The Madam Brett Homestead is an early-18th-century home located in the city of

Beacon A beacon is an intentionally conspicuous device designed to attract attention to a specific location. A common example is the lighthouse, which draws attention to a fixed point that can be used to navigate around obstacles or into port. More mode ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

, United States. It is the oldest standing building in southern

Dutchess County Dutchess County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 295,911. The county seat is the city of Poughkeepsie. The county was created in 1683, one of New York's first twelve counties, and later org ...

and has been listed in the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

since 1976. It is also listed on the NYS Independence Trail.

Madam Brett

Catheryna Rombout Brett Catheryna Rombout Brett (1687–1764) (also Catherina, Catherine, and Catharyna) was the daughter of 12th New York City mayor and land baron Francis Rombouts and Helena Teller Bogardus Van Ball. She inherited a one-third interest in the sprawlin ...

(1687–1764) was the daughter of Helena Teller Bogardus Van Ball Rombout and Francis Rombout. Helena Teller was the daughter of William Teller, of Albany, one of the original patent holders of the area around Schenectady. Francis Rombout served as a lieutenant during Stuyvesants' expedition against New Sweden. In partnership with Gulyne Verplank, Rombout became a successful merchant fur-trader, and in 1679, Mayor of New York. In 1683, Rombout and Verplanck purchased about from the

Wappinger The Wappinger ( ) were an Eastern Algonquian Munsee-speaking Native American people from what is now southern New York and western Connecticut. At the time of first contact in the 17th century they were primarily based in what is now Dutc ...

native Indians. The purchased was confirmed October 17, 1685, as the royal

Rombout Patent The Rombout Patent was a Colonial history of the United States, Colonial era land patent issued by King James II of England in 1685 sanctioning the right of Francis Rombouts and his partners Stephanus Van Cortlandt and Jacobus Kip to own some of ...

issued by King James II to Francis Rombout, Jacobus Kipp (who married the widowed Henrica Verplank) and Stephanus Van Courtland. The original document is on display at the Homestead. Francis Rombout died in 1691, leaving his estate to his only surviving heir, Catheryna. In November 1703, at the age of sixteen, Catheryna Rombout married Roger Brett,"Brett", Schenectady Digital History Archives, Schenectady County Public Library
/ref> who had arrived in the New World with Lord Cornbury, governor of New York. Brett was a well-respected lieutenant in the

British Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

. After their marriage, the Bretts moved into the Rombout family home, which consisted of a large house and spacious grounds on lower Broadway, not far from the present site of Trinity Church on Broadway. Roger Brett was a vestryman of Trinity Church from 1703 to 1706.

History

About 1708, the Rombout Patent was partitioned: the

Van Cortlandt family The Van Cortlandt family was an influential political dynasty from the seventeenth-century Netherlands, Dutch origins of New York (state), New York through its period as an English colony, then after it became a state, and into the nineteenth cen ...

was allotted substantially all the land lying along both banks of what was called

Wappinger Creek Wappinger Creek is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed October 3, 2011 creek which runs from Thompson Pond to the Hudson River at New Hamburg, New York, New Hamburg in Dutc ...

; the middle portion fell to the heirs of Gulian Verplanck, and the lower part along Fishkill, fell to the Bretts. Catheryna inherited around . The homestead, which during the 19th century was referred to as the "Teller House", is now named for Catheryna Rombout Brett, who was the first to develop the patent by selling property. After the death of Catheryna's mother, the couple mortgaged the manor house in New York and moved to the wilderness of southern Dutchess County.Madam Brett Homestead - Melzingah Chapter House, DAR
/ref> The home was built around 1709 or shortly thereafter. Roger Brett drowned in the Hudson River, leaving Catheryna a widow at age 31 with the surviving three of her four sons. The homestead is notable as the residence of this woman who as a widow organized with twenty-one men the first produce cooperative in the Hudson River highlands. The homestead was subsequently occupied by her descendants until 1954, spanning a total of seven generations. During the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...

, the homestead remained in the family by Madam Brett's granddaughter Hanna Brett Schenck and husband Major Henry Schenck and the building was used for shelter and as a storage facility by the Americans. Revolutionary leaders such as

George Washington George Washington (, 1799) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the first president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. As commander of the Continental Army, Washington led Patriot (American Revoluti ...

, the

Marquis de La Fayette Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier de La Fayette, Marquis de La Fayette (; 6 September 1757 – 20 May 1834), known in the United States as Lafayette (), was a French military officer and politician who volunteered to join the Conti ...

, and

Baron von Steuben Friedrich Wilhelm August Heinrich Ferdinand Freiherr von Steuben ( , ; born Friedrich Wilhelm Ludolf Gerhard Augustin Louis Freiherr von Steuben; September 17, 1730 – November 28, 1794), also referred to as Baron von Steuben, was a German-b ...

are said to have been guests in the house. In 1800, Catheryna Rombout Brett's great-granddaughter Alice Schenck Teller purchased the house from her widowed mother and together with her husband Isaac Teller remodeled it. After Isaac's death the house opened as a boarding house and "Teller's Villa" was advertised in New York City during the Cholera epidemic. John Pintard, the founding-father of the New York Historical Society, wrote to his daughter of his stay there during the summer of 1833. It was called the "Teller Mansion" because so many members of the Teller family were involved in politics, and after one hundred years the fifth generation were of the Teller name. Teller Avenue in Beacon, New York, was the cow path to the family barns.

Description

Catheryna Brett sold nearly a third of her inheritance before her death. The property now consists of nearly of Madam Brett's original inheritance and features a garden, woodlands, and a meandering brook with a New York Big Tree. The homestead's notable features include hand-hewn scalloped cedar shingles, sloped dormers, Dutch doors, and a native stone foundation. Original furnishings include a significant collection of China-trade porcelain and many fine pieces of 18th- and 19th-century furniture. Also noteworthy are the wide-board floors, hand-hewn beams, and the large hearth of the kitchen fireplace.

Today

In 1954, the building was considered for demolition to make room for a supermarket. Instead, it was purchased by the Melzingah Chapter of the

Daughters of the American Revolution The National Society Daughters of the American Revolution (often abbreviated as DAR or NSDAR) is a lineage-based membership service organization for women who are directly descended from a patriot of the American Revolutionary War. A non-p ...

and turned into a museum preserving a total of seventeen rooms. The Madam Brett Homestead is located near Fishkill Creek, at 50 Van Nydeck Avenue, Beacon, New York 12508.

Madam Brett Park

Madam Brett Park's hug

Fishkill Creek Fishkill Creek (also Fish Kill, from the Dutch ''vis kille'', for "fish creek") is a tributary of the Hudson River in Dutchess County, New York, United States. At U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dat ...

, which played a prominent role in Beacon's development. Along it stood a gristmill owned by the park's namesake – Catheryna Rombout Brett (1687–1764), with her husband Roger the first European settlers in the present-day city. The mill was an important gathering place for farmers and Native Americans inhabiting both shores of the Hudson River hereabouts. In the 1800s, the creek powered a profusion of hat factories (including the Tioronda Hat Works, located in the brick building adjacent to the park), which earned Beacon the nickname "New York's Hat-Making Capital." Fishkill Marsh supports a variety of wildlife. It furnishes a home for amphibians and aquatic mammals, including muskrats; serves as a hunting ground for ospreys, bald eagles and other raptors; and is a stopover for migratory birds. A boardwalk and observation platforms afford up-close discoveries of these and other creatures. A waterfall at the park's eastern end is impressive in spring or after heavy rains.Madam Brett Park
/ref>

References

External links

Madam Brett Homestead - Melzingah Chapter House, DARMadam Brett Homestead tourism informationMadam Brett Park at Scenic Hudson
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brett, Madam, Homestead) Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in New York (state) Houses completed in 1709 Houses in Beacon, New York Museums in Dutchess County, New York Historic house museums in New York (state) National Register of Historic Places in Dutchess County, New York Daughters of the American Revolution museums 1709 establishments in the Province of New York