The Hendrick I. Lott House is a historic home located at 1940 East 36th Street between Fillmore Avenue and Avenue S, in Marine Park,

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. Lott House, one of the oldest

Dutch Colonial Dutch Colonial is a style of domestic architecture, primarily characterized by gambrel roofs having curved eaves along the length of the house. Modern versions built in the early 20th century are more accurately referred to as "Dutch Colonial Rev ...

houses in Brooklyn, is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

and is a

New York City designated landmark The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The LPC is responsible for protecting New York City's architecturally, historically, and cu ...

. The house remains structurally sound and virtually unchanged from the time Hendrick Lott constructed it in 1800, incorporating a section of the 1720 original homestead built by his grandfather, Johannes Lott. ''See also:''

History

18th and 19th centuries

Family patriarch Johannes Lott, a member of the New York Colonial Assembly, purchased land from

Coert Van Voorhees Coert Stevense van Voorhees (1637–1702), a settler of New Netherland is remembered today as progenitor of numerous American families, and as an early settler of Brooklyn. Early life He was born around April 1637 in Hees, near Ruinen, Drenthe, ...

in the rural area of Flatlands in 1719 to use for farming. Lott expanded the family holdings from Kings Highway south to

Jamaica Bay Jamaica Bay is an estuary on the southern portion of the western tip of Long Island, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. The estuary is partially man-made, and partially natural. The bay connects with Lower New York Bay to the west, ...

and "Lott's Landing." On this property, Johannes built his

homestead Homestead may refer to: *Homestead (buildings), a farmhouse and its adjacent outbuildings; by extension, it can mean any small cluster of houses *Homestead (unit), a unit of measurement equal to 160 acres *Homestead principle, a legal concept th ...

just east of the present house. Johannes died in 1775, leaving the farm to Johannes Jr., who occupied the property until 1792. The Lott family quickly became leaders in the area. When Hendrick I. Lott married Mary Brownjohn in 1792, he found his grandfather's house was too small, too old, and too outmoded for an established member of a prominent family. Hendrick built a larger, grander house, combining

Dutch architecture Dutch architecture has played an important role in the international discourse on architecture in three eras. The first of these was during the 17th century, when the Dutch empire was at the height of its power. The second was in the first half ...

with that of the English, making it into a distinctly American building. Hendrick did not abandon his grandfather's house entirely, however. Moved to the eastern end of the new house, and it served as the kitchen wing. He balanced this 1720 wing with a west wing, creating a symmetrical composition. Although Hendrick added Federal-style

dormer A dormer is a roofed structure, often containing a window, that projects vertically beyond the plane of a pitched roof. A dormer window (also called ''dormer'') is a form of roof window. Dormers are commonly used to increase the usable space ...

windows, the

gambrel A gambrel or gambrel roof is a usually symmetrical two-sided roof with two slopes on each side. (The usual architectural term in eighteenth-century England and North America was "Dutch roof".) The upper slope is positioned at a shallow angle, w ...

roof with graceful spring eaves is typical of the Dutch colonial architectural style. The interior features 18 rooms organized in a center hall plan. In the 19th century, at its peak, the Lotts’ farm included more than . Like most large farmers in southern Kings County, the Lotts relied heavily on the labor of slaves to grow the crops that they sold in the markets of Brooklyn and

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

. They held the most slaves in the neighborhood. Legal documents from 1803 showed that elders, who were inefficient field workers, were less valued than children and adults. After 1799 however, the value of all slaves began to decline. New York wanted to free male slaves born after July 4, 1799, who had served their masters until age 28. Females, on the other hand, would be freed by the age of 25 if they met the same qualifications. These actions by the state made holding slaves more difficult. Therefore, the Lotts freed all but one of their slaves by 1805, long before the abolition of slavery in New York State in 1827. The Lotts then hired the freed slaves back as paid workers.Staples, B. (2001, Jun 24). To be a slave in brooklyn. ''New York Times'' These actions taken by the Lotts support the claim that they were

abolitionists Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people. The Britis ...

. Later, it is said, the House may have served as a stop on the

Underground Railroad The Underground Railroad was a network of clandestine routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early- to mid-19th century. It was used by enslaved African Americans primarily to escape into free states and Canada. T ...

. By 1825 the farm, on which the Lotts raised cabbage, potatoes, vegetables, and wheat, included outbuildings,

barn A barn is an agricultural building usually on farms and used for various purposes. In North America, a barn refers to structures that house livestock, including cattle and horses, as well as equipment and fodder, and often grain.Allen G. ...

s, and a separate stone kitchen. The kitchen foundation, located between the home and the present East 36th Street, was excavated in 1998 by the

Brooklyn College Brooklyn College is a public university in Brooklyn, Brooklyn, New York. It is part of the City University of New York system and enrolls about 15,000 undergraduate and 2,800 graduate students on a 35-acre campus. Being New York City's first publ ...

Archaeological Research Center.

Later use

For two centuries, descendants of the Lotts lived in the homestead and used the land for farming. The last farmer, John Bennett Lott, died in 1923. Most of the land was sold, leaving only three-quarters of an acre (0.3 ha) surrounding the house. The last Lott descendant to live there, Ella Suydam, a great-great-great-great-granddaughter of Johannes Lott, lived in the house until she died in 1989. Ph.D. candidates who grew up in the neighborhood found windowless rooms inside the house. They believed that slaves had slept in those rooms. Below the floors of those rooms, they found corncobs in star or cross shapes and other spiritual objects that showed mutual religious practices between slaves who worked there and Africans in

West Africa West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Maurit ...

. These spiritual objects were believed to serve the purpose of connecting the two worlds of the living and the dead. Now the Hendrick I. Lott House sits at its original location on three-quarters of an acre (0.3 ha) of land. The house was bought by the

New York City Department of Parks & Recreation The New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, also called the Parks Department or NYC Parks, is the department of the government of New York City responsible for maintaining the city's parks system, preserving and maintaining the ecolog ...

in 2001 and is operated by the Hendrick I. Lott House Preservation Association, and is a member of the

Historic House Trust The Historic House Trust of New York City was formed in 1989 as a public-private partnership with the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation to preserve the historic houses located within New York City parks, although most of the houses ...

. Restoration of the structural skeleton and the roof began in the mid-2000s, and the restoration of the interior was set to commence in 2019. The restoration of the Lott House is a joint effort of the City of New York/Parks & Recreation, Historic House Trust of New York City, Marine Park Civic Association, and Hendrick I. Lott House Preservation Association. During the restoration, the house was occasionally opened to the public; visitors were encouraged to check out the "closet that is believed to have been a temporary haven for slaves escaping along the Underground Railroad".

References

External links

*
Hendrick I. Lott House - Historical Sign
1940 East 36th Street
The Historic Trust of New York City: Hendrick I. Lott

Hendrick I. Lott House
at Historic Marker Database {{DEFAULTSORT:Lott, Hendrick I., House New York City Designated Landmarks in Brooklyn Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Brooklyn New York (state) historic sites Houses on the Underground Railroad History of Brooklyn Proposed museums in the United States Historic house museums in New York City Marine Park, Brooklyn Houses completed in 1720 Houses completed in 1800 1720 establishments in the Province of New York Underground Railroad in New York (state)