by this time, was almost a century old and badly needed to be restored. The original Hasbrouck land parcels had long been divided up, leaving only 400 acres (160 ha), and the family had moved on to other sources of income. By the mid-19th century, tax assessments suggest that the stone houses that had symbolized their earlier wealth were losing their appeal as younger homeowners embraced newer styles.[2]
Abram's most visible changes, begun in 1876, were the two front window gables, adding a Picturesque aspect to the house, and an update to the front entranceway and the accompanying hall, although it is uncertain from the house today exactly what changes were made. The porch roof may have been changed to its flat hipped style, more consistent with tastes of the time.[2]
20th century
Upon his death in 1910, the house passed to his daughter, Laura, and the woman he married after her mother had died. After her stepmother died in 1924, Laura began to spend more of her time at a house in the nearby village, reflecting the completion of the early aspirations of the Hasbroucks and other Duzine members. She sold half of the remaining land for houses after Route 32 was built through the property in the late 1920s.[2]
Eight years later, in 1932, she married and moved to
In 1944, she sold the rest of the property save the two acres (8,000 m2) around the house. The north end was remodeled into a caretaker's residence, although it had to be rebuilt to its original appearance after a fire destroyed it. Laura Hasbrouck died childless in 1964 and willed it to Richard Relyea Hasbrouck, a descendant of Maurice Hasbrouck's brother Huram, specifically to keep it in the family, since he had two sons already.[2] He only found out when the estate's lawyer called and said he had to start paying taxes on the property.[3]
The newest Hasbrouck, like earlier residents, renovated the house to suit the needs of his family and his time. An interior frame wall was added to conserve heat in the old house, and a new kitchen was built. Thirty years after moving in, in 1994 one of the partitions in the outlet was removed to create a larger bedroom. He bought the 3 acres (12,000 m2) with the old farm buildings on it, bringing the property to its current size.[2]
Aesthetics
According to architectural historian Neil Larson, the house represents the culmination of Ulster County's traditional stone houses. Originally built on a European model for urban areas, they had been small rectangles similar to the Jean Hasbrouck House and the other older Huguenot Street homes, sometimes with their sides facing the street as in that neighborhood's Bevier House. As the children of the Duzine moved out into the surrounding lands, the houses evolved into farmhouses with a three-room plan, since builders could take advantage of larger lots. Using this form may have been a conscious choice on Major Hasbrouck's part to preserve his ancestral culture, since some of his contemporaries later built themselves homes in more English-influenced styles like Josiah Hasbrouck's Locust Lawn.[2]
The builder of Major Hasbrouck's house formalized this, providing a facade with continuous horizontal lines uniting all the family spaces. There are none of the vertical interruptions seen on other stone houses. The stones chosen were carefully dressed, although not to the point of making an ashlar pattern. The kitchen wing to the north was placed asymmetrically, to highlight its difference in function.[2]
Inside, the house was more in accord with traditional stone house, at least in its early years, in having little
References
- ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Larson, Neil. "National Register of Historic Places nomination, Major Jacob Hasbrouck Jr. House". New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. Retrieved 2008-08-17.
- ^ Taylor, Dietrich (2004-12-04). "Hasbrouck House Handed Down". New Paltz Oracle. State University of New York at New Paltz. Archived from the original on 2006-09-04. Retrieved 2008-08-20.
Richard moved into the Major Jacob Hasbrouck Jr. House in 1964. 'I had nothing to do with it,' Richard said. 'Lawyer called me and said I had to pay taxes on the old Hasbrouck House.'