Abraham Hasbrouck House

1721 – Daniel Hasbrouck (son of Abraham the patentee) built what is now the center section of the house as a free-standing stone dwelling.
     A one-room plan, it had a basement, first floor and attic space.
     This replaced Abraham’s wood-framed house, exact location of which has not been determined.
     The village land plot was three acres in size, divided into grazing, garden, and orchard lots. There would have been a barn (for farming equipment as well as milk-producing cows and horses) and wheat barracks on the property.
     Additional lands were owned north of the village – an eight-acre mill parcel.
     Cattle, hog and sheep were also pastured in lands north of the village. Wheat was grown for income.

1728 – Daniel Hasbrouck added the northern section (after obtaining the property title from his mother). It too is a one-room plan, basement to attic called an opkamer (up-room). 

     It abuts the north wall of the original section.

     Roof ridgeline is slightly higher than the center section.

     Basement is finished as a living (kitchen) space, with cooking fireplace recessed in north stone wall. Not accessed from inside the house, it had an exterior hatchway entry (on the west (front) side). The isolation of the basement from the house was intentional, as the basement housed slaves. Records in 1755 identified Daniel having two male and two female slaves above the age of 14.

    Upper room was heated by a stove connected to the center section chimney flue via the common wall.

1734 - 1741 – Daniel added the southern section of the house sometime between his marriage to his cousin Wyntje Deyo in 1734 and his mother, Maria Deyo Hasbrouck’s death in 1741.  It is another one-room plan.  Abutting the south wall of the center section, the west, south and east walls were built.

     Oak beams in this section are in poor condition and dendrochronology analysis was limited, thus the date range of construction.

     The southern wall of the center (original) section was demolished and replaced with a wood-frame partition (which was altered in the next phase of the house history).
     The twelve over twelve sash windows were avant-garde for this time period in the region.

1801 - 1830 – Isaiah (heir and son of Daniel) added a wood frame kitchen ell (1958 demolished).

     Jambless fireplaces and chimneys were removed.

     Walls, stairs and spaces between the center and south rooms were reconfigured, plaster partitions built in the center and south rooms, with windows added in the south room’s south wall. Doorway was cut into the middle room for ladder stair to the kitchen below the opkamer.

     Between the three sections were boarded in.

    Attic rooms were created and dormers in the roof were added in this phase.

 

1860 - 1909 – Isaiah’s daughter Maria obtained title to the house upon her mother’s death in 1830.
     She was renting space to boarders by 1860.
     In 1872, her nephew Isaiah inherited the house; likely he continued its use as a boarding house.

     Few alterations or improvements were made; the house declined.

1918 - 1957 – Ivar Evans, an architect, painter, and antiquarian, purchased the house. With this wife and two children, he lived in the house.

 

1958 – The Dutch Reformed Church purchased the Abe House from the Ivar Evans estate for land to build an education building and parking lot.

 

1961 – The Hasbrouck Family Association purchased the house and deeded it to the Huguenot Historical Society.  Program to restore the house to a 1750 – 1760 period began.

The south wall was restored to the original configuration. On the first floor, the double hung sash windows, added in the 1800's, were removed, the spaces infilled with stone to match the rest of the wall, The second level windows. also 1800's additions, were removed. In their place are shutter openings like those originally in the spaces.

Research on the north wall showed that the second floor windows were added in the 1800's when it was a rooming house. Still in place in the wall was the transom for a double wide shutter opening. The two windows were removed, one infilled, the other opening widened to original size for the shutter.

The west wall (facade) of the Abe House was restored to its original window and door configuration in 2020. Windows in the center and opkamer room had been changed to sash frames in the 1800's. Evidence of the original window locations and sizes made it possible to determine the type of Dutch-style windows that were in place originally. The Center Room door frame is original. The door transom light is of leaded glass, as originally.

The rear of the house, the east wall, was restored in 2024. As can be seen in the photos, an added window in the center room was removed and filled with stone, cellar windows removed and infilled, the opkamer window replaced by a shutter opening, as was in place originally. By repointing the mortar with the raised joints on this wall, the entire house has period-appropriate mortar work on all walls.

Applying new shingles to the roof proved to be a larger than anticipated project. Some rafters had deteriorated ends near the plate. Also, one rafter was badly split and the roof sagged. As much as possible, original materials were kept, with repairs connected to original rafters. With repairs to these, hand cut shingles were applied.

Windows on the facade were replaced with reproductions of those that were originally installed. In the Opkamer: a Bolkozijn window (two fixed leaded-glass windows in a wood frame) with shutters. For the Center Room: a Cruizcozjjn window (two lead glass panels above two shuttered openings) With the South Room being built a bit later, the British influence showed with double hung sash frames.