| Edification value |  |
|---|---|
| Entertainment value |  |
| Should you go? | |
| Time spent | 138 minutes |
| Best thing I saw or learned |  All the front windows of the house have neat, scary terra cotta faces centered above them. This was apparently a Dutch thing to ward off bad spirits. Reproductions are available at the gift shop! |
At the northern terminus of the Number 1 subway line lies Van Cortlandt Park, home of one of the oldest surviving houses in New York City. Within the park, \ surrounded by an ancient iron fence, is a very fancy residence built in 1748 as a summer home by (surprise!) the Van Cortlandt family. The grandest home in the area, the Van Cortlandts owned and lived in the house for about 140 years, until in 1887 as the family fortunes ebbed, they sold the property to the city as a park. The National Society of Colonial Dames in the State of New York took over the house and opened it as a museum in 1897. It is, of course, a New York City landmark.
The Van Cortlandts in the early days were super-wealthy, and the house showed it. They were also super-Dutch, proud of their heritage as New Amsterdammers, and many of the details of the house (including a blue and orange color scheme for the china cabinets in the parlor) reflect that as well. Little that’s in the house today remains from the Van Cortlandts, but most of the publicly accessible rooms are filled with period furniture and knick-knacks that give a sense of what the lives of the earlier generations of the family might have been like.
When it opened as a museum, one room was redone to depict a modest city house, simulating how a much less successful Dutch family would have lived down in Manhattan. They’ve kept that to this day and while I would’ve liked the place to be as close as possible to how the family lived in it, the contrast is informative.
I joined a tour being given by a guy named Paul — when they have tours, they do them in a repeated loop (which is probably not that fun for Paul), so you can join in progress and then stick around for the beginning of the next one to pick up what you missed. It’s a little odd, leaving the Van Cortlandt background until the end, but it was very efficient.
As I’m conditioned to do, I asked Paul about Hamilton. There is no recorded occurrence of the great man visiting. Washington did, though, thrice, as did John Adams. The VC house was the only large, fancy home for miles around. So Ham might’ve visited, but there’s no proof.
The Van Cortlandts lived a very different kind of life than the Dyckmans or the Hamiltons. And of course their home is a huge contrast to a city house like the Treadwells’. I wish that more of it was open — there are slave quarters up the back stairs that the only accessible periodically for special small-group tours because of the fire code. And we didn’t get to see the kitchen — as a food lover I’m highly interested in the evolution of kitchens and cooking. But with each one of these homes I visit, my sense for life in and around the city in the 1700s-to-early-1800s gets deeper and richer. And I have yet more appreciation for life in the 2010s.
On a sunny Sunday spring afternoon, Van Cortlandt park was full of people strolling, and several cricket teams in full whites, which made for interesting if rather bewildering spectating. I highly recommend a visit to the park. If you do, definitely venture past the iron fence and see how the Van Cortlandts lived.
For Reference:
| Address | Inside Van Cortlandt Park at 246th Street, the Bronx |
|---|---|
| Website | vchm.org |
| Cost | General Admission: $5, Free/donation on Wednesdays |
| Other Relevant Links |
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The Museum of the City of New York is an absolute treasure. It occupies a really lovely Georgian/Federal-style building at the northern end of Museum Mile on Fifth Avenue. The Museum started out its life in 
For all that it’s merely fake old, it’s got one of the best staircases of any museum in the city, a super-elegant curve leading up from the ground floor. Nowadays complemented by a terrific light sculpture. 
on a rotating basis. Interact with a character and you get more, potentially much more, about them and their contribution. And it’s not just human characters, you can find out about players like beavers and oysters, too. I’m often skeptical of the value of these kinds of things. Too often they are more sizzle than steak. But this impressed me a lot.
And finally, as I do wherever I can, I will mention Alexander Hamilton, who is present, larger than life size, on the facade.
The National Lighthouse Museum is a museum in its infancy. Located a short stroll from the ferry terminal in St. George, Staten Island, the museum describes the history, technology, and design of lighthouses. 
This incredible 1872 punch bowl and goblets, 36 pieces and 800 ounces worth (that’s 50 pounds! 22.68kg!) of sterling silver. A gift to Isaac Newton Marks, president of the New Orleans Fireman’s Charitable Association. It’s hard to see in the picture but the stem of each goblet is a fire fighter.
The Fire Museum is like the attic of the New York City Fire Department. It’s where all the old interesting stuff is, and exploring it is very much like sifting through a collection of fire-related artifacts that someone at some point considered worth keeping. 
The Dyckman Farmhouse is the least fancy historic home I’ve been to so far on this project. Owned by the Dyckman family, who had a large farm at the northern tip of Manhattan, the house is reckoned to have been built around 1783, so it’s also the oldest historic house I’ve been to yet.
It’s totally different from the fancy, symmetrical, Federal style of the other historic houses I’ve seen so far. Rather it is very basic, 2 stories plus a cellar, simple, small, cozy, and a little threadbare. And like all old houses, seemingly quite crowded and uncomfortable back in the day.
apartment buildings, cars, and buses and putting in rolling fields and outbuildings is hard. There’s a tiny plot of green in back and on the sides of the house, with a reconstructed Hessian hut, but it barely begins to evoke the original agrarian setting.
The Elevateds were built in the late 1890s and much of the signage was done in beautiful glass with floral decorations. I think of them as just big and hulking, but they must have been rather beautiful as well.
New York’s main Transit Museum is in Brooklyn, and it is very worth visiting. When they restored Grand Central in the early 2000s, they opened a tiny branch (or “gallery annex”) of the museum there. I’m tempted to say skip it — the exhibit space is very small, it’s more gift shop than museum, and there’s so much else to see at Grand Central.
This year, the transit system is celebrating the construction of the new Second Avenue Subway. In a brilliant bit of counter-programming, the current show at the Transit Museum’s GCT branch is about a bit of deconstructing, showing photos of the dismantling of the Third Avenue Elevated in 1955.
Halls of fame today are two-a-penny. Everyone and everything from minor league lacrosse to rock n roll has a hall of fame. But it wasn’t always that way. There had to be, at some point, a first one.
Visiting Gracie Mansion for this project made me realize I knew nothing about Gracie Mansion, beyond the name.
