Name/Title
Early settlers of Orange County Robert Eurich July 1979Entry/Object ID
001995Tags
Robert C Eurich, PalatinesScope and Content
The early settlers of Orange County came from a wide variety of European backgrounds. Along the Wallkill River in the Town of Montgomery (originally southern Ulster County), were groups of German Palatines. In other areas were people of Dutch, English, Scotch, Irish and French backgrounds. This resulted in a wide variety of early architectural styles, based upon a builder's European background. A study of those houses still standing in Orange County and dating from before 1750 reveals that no consistent architectural pattern exists. One particular fact does seem to hold true, however, and that is that most early Orange County houses were built with so-called Dutch style framing. This is most easily seen in open beam ceilings. Massive beams overhead are closely spaced. This is in contrast to the English style framing where smaller beams span a ceiling. These are supported across the center of a room by a large so-called summer beam.
A random sampling of early Orange County houses indicates that it was an architectural "melting pot." The Haskell house, "The Hermitage," near New Windsor is probably the only early 18th century log house of mansion quality still standing in the United States. Its log and timber construction indicates Germanic overtones. The Hasbrouck house in Newburgh (various periods before 1770) is a fine example of Hudson Valley Dutch architecture. "Stonefield" near Washingtonville and built about 1745, bears strong resemblance to a small English manor house.
Orange County has very few houses dating from the early part of the 18th century. The earliest known house in the county is the Staats house in the Warwick Valley. The four stone walls (bearing a date stone of 1700), are virtually all that have survived of this house as a result of extensive 19th century renovations.
Orange County's second oldest house is the Gomez house north of Newburgh. Dating from 1714, it was built by a Portugueze-Jewish fur trader. This stone house is similar in design to the Dutch stone houses interspersed throughout Ulster County. And it too has had some architectural alteration.
The stone wing of the Roe family homestead at Greycourt is believed to have been built by William Bull in 1716. No early woodwork or fireplace has survived in this house, but its Dutch style ceiling beams reveal a Bull building characteristic. Early Dutch house beams were planed smooth and scrubbed for a "finished" look. Rough hewn beams were found only in very secondary rooms, if at all. They were more likely to be found only in cellar or attic areas. William Bull did not plane his ceiling beams to a Dutch-like smoothness.
For the 1720-30 period in Orange County the Haskell house is outstanding. A serious loss of a house from this period occurred in recent years with the destruction (by bulldozer) of the Sheriff Waters house near Goshen. This frame building with Dutch style framing and great beaded beam ceilings had large, corner fireplaces, early paneling and an important staircase of the closed string type with finely turned balusters. The house at the time of its destruction was remarkably intact in its architectural details.
Another house of the 1720's is the Bull homestead in Hamptonburgh. Reportedly built in 1722, the Bull homestead is remarkable for its retention of much original architectural detail and also for its continuous ownership in the Bull family. The house has always been well maintained.
Although the Bull homestead appears to have had a general architectural refurbishing about 1800, it retains a major portion of its original design features. The stone house has two stories plus a cellar and an attic. The major rooms have high, plastered ceilings in the English, Georgian manner. The basement kitchen has an exposed beam ceiling with rough hewn beams - William Bull style.
The early staircase is outstanding. Its turned balusters are similar in design to the turned legs of late 17th - early 18th century New York tables. The second floor balusters date, stylistically, back to 17th century England. This may be the only Jacobean stair design now existing in the Hudson Valley. Another of similar design may be seen in the 1727 Maston house in the State of Delaware.
The Bull homestead floor plan may be found in several other Orange County houses, none of them as early as the Bull house, and many of them dating from the 1780's. The plan with its side hall, adjoining parlor and two rooms across the rear shows up with mimor variations in the Draper house (1789) near Montgomery, the Jacob Walden house ( circa 1780) in Walden and others.
The Bull homestead is perhaps the fourth or fifth oldest house now standing in Orange County. Of those houses that apparently predate the Bull house by a few years, none is as architecturally intact. In terms of architectural completeness, only the Haskell house can compare. But while the Bull house is in very good, though unrestored condition, the Haskell house is vacant and it is presently in a very bad state of repair.
Outside of Orange County the Bull homestead may claim architectural importance as being a fine and unusually early example of an English style stone house.
When compared with other Hudson Valley houses of the early 18th century, the Bull homestead is outstanding. Many houses of its period appear to be architecturally intact only because they have been extensively restored.
The stone houses at New Paltz, the Bronck house at Coxsackie, the Van Alen house at Kinderhook, the Coeymans house at Coeymans - all share a common period of construction with the Bull homestead. But all of the above-mentioned houses show strong Dutch-Hudson Valley influence. The Bull homestead in its English design stands apart from them. Most of the Hudson Valley houses built in the English style with high, plastered ceilings date from much later in the 18th century. Orange County's Hill-Hold, Brick House, "The Pastures" in Albany, the Van Cortlandt house in New York City, all surpass the Bull house in architectural grandeur. But all of them date from mid century or later.
The Bull homestead dating from the 1720's is a fine architectural landmark. It is an important part of the architectural history of the Hudson Valley.
Robert C. Eurich
July, 1979
