Huguenot Street Historic District

Huguenot Street Historic District
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark District
The Bevier-Elting House, left, and Dubois Fort, location of the Visitor Center at Historic Huguenot Street
Location:	New Paltz, New York
Nearest city:	Poughkeepsie
Coordinates:	41°45′00″N 74°05′21″W
Area:	75 acres (30 ha)
Built:	Founded 1678. Houses date to 1705
Architectural style:	Dutch-style colonial; Georgian
Visitation:	16,500 (2007)
Governing body:	Historic Huguenot Street
NRHP Reference#:	66000578
Significant dates
Added to NRHP:	October 15, 1966
Designated NHLD:	October 9, 1960

The Huguenot Street Historic District is located near downtown New Paltz, New York, approximately 80 miles (130 km) north of New York City. The seven stone houses and several accompanying structures in the district were built in the early 18th century by Huguenot settlers fleeing discrimination and religious persecution in France and 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 . Recent 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 house museums of Historic Huguenot Street are in their original village setting. The street has been included in the National Register of Historic Places since the Register was created in 1966, and had been designated a National Historic Landmark in 1960.

In addition to the houses, the 20-acre (8.1 ha) site features a burying ground dating to the earlier 18th century, a reconstructed 1717 stone church, a visitor center, a library and archives, exhibit galleries and space for meetings, talk and programming. In addition, the Harcourt Preserve, a 55-acre (22 ha) nature preserve adjoining the site, is open to the public.

The site is owned and operated by Historic Huguenot Street (HHS), which was founded in 1894. In 1899, HHS purchased the Jean Hasbrouck House as the first house museum on the street. In the 1950s and 60s, HHS purchased all of the remaining stone houses in the district and subsequently opened them as house museums. These acquisitions were funded in large part by family associations—descendants of the original Huguenot founders. These family associations continue to help support the houses today.

In the 1980s, the organization began offering related educational and informative programming to the public—which it continues to do today. The site is open to the public and programming is offered year-round. Guided tours of the house museums are offered May through October from 10am to 5pm every day except Wednesday.

Individual houses

Bevier-Elting House

Bevier-Elting House

Dating to the very early 18th century, the house was originally a one-room building built with the narrow or gable end facing the street—then the prevailing style of the low countries of Northern Europe. Two expansions were built later, and a small cellar housed African slaves. The house was built by the Bevier family, one of the founding families, and subsequently sold to the Dutch Elting family.

Abraham Hasbrouck House

The Abraham (Daniel) Hasbrouck House

The structure known as the Abraham Hasbrouck House was built in three phases in the 1720s and 30s. The first room of the house—the center room—was constructed in 1721 by Daniel Hasbrouck, the son of Abraham Hasbrouck the patentee. The date 1721 is based on recent dendrochronology, which is a process by which wooden structural members are dated. This house represents a New World innovation in Dutch-style architecture. The initial houses in the Dutch region of New York, such as New Amsterdam, Albany, and Kingston, were built in the tradition of Dutch cities, with the gable-ends to the street, which conserves street frontage. The basic structure of the house consists of a series of H-bents which spread the weight of the house across the entire expanse. The original one-room house exhibited several defining elements of Dutch architecture, the jambless fireplace being the principal and most recognized feature in the house.

Jean Hasbrouck House

The Jean Hasbrouck House

Main article: Jean Hasbrouck House

Also built in 1721 by Jean's son Jacob (and perhaps incorporating elements of an early home built by New Paltz founder Jean Hasbrouck), this home is an excellent example of Hudson Valley Dutch architecture and the showpiece of Historic Huguenot Street. A National Historic Landmark in its own right, it boasts the only remaining original jambless fireplace of any of the Huguenot Street houses, and is one of the few surviving examples in what was formerly the New Netherland.

In 2006, the north wall of the house was carefully dismantled, repaired and reconstructed. Reproduction Dutch-style casement windows were installed. Interior restoration followed, resulting in a house that is an excellent example of how a comfortable family in the region lived in the mid-18th century.

DuBois Fort

Louis DuBois House (aka the DuBois Fort) built 1705. Pictured circa 1900.

Built in 1705 for the DuBois family, it served as a fortified place for protection for the small community if needed. This second purpose was one of the conditions set down by the English governor when he provided a patent to the Huguenots after they purchased the land in 1678. Originally a smaller 1½ story structure, this building was expanded to its current size in the late 1830s. The loop holes (gun ports) made it a "fort", although the inhabitants of New Paltz never needed to use the building as a place of refuge. The DuBois Fort serves as Visitor Center, with an introductory exhibit and the Museum Shop. Guided tours leave from this building. Over the last 300 years, it has also been a home and a restaurant.

Freer House

The Freer House is one of the six 18th-century stone houses owned by Historic Huguenot Street. It was altered in various points in its approximately 250 years of occupancy, with its most recent major alterations occurring in 1943 when it was purchased by Rev. John Wright Follette, a direct descendant of its original builder, Hugo Freer.

Over the years, the interior was modernized into a 20th-century idea of a colonial home. Now used to interpret the late 1940s and 1950s in New Paltz, this house reflects how Huguenot descendants adapted their family homes over 300 years.

Deyo House

Deyo House (circa 1720) with large nineteenth century addition

The original portion of the house was built around 1720 by Patentee Pierre Deyo. It began as a one-room house, was subsequently expanded to two rooms, and ultimately to three when a stone addition was added off the rear by Pierre's grandson Abraham. Circumstances for this house changed dramatically when, at the height of the Colonial Revival movement, two descendants of Pierre Deyo, Abraham and Gertrude Brodhead, inherited the house. Wanting to live on the street of their ancestors but also wanting a modern, gracious home that reflected their affluence, the Brodheads partially dismantled the original stone house and built a grand Queen Anne home around it in 1894. They also significantly changed their surrounding property, in essence changing a small, village farm into a handsomely appointed and landscaped mini-estate. The house first passed out of Deyo family ownership in 1915. It was a private home until 1971, when it was purchased by the Deyo Family Association and donated in order to be opened to the public as a house museum. The home was most recently restored in 2003 and features circa 1915 interiors.

Crispell Memorial French Church

1717 French Reformed Church and burying ground

Current (1839) church building used by the Reformed congregation founded in 1678

Since the community's founding, there have been four sanctuaries built on what is today called Huguenot Street. The French-speaking Protestants who settled New Paltz built their first church in 1683 -- a simple log building. This was replaced in 1717 with a straightforward, square stone building that reflected the permanence of the settlement. The existing building is a reconstruction of the 1717 building; it is set in the community's early burying ground, as the original was.

As the New Paltz community increased in size throughout the 18th century, a larger church became necessary. A second stone church was built down the street in 1773. That, too, became too small in time. It was torn down and a third church was built in 1839. This church survives today and is home to an active Reformed congregation.

The reconstructed church is named in honor of Antoine Crispell, one of the twelve founders or patentees of New Paltz, and was built as the result of a fundraising campaign led by the Crispell Family Association. Antoine Crispell, while one of the founders and owners of the 40,000-acre New Paltz patent, chose to remain in Kingston when New Paltz was settled. Though his daughters Elizabeth and Maria both settled in New Paltz after they married, there was not a Crispell family homestead on Historic Huguenot Street. Because the family could not buy and restore a family homestead (as descendants of other founding families did), the Crispell Family Foundation opted to create this reconstruction in their ancestor's honor. Completed in 1972, it is a valuable addition to the preserved village.

The pulpit was placed in a central location, and the pews were placed so that everyone could see and hear more equally. This was a demonstration of the idea that each person is believed to be connected directly to God, rather than through a church hierarchy. The led to a greater sense of equality among individuals of the Reformed Church.

LeFevre House

Built in 1799 by Ezekiel Elting, a prosperous merchant who got his start down the street in the Bevier-Elting House, this stone and brick building is quite different from the earlier stone houses on Huguenot Street. Its Georgian-style architecture reflects the transition of New Paltz from a French and Dutch settlement to an Anglo-American community. The house shows the changes in architectural style from the early 18th century. Settlers built more refined houses. This house reflects the several changes in the society and home life of New Paltz in the early 19th century.

Deyo Hall

Formerly a glass factory, Deyo Hall is the site of the Grimm Gallery, meeting facilities and public restrooms. Collections storage is also housed in this building.

Roosa House Library and Archives

Located in the Roosa House, the Library and Archives at Historic Huguenot Street is a research facility devoted primarily to the history and genealogy of the Huguenot and Dutch Settlers of the Hudson Valley. It also functions as a general repository for local history, regardless of ethnicity or religious persuasion. The collections consist of family genealogies, church, cemetery and bible records, wills and deeds, census records, genealogical periodicals, county histories, and publications relating to Huguenot ancestry. Genealogists, local historians, and other interested parties can access the collections by appointment. The colorful paint replicates the original colors of the house in 1891.

Native American presence on Huguenot Street

Historians and archeologists have learned more about the relations between the Esopus and the Huguenots. Some results of research can be found at the HHS site at "Relations between the Huguenots of New Paltz, NY and the Esopus Indians .

Slavery in New Paltz

The historical record of slavery in New Paltz begins in 1674, three years before its founding, when Louis DuBois purchased two African slaves at a public auction held in Kingston (then called Esopus). The two slaves ran away the following spring and were captured in the colony by Lewis Morris of Barbados. From 1675 to 1680, Morris and DuBois engaged in a lengthy custody battle for the two slaves.

Settlers continued to buy slaves for laborers in New Paltz, to support the settlement's growth. The Deyo family bought slaves in 1680 and 1694. Throughout the next 125 years, historical records of the settlement included references to slaves. In 1703, the population included 9 slaves out of a total of 130 residents. Jean and Jacob Hasbrouck owned several slaves: named in Jean's will as "Gerritt," "James," and "Molly." By 1755, slavery was a well-established part of the New Paltz community: the census from that year lists 28 slave holders, who collectively owned 78 slaves over the age of 14 years. The majority of slave holders (82%) owned between one and four slaves, and used them as domestic servants and farm laborers. The overall population of New Paltz grew rapidly to 2,309 in 1790, when there were 77 slave holders owning a total of 302 slaves, or 13% of the population. For more information pertaining to the Slavery in New Paltz, visit "The Society of Negroes Unsettled": The History of Slavery in New Paltz, NY . HHS also has an online exhibit called The Missing Chapter: Untold stories of the African American Presence in the Mid-Hudson Valley

See also

• Major Jacob Hasbrouck Jr. House, home built by Jean Hasbrouck's grandson, which is located farther up Huguenot Street.

External links

• Abraham Hasbrouck House, 94 Huguenot Street, New Paltz, Ulster, NY: 19 drawings, 13 photos, 95 data pages, 1 photo caption page, and supplemental material at Historic American Building Survey
• Fort Dubois, 81 Huguenot Street, New Paltz, Ulster, NY: 7 drawings and 12 data pages at Historic American Building Survey
• Hughes Freer House, 32 Hugenot Street, New Paltz, Ulster, NY: 8 drawings, 4 photos, 5 data pages, 1 photo caption page, and supplemental material at Historic American Building Survey
• Bevier-Elting House, Hugenot Street & Broadhead Avenue, New Paltz, Ulster, NY: 15 drawings, 10 photos, 11 data pages, and 1 photo caption page at Historic American Building Survey
• Jean Hasbrouck House, Hugenot Street, New Paltz, Ulster, NY: 15 drawings, 20 photos, 2 data pages, 2 photo caption pages, and supplemental materials at Historic American Building Survey
• Historic Huguenot Street