The Dyckman House, now the Dyckman Farmhouse Museum, is a Dutch Colonial-style farmhouse at Broadway and 204th Street in the Inwood neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, United States. Operated as a historic house museum, the house was the third built by William Dyckman, , and was originally part of over of farmland owned by the family. It is the oldest remaining farmhouse on Manhattan island, a vestige of New York City's rural past. The house is a New York City designated landmark and a National Historic Landmark.
William Dyckman's family were among the first settlers of what is now Inwood, and Dyckman initially built two houses in the area. After the second house was destroyed in the American Revolutionary War, the third house was constructed. The house stayed in the family for several generations until 1868, and ownership was transferred several times in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. By the 1910s, the house was in disrepair and in danger of being demolished. The Dyckman family transferred ownership of the house to the government of New York City in 1916. Since then, the house has operated as a museum.
The house is placed atop a hillock, which rises above Broadway. The Dyckman House is an early example of a gambrel-roofed house in New York City, with a two-story facade of fieldstone, brick, and white clapboard. There are 14 rooms within the Dyckman House. When the house opened as a museum, it displayed Revolutionary and Native American artifacts and the Dyckman family's possessions, though the collection has expanded over the years. The house has been praised for its architecture and collections and has been depicted in exhibits and print publications.
Site The Dyckman House is located at 4881 Broadway, at the corner with 204th Street, in the Inwood neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, United States. The house is placed atop a hillock, which rises about above the adjacent segment of Broadway. The property is surrounded by a fieldstone retaining wall. The surrounding sites consist of apartment buildings, and there is an exposed outcropping of Manhattan schist around the corner on Cooper Street.
History Residential use Context and development The Dyckman family were among the first settlers of what is now Inwood. William Dyckman (1725–1787) was the grandson of Jan Dyckman, who came to the area from Westphalia in 1660 or 1661.Kuhn, Jonathan. "Dyckman House" in William had built a family house located on the Harlem River near the present 210th Street in 1748. The family house stood on a farm spanning , which once extended between Fort George to the south and 230th Street to the north. This farm contained a cemetery until the early 20th century, when the bodies there were removed to make way for the New York City Subway's IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line and later the 207th Street Yard.
The first house was replaced by a larger structure. Although William was not his family's firstborn son, he inherited the estate in 1773 because he had the "most family traits". During the American Revolutionary War, the Continental Army stayed on the Dyckmans' land from September to November 1776, when British troops defeated the Continental Army in the Battle of White Plains. One of the family's sons pledged support to the British Loyalists, but later switched to supporting the American Patriots. Possibly as retaliation, the British destroyed the second house. During the war, British troops erected huts on the Dyckman estate, including the site of the Dyckman House. The British and the Hessians occupied the Dyckman site until Evacuation Day in 1783.
William decided to rebuild the house elsewhere. He chose to construct a new house along the Albany Post Road (now Broadway), which ran along the middle of Manhattan Island and was on higher ground. His oldest son Jacobus Dyckman built the current farmhouse. There is disagreement over when exactly the Dyckman Farmhouse was built. An American Architect article and a book about the house, both written in the 1910s, described the house as having been built in 1783. Different dates of 1784 and 1785 are given in other sources discussing the house. The Dyckmans constructed their new house using bricks, bolts, nails, hinges, locks, and latches that had been salvaged from Hessian soldiers' huts in the neighborhood. Materials from the old house may have been reused in the new farmhouse.
19th century William deeded the house to his mother because he had assumed that his mother would outlive him. After William Dyckman died in 1787, there was a dispute over who owned the house, as William's mother was also dead; it was not until 1795 that his son Jacobus took title to the house. In its early years, the Dyckman family used slaves; sources disagree on whether there were six or seven slaves at the house. The first slaves on the farm were Black Americans and Native Americans. Some of the first slaves intermarried, and their children worked on the farm until slavery in New York was abolished. Jacobus owned the house until his death in 1832, upon which the house passed to his sons Isaac and Michael. The farmhouse was used as an overnight shelter for cattle herds that the family took to the market, prompting their brothers to move out. Upon Michael's death in 1854, Isaac took over his brother's share in the house. Before taking over the farm, Isaac changed his last name from Smith to Dyckman. Isaac later moved to 15 East 71st Street on the Upper East Side.
The house stayed in the family for several generations until 1868, when Isaac died. The estate was sold off because Isaac had no sons. The Dyckmans owned most of the land in Inwood until the late 19th century, when it was auctioned off. John H. Judge and his family bought the house at an auction. Ownership of the site is known to have been transferred several times in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The house was renovated when the roof tiles were replaced, the porch was rebuilt, and the woodwork was restored. Around the same time, the Dyckmans restored the stonework of their house's well, and they built an imitation of the farm's original smokehouse.
Museum use Establishment The opening of the New York City Subway's first line in the 1900s had spurred development in the area, which had become known as the "Dyckman district" by the early 1910s. The house was in disrepair and in danger of being demolished. Furthermore, the old farm had been parceled off, and the boundaries of the land lots on the block had been finalized by 1913. The Dyckman family's remains had been relocated from a nearby private burial ground due to concerns over neglect. When Isham Park opened two blocks away in 1912, preservationists suggested moving the house to the park, protecting it from being replaced by an apartment building. The Judge family offered in late 1913 to give the house to the city if the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation found an appropriate location for it. The Daughters of the American Revolution would have operated the farmhouse as a museum, but nothing came of this proposal.
Two of Isaac's daughters, Mary Alice Dyckman Dean and Fannie Fredericka Dyckman Welch, agreed in September 1915 to give the house to the city and restore the house. The Department of Parks acquired five lots and converted them into Dyckman House Park. Mary and Fannie officially acquired the site from the Judge family on October 6, 1915. The house was restored under the supervision of Fannie's husband, the architect Alexander M. Welch. The work involved salvaging materials from two houses in New Jersey that were about to be demolished. Mary's husband Bashford Dean was involved in collecting memorabilia for the interior. Welch and Dean wished to restore the house's pre-1800 appearance. As such, a rear porch and stone smokehouse were rebuilt, and parts of the original landscaping were reconstructed, including brick walkways, stone steps, and a parterre garden. The north wing of the house was demolished. A group of archeologists and researchers, including Reginald Pelham Bolton, also found artifacts such as old military huts while excavating the old farm. Bolton's team ultimately excavated parts of 45 huts; he reconstructed one such hut using brick and stone from his excavations.
The Dyckman sisters transferred ownership of the house to the government of New York City on July 11, 1916. The transfer included about of land around the house. The city government then opened it as a museum of Dutch and Colonial life, featuring the original Dyckman family furnishings. The Dyckman House was the only remaining farmhouse in Upper Manhattan following the 1914 demolition of the Schermerhorn family's home on 64th Street.
Late 1910s to 1970s
In February 1917, the Dyckman sisters gave the city another plot measuring , which was used to expand the house's garden and abutted the north side of the house. At the time, the Dyckman House was one of several historical houses in the city that were being preserved, along with structures such as the Lefferts Historic House and Schenck House. The museum's original curator, Charles F. Flitner, and another employee, Martha Rush, had been appointed at the Dyckmans' request. Flitner and Rush were fired in 1918 and replaced with Frederick and Margaret Hensler, two friends of the Manhattan park commissioner, prompting objections from members of the public. Frederick Hensler ultimately served as curator for two years.
After the museum opened, further artifacts such as a Hessian soldier's belt buckle were found on the site. By the early 1920s, many visitors came to get inspiration for furniture and furnishings in their own houses. The Dyckman House and Isham Park were the only remnants of the area's once-rural character, and one lecturer stated in 1934 that the house was arranged "exactly as it was during [the original Mrs. Dyckman's] lifetime". Between 1935 and 1936, the grounds were re-landscaped. The grounds were further expanded in 1944 with the acquisition of another plot to the southwest.
The house was temporarily closed during mid-1953 for a minor renovation, which included repainting and refurbishment.; An entrance to the northeast was sealed the same year. The house remained relatively unknown even to those who lived in the neighborhood; a passerby interviewed in 1953 said he assumed that the house was an antique shop. The Times nonetheless wrote that the house was in "excellent condition" during the 1950s. The house was open six days a week in the 1960s, and it charged no admission, a policy that was still in place in the 1970s. By that time, Mrs. Richard P. Dyckman oversaw repairs and expansions to the collection. Over the years, the surrounding neighborhood was filled with apartment buildings and stores that became rundown.
1980s to present By the early 1980s, the house's live-in caretaker, police officer James Henry, recalled that children were "playing tag on the roof". The Metropolitan Historic Structures Association, a group of organizations that maintained the Dyckman House and the city's other historic house museums, was raising funds to maintain the house by 1985. At the time, the rooms were dusty, and the furniture was in shabby condition, though the house was free to visit. The house's interior was renovated two years later, at which point it charged an admission fee. The Dyckman House was one of the founding members of the Historic House Trust, established in 1989. The trust issued booklets with stamps to encourage visitation to these houses; for the Dyckman House, the trust created a stamp depicting one of the house's pots. Starting the same year, the house was included in Historic House Festivals of the city's historic house museums.