Flatbush tour showcases historic homes (with video)

What if an historic house could tell tales, snitch on previous occupants. Would anyone listen?

Fortunately for the Benjamin Ten Broeck house in Flatbush, the featured house in the annual Saugerties Historic House Tour, owners Rob Sweeney and Eddie Cattuzzo heeded the house whispering its stories when they purchased it eight years ago.

On Saturday, May 12 (torrential rain date May 13), from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., the town of Saugerties Historic Preservation Commission will host a self-guided trip backwards to visit unique sites.

Celebrating the hamlet of Flatbush, this year’s tour crosses town borders as visitors travel the length of Flatbush, from Glasco in the town of Saugerties, south to East Kingston in the town of Ulster, to view houses, barns and a church that reflect its historicity.

A highlight of the tour will be the oldest remaining house in Flatbush, known as the Benjamin Ten Broeck house. Built from 1751-1770, it is a well-preserved example of a stone house whose architecture is not only Dutch, but which has stylistic touches distinctive to Ulster County.

“Even though the house is called the ‘Ten Broeck house,’ it actually was built for Johannes Maximilion Velde and Margariet Hendrich Velde (Felten) in 1751,” Sweeney said.

A Bard College graduate, with degrees in painting and art history (“I took a lot of history courses”), Sweeney is Ulster town historian.

Velde was a descendant of Palatine refugees who came to the Hudson Valley in 1710, according to Sweeney. The family lived in the stone house until the beginning of the 19th century.



“Benjamin Ten Broeck purchased the house in 1804, and his descendants lived in the house until 1869,” Sweeney said.

He then told a fascinating story about the Velde and Ten Broeck families and the Revolutionary War.

“This house is always welcoming. It makes everyone feel welcome. It’s part of its history,” he said. “We’ve held parties here to get things done. A lot of good work happens in this house.”

Sweeney added that Benjamin Ten Broeck, then 7 years old, and his family sought refuge in the Velde house when the British burned their home in Kingston on Oct. 17, 1777. The Livingston estate on the Hudson River was burned down the same day, he said.

“Benjamin lived here for a time as a child and later bought the house as an adult,” Sweeney said.

Sweeney and Catuzzo have restored the house as close to its original appearance as possible. “We removed the new and found the old,” Cattuzzo said. “Previous owners had added over, but had never torn out. They did no harm to the original interior, which is stone and plaster.”

The walls, a soft white, bear only a few pieces of art. “I like the starkness,” Sweeney said. “It lets the architecture show.”

Cattuzzo said they worked on every room for six months before they moved in. “We needed to make it livable,” he said. “Then, we went back, over the years, and refined it, room by room.”

Sweeney said wood was not painted until the 20th century. “We did not strip the paint off, because it might damage the wood,” he said. “The paint colors we selected are historically accurate for the time.”

“In interviews with previous owners, and searching for historical documentation, we discovered an 1810 probate catalog which contained a list of items and their value for everything in the house,” an elated Sweeney added. “A previous owner also gave us an interesting item, a large, 1850 penny that was found tucked into a ceiling beam by some prior owner.

“It gives us a clue as to when the house was renovated and when a pair of 12 over 12 sash windows was installed. Craftsmen traditionally hid a coin at the worksite, and that helped to date the improvement.”

The 1 1/2 story farmhouse, built with a mixture of local bluestone and limestone rubble in linear expansion, is made up of three units, Sweeney said.

A date stone of 1751 identifies the center section as the oldest unit, probably a single room, subdivided later in the early 19th century to achieve an antechamber effect, a sign of some wealth, he said.

“The room would have had a jamb-less fireplace, as indicated by substantial ceiling beams (15 inches by 10 inches), trimmer beams over the fireplace and corbel stones to support the hearth in the basement,” Sweeney said. “The original east wall shows evidence that a side-gable entrance once existed with a door leading down to the cellar.”

At that time, residents lived, ate and slept in the same room, he added. “The center room was for general living purposes, in which the family ate, slept, worked, cooked, dressed, washed — you name it — and it took place there,” he said.

“The bedroom was the most important room in the house,” Sweeney said, adding that bedroom furniture was very expensive, because bed coverings and other textiles were quite costly. “People of the time entertained in the same room with the bed,” he said. It was a way to show off their wealth.”

The second section was added to the west of the house in 1765 as indicated by the 1765 date stone, he said. “Its ‘grote kamer,’ or great room, was used for special occasions, such as holidays, feasts and funerals. It did not become known as a ‘parlor’ until much later. 

“It was the room in which the family’s most precious possessions were kept and displayed,” Sweeney said, adding it also was later divided to form an antechamber.

Sweeney said, in the first addition in 1765, the “grote kamer,” the master of the household slept there and it also served as formal room in which to receive guests, and could easily be rearranged to accommodate more formal dining.

“It was customary for such a room to have a fabric-covered bedstead, upholstered furniture and a large cupboard, called in Dutch a “kast,” for storage of expensive linens,” Sweeney said. “The ‘grote kamer’ was decorated in this manner to serve as a recognizable symbol of status for all those who visited in the 18th century. We removed the wall to better reflect the room’s original floor plan.”

Sweeney said the room now serves as the master bedroom, but at times is used as a formal dining room. It’s furnished with original and replicated antiques from the 18th and 19th centuries like the rest of the house, he added.

The half-story above the main house was the “garret,” a Dutch word, in which the owners stored grain, a most valuable commodity, according to Sweeney. “Grain was money. It had cash value,” he said. There probably was a hole in the ceiling to access the grain via a ladder.

“The owners left the window open, so owls could fly in and take care of the mice,” he said.

The entrance door at the side-gable was stoned in around 1990, but they removed the in-fill and a replica Dutch door with a transom window above was installed, Sweeney said. “The last section, the kitchen to the east, has no date stone, but it’s believed to have been built before the Revolutionary War,” he said.

The kitchen is often mistaken for the oldest part of the building, but the masonry clearly indicates that it was added to the center section, Sweeney added. “Evidence to support this determination are the ceiling beams which are set alongside the stones of the interior wall and not embedded in the stone wall,” he said. “That was common practice for end beams at the time.”

The size of the beams in this wing also is greatly reduced, but evidence of trimmer beams exists and suggests a jamb-less hearth setting,” he added.

The side-gable is a kitchen door at floor level, Sweeney added. “A granary door above might have been used to carry grain for storage through the kitchen garret into the garrets above the first two units,” he said. “Those substantial beams could support the weight. 

“A small, early fireplace in the garret above the kitchen suggests that it was intended to be used for domicile purposes.”

In early plans of the house, Sweeney said, the kitchen is divided with a wall in the same manner as the other rooms had been.

“This wall no longer exists in the house, but, interestingly, is replicated at the Winterthur Museum in Delaware, where it is known as the ‘Ulster Room,’” an amused Sweeney said. “In the museum are the original casement windows taken from this house in the late 1930s.”

Sweeney, an estate property manager, described the restoration as “a labor of love. It does take time, but we’re quite happy with the results.”

Asked whether the furniture was authentic, Sweeney laughed and said, “People first, furniture second. We want visitors to be comfortable when they come here.”

The first owners placed the house deliberately in its environment, according to Sweeney. “They also thought about sustainability. The stone and timbers for the house came from this property,” he said.

“There is a sense of light and of living here,” he added. “There is a certain deadness about house museums. This house is meant to be lived in.”

Furthermore, Sweeney said, the house provides a distinct sense of place. “As Americans, we’ve lost our sense of place,” he said. “We don’t know what it’s like to belong to a place, to have a sense of connectedness. Most people here are not from Ulster County. They have no roots here.”

This is the first time the house has been open for the Saugerties tour and that the section of Ulster, known as Flatbush, is also a focus of the event, according to Sweeney. He and Cattuzzo volunteered to open the house for the May 12 tour, he said, adding they both dress in historical costume to add authenticity to the experience.

Susan Puretz, town of Saugerties Historic Preservation Commissioner, said in press information the annual tour is another example of cooperation between a town and its residents. She added that the mission of the tour’s sponsor, the Town of Saugerties Historic Preservation Commission, is the protection, enhancement and promotion of landmark structures.

An information-packed brochure will provide accurate and informative route descriptions. as well as detailed architectural and historical information.

The rest of the sites, some with spectacular views, will be revealed on the day of the tour.

Advance tickets are available through May 9 at $15 per person and may be purchased at Smith Hardware and at the Hudson Valley Dessert Company, both on Main Street in Saugerties, until May 9 or by mail until May 4.

Day-of-tour $25 tickets will be sold from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. at the Quick Chek station at 3048 Route 9W near the intersection of routes 9W and 32.

Checks should be made out to Town of Saugerties HPC, and mailed to Historic House Tour, Saugerties Town Hall, Saugerties, N.Y. 12477.

Further information may be obtained by calling (845) 246-2800, ext. 470, or visit www.historichousetour.com.