More Genealogical Stuff...

The Wyckoff House, Brooklyn, NY, 1934

As I have been digging deeper (delving further back in time), I'm learning that my Mead side of the family is a lot more Dutch than I had ever realized.  Names like Hallenbeck, Pruyn, Reynersche, Spoor, Van Oblinus, Van Patten, Van Schouwen, Van Woggelum, and Vetter are just part of the evidence.  The quest is fascinating.  One branch of my tree had the surname Williams.  I assumed they were of English origin.  It turns out they were all Dutch, having anglicized the name Willems early in the nineteenth century.  Today, I ran across a home that was built by an ancestor of mixed Swedish and Dutch origins named Hendrick Pieterse Claesen Wyckoff.  He was born in 1625 Boda on the Swedish island of Oland.  After migrating to America, he eventually settled in Brooklyn (Remember, Brooklyn was originally Breuckelen, a Dutch settlement.) and built a house on Canarsie Lane.

During the great depression, the U.S. Government had a program, the Historic American Buildings Survey, that documented historical buildings.  In 1934, one of those buildings was the "Peter Wyckoff House" built by my ancestor (9th Great-uncle).  I've included some of the images and drawings done during that effort.  Quite frankly, the artistry of the draftsmen is almost as fascinating as the subjects they were trying to document.

Wyckoff House in 1934

The attention to detail in these renderings is magnificent!

I initially thought that the Wyckoff House had been torn down at some point to make way for progress.  I have learned however, that I was mistaken.  A Website,
https://wyckoffmuseum.org/,  informs me that "The Wyckoff House Museum preserves, interprets, and operates New York City’s oldest building and the surrounding one-and-a-half acres of park. Through innovative educational and farm-based programs we build cultural and agricultural connections within our community, emphasizing immigration, family, food, and community through history."

Wyckoff House today

The site also informed me of details that I likely would never have known about my 9th Great-uncle: "In April of 1637, a young man named Pieter Claesen arrived in what was then the Dutch-controlled colony of New Netherland. Like most of New Netherland’s immigrants, Pieter’s native language and culture were not Dutch. Pieter grew up in Norden, an area in what is now Germany, where the population spoke Frisian. Dialects of this language can still be heard in coastal areas of Denmark, northwestern Germany and the northeastern Netherlands. Pieter’s parentage and his impetus for immigration remain unknown. We do know, however, that upon his arrival Pieter was contracted as an indentured farm hand for a fellow Frisian tenant farmer named Symon Walichsz, on a vast estate, or patroonship, called Rensselaerswyck, situated near present-day Albany.

Rennsselaerswyck, which consisted of approximately one million acres, had been granted by the Dutch government to the wealthy van Rensselaer family of Amsterdam. After a period of six years, Pieter’s contract of servitude expired and he became a tenant farmer himself. He soon married a Dutch-born young woman, Grietje van Nes, and they began the family that would eventually number 11 children."

About the house, I'm informed, "In 1650, upriver farmers started to move south toward New Amsterdam, the seat of government, to purchase land that had been recently made available for purchase by independent farmers by the colonial government, the Dutch West India Company. By 1652, Pieter and Grietje had acquired a farm in the newly established community of Nieuw Amersfoort, in what would eventually comprise the city, and later the borough, of Brooklyn. The house they occupied was a simple one room structure with a packed earth floor and unglazed windows, with doors at both ends and a large jambless (or open) hearth.  Miraculously, it still stands today.

Over the centuries, the house has been reconfigured, expanded, and modernized to eventually encompass 6 rooms with three fireplaces, a walk-up attic above, and root cellar below. The Wyckoff family occupied the site for eight successive generations, until 1901 when the land and house were sold to developers.

After more than a half century of disrepair and a devastating fire, the house was restored in 1982 and opened to the public as a museum."

In 1967, the house was placed on the National Register of Historic Places, providing certain protections based on its historic significance.  The narrative of the petition for that recognition tells a lot about the home: "The Wyckoff House was probably constructed in 1652. This date is determined by certain structural evidence and the first year of Wyckoff's residence of the property which is around 1652. The original house was a single room with lean-to shed on the north side and an attic above. The east end had a stone wall and chimney, the west wall had one small window and the south side had a door and casement window.

The first addition was a new kitchen on the west, with connecting doors replacing the casement window, which contained an integral lean-to shed for additional rooms on the north side. The second addition , which occurred in the second quarter of the 18th century, doubled the original structure on the east. This is supported by the fact that the original cellar, oldest attic beams, and floor partitions all extend to only three-fifths the depth of the present house. At this time the jambless Dutch fireplace was converted to the English style
with a paneled wall with cupboard and closet.

Around 1815, a third addition was added, replacing the rooms on the north with larger rooms and introducing a center hall in the main wing. A new symmetrical roof was raised overall with curved eaves and a wide overhang. Then in 1850, the rear kitchen was further extended.

The house is built on a foundation of rubble stone. The walls are of braced wooden frame construction filled with wattle and daub in the earliest part and brick in the later additions. The exterior covering is wooden shingles which were also used for the roof. Double doors with decorative leaded glass transoms date from around 1815, replacing earlier doors.
Some of the circa 1815 six-over-six sash windows still survive, with wooden paneled shutters of the same date and old, if not original hardware. The three chimneys are all largely rebuilt in the 19th century.

Interior of the Wyckoff House today

On the interior there are nine rooms on the first floor including three in the wing, and four in the attic including one in the wing. The one staircase dates from circa 1815 additions. The floor is constructed of wide pine boards and the walls are whitewashed plaster. One good wooden paneled fireplace wall remains dating about 1750. All doors were replaced in the 1815 renovation with the exception of a board door between the kitchen and the original main room. The main portion of the house is in fair condition structurally, but suffering
from years of neglect and resulting deterioration. The kitchen wing of the original part of the house is in extreme deterioration, requiring replacement and repair of the main structural members as well as walls, plaster, and almost the total section. The oldest surviving shingles are located on the southeast front of the main house. These hand-hewn cypress shakes are 42 inches long with rounded edges, and are laid with 14 inches exposed to the weather."