Locust Lawn is a surviving 19th-century farm complex situated on the bank of the Plattekill Creek on

New York State Route 32 New York State Route 32 (NY 32) is a north–south state highway that extends for through the Hudson Valley and Capital District regions of the U.S. state of New York. It is a two-lane surface road for nearly its entire length, with f ...

, outside of New Paltz,

Ulster County, New York Ulster County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. It is situated along the Hudson River. As of the 2020 census, the population was 181,851. The county seat is Kingston. The county is named after the Irish province of Ulster. History ...

. The centerpiece of Locust Lawn is the Jeffersonian mansion of Colonel Josiah Hasbrouck which remains without modern heating, plumbing and electrical systems. The site also features the earlier Evert Terwilliger House. ''See also:'' Locust Lawn has been 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 ...

since 1974. The site was donated to Historic Huguenot Street by Hasbrouck descendant Annette Young in 1958. In 2010 the house and collections were transferred to the Locust Grove Estate, another museum property founded by Annette Young. The site is open to the public by appointment.

Josiah Hasbrouck House

In 1805,

Josiah Hasbrouck Josiah Hasbrouck (March 5, 1755 – March 19, 1821) was a United States representative from New York. Born in New Paltz, he completed preparatory studies and conducted a general merchandising business. He was a second lieutenant in the Third Regi ...

returned from his first stint in U.S.Congress during the administration of

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 18 ...

eager to create for his family a home worthy of their position in the small but growing community, which was founded by

Huguenot The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Be ...

s in 1678. Hasbrouck was a descendant of Huguenot Jean Hasbrouck, one of the founders, or patentees, of New Paltz. In addition to his service in Congress, Hasbrouck served with the Ulster County Militia 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 a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

, in the

New York State Assembly The New York State Assembly is the lower house of the New York State Legislature, with the New York State Senate being the upper house. There are 150 seats in the Assembly. Assembly members serve two-year terms without term limits. The Assem ...

and as New Paltz

town supervisor The administrative divisions of New York are the various units of government that provide local services in the State of New York. The state is divided into boroughs, counties, cities, townships called "towns", and villages. (The only borou ...

Along with his wife Sara Decker, Hasbrouck purchased the Terwilliger family homestead a few miles south of the village of New Paltz. At the time, the site was a small farm and mill and featured a modest stone house built 67 years earlier. Over the next several years, Hasbrouck acquired additional acreage, ultimately increasing the size of the farm to . He also set about building a dramatic

Federal style Federal-style architecture is the name for the classicizing architecture built in the newly founded United States between 1780 and 1830, and particularly from 1785 to 1815, which was heavily based on the works of Andrea Palladio with several inn ...

mansion A mansion is a large dwelling house. The word itself derives through Old French from the Latin word ''mansio'' "dwelling", an abstract noun derived from the verb ''manere'' "to dwell". The English word '' manse'' originally defined a property l ...

, which was completed in 1814. The 3-story house features a center arched doorway and a symmetrical arrangement of windows. In the back of the house, there is a -story kitchen wing. Inside, the arrangement of rooms on the first and second floors is, for the most part, symmetrical as well, with rooms opening up from a wide center hallway. Faux marble plaster walls in the first-floor hallway date to 1814. The home was lived in by Josiah and Sarah's descendants until 1885, when the family locked all of their belongings in one half of the house and rented the remainder to tenants who farmed the surrounding land. So things remained for almost 75 years, when the house was donated to Historic Huguenot Street. Today, the house features many of the Hasbrouck's family possessions set up as they were when the house was occupied by Josiah, Sarah and their descendants.

Evert Terwilliger House

The homestead

bought in 1805 was originally settled by Evert Terwilliger, a Dutch man, in 1738 after he married Sara Freer. Sara was the daughter of Hugo Freer, one of the French-speaking

founders, or patentees, of New Paltz. Evert and Sara's son Jonathan expanded the home in 1764. The house is a good example of the Dutch-style stone houses built in this region during the eighteenth century. One and a half stories in height, the house originally had a gable-end entry (similar to that which still exists in the Bevier-Elting House at Historic Huguenot Street). A porch running the length of the house, another feature of front-gable Dutch houses in America and the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

in the 17th and 18th centuries, overlooks the Plattekill Creek. This creek and the falls just beyond the house were used by the Terwilliger family to operate a

grist mill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the Mill (grinding), grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist i ...

and

saw mill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes ( dimens ...

at the site. The house was acquired by Historic Huguenot Street in 1973 with the financial assistance of the then newly formed Terwilliger Family Association. The Terwilliger Family Association continues to support the maintenance and preservation of the home.

References

External links

Locust Lawn
{{National Register of Historic Places in New York Houses in Ulster County, New York Museums in Ulster County, New York Historic house museums in New York (state) National Register of Historic Places in Ulster County, New York Houses completed in 1814 Gardiner, New York Federal architecture in New York (state)