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Survey of
Historic Sites and Buildings

	HUGUENOT STREET New York
Location: Huguenot Street, New Paltz, Ulster County, on the Walkill River. Huguenot Historical Society

Ownership and Administration (1961). Jean Hasbrouck House (Memorial House) owned by Huguenot Patriotic, Historical and Monumental Society, New Paltz, N.Y. Other houses privately owned.

Significance. Five stone houses clustered along New Paltz' Huguenot Street constitute a remarkable picture of an early 18th-century community. They are: Abraham Hasbrouck House, Louis Bevier House, Daniel du Bois House, Hugo Freer House, and Jean Hasbrouck House (Memorial House). Huguenot settlement, both Walloon and French, was a significant facet of American development in the 17th and 18th centuries, and nowhere is it more graphically illustrated by historic buildings than at New Paltz. Although the original Huguenot settlement of New Paltz dates from the latter part of the 17th century, the five listed houses are of the 18th century, incorporating parts of the earlier wooden houses they replaced.

Although surrounded by the Dutch and friendly with them, the Huguenot settlers of New Paltz resisted intermarriage with their neighbors and for many years preserved their own way of life. For all practical purposes, they were an independent, self-governing body that the Crown and, later, the State of New York, tolerated. In 1785 the State legislature confirmed the ancient grants and petitions and incorporated the town into the State government. The original system of government for New Paltz consisted of a council of 12 heads of families. Later descendants of the original dozen continued to govern, exercising judicial power, allocation of land, etc. The plain folk who settled New Paltz did not have the widespread influence on American social and cultural development that can be claimed for the more sophisticated Huguenot communities in Charleston and elsewhere, but nowhere is Huguenot settlement better preserved in terms of extent and integrity of physical remains than on Huguenot Street in New Paltz. Even without its Huguenot associations, the existence of five early 18th-century buildings on one continuously inhabited street would justify recognition of the New Paltz community as an outstanding survivor of colonial America. When the deeper significance is added of Huguenot Street as a haven for European refugees, the New Paltz community may well be unique in terms of its period and historical significance.

The Daniel du Bois House is one of several 18th-century dwellings that make Huguenot Street in New Paltz, N.Y., a vivid link with Huguenot settlement in colonial America. (Courtesy, Cortlandt Van Dyke Hubbard.)

Present Appearance (1961). The houses of Huguenot Street have a pronounced Dutch colonial aspect. The Jean Hasbrouck House, built about 1712 by one of the 12 original patentees of the settlement, has been preserved in original form to an unusual degree. Its rough stone walls, topped by high, steep-pitched roof, give it an appearance almost medieval in character. The interior follows the center-hall plan, with two rooms on each side. At the entrance door is an early shed stoop. This house is owned by the Huguenot Patriotic, Historical, and Monumental Society, and is open to the public as a historic-house museum. The Abraham Hasbrouck House, built about 1717, is also relatively unaltered. Its rough-faced stone walls, gabled roof with sloping shed dormers and three chimneys, strongly reflect Dutch colonial design.

The Daniel du Bois House was built about 1775 on the site of an earlier stone fortress, the walls of which may have been incorporated in the later dwelling. The house was enlarged and its interior altered in the 19th century. The center portion of the Bevier House, home of an original New Paltz patentee, dates from the end of the 17th century, although the house was substantially enlarged about 1735. In addition to the thick stone walls and steep-pitched roof, the Freer House, built early in the 18th century, has clapboard gable windows, solid shutters, and divided door with overhang hood, common in Dutch colonial architecture. In addition to the above houses, the Deyo House may also be mentioned, although portions of the walls of the present house are all that remain of the original structure built by Pierre Deyo, another of the New Paltz patentees. The house was extensively remodeled in the 19th century, and little of its original construction was spared. [81]

NHL Designation: 10/09/60