The Hendrick I Lott House, A 1700's Dutch Colonial Farmhouse in Brooklyn, NY

The Hendrick I Lott House, located at 1840 East 36th Street, Brooklyn, NY, is a New York City and New York State Landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Purchased by the Lott family in 1719, the house and property were sold by the Lott family to the City of New York in 2002, marking the end of the longest continual ownership of a property by a single family within the City.

(Click on any photo to enlarge it for easier viewing.)

Presently, the house is surrounded by a chain-link fence, as you can see in the photo above, and is closed for restoration. The Friends of the Lott House organization is raising money to complete interior and landscape restoration. Click here to make a donation

Some historical information about the house from the preservation web site:

"The Lott House, as it is presently configured, was constructed in 1800 by Hendrick I. Lott in the then town of Flatlands in Kings County New York. The house incorporates the circa 1720 house of Hendrick's grandfather Colonel Johannes H. Lott. The Lott House was the center of a large and active farm in Flatlands. In fact the Lott farm continued to produce goods for market until circa 1925. At one time Flatlands was the second largest agricultural producer in the region, second only to Queens County.

In 1989 the last Lott to live in the house, Miss Ella Suydam, passed away. Soon after the City awarded the Lott House landmark status and protection. In 2002 Miss Suydam's estate sold the Lott House and property to the City of New York."

On this link is a photo slide show of the extensive restoration that has begun to return it to its original 1700's condition.  The Friends of the Lott House have some wonderful videos on their home page describing the home and its history.

A New York Parks Department sign describing the history of the Lott family and the house. It can be clicked on to enlarge.

Like most of the large farmers in southern Brooklyn, the Lotts relied on the labor of slaves, indentured servants, and hired hands to help grow the crops that they sold in the markets of Brooklyn and Manhattan. The Lotts, however, freed their slaves by 1805, many years before the abolition of slavery in New York State in 1827. During archaeological excavations of the home, conducted by members of the Brooklyn College Archaeological Research Center, a secret room in the house was discovered which was believed to be part of the Underground Railroad in the 1840s. You can read about this discovery on the May/June 2001 issue of the Archaeology magazine website.

This is the American Revolutionary War "Battle Of Brooklyn" information placard at the house's site. It describes how in August of 1776, 20,000 British and Hessian soldiers came onshore from ships in Gravesend Bay to prepare to battle the Continental Army under General George Washington's command. They marched along the Kings Highway which was the northernmost border of the Lott property at the time and set their tents up in the fields surrounding the Lott house. A Lott family legend tells how a member of the family made a daring raid one evening on one of the enemy camps and made off with the cast iron fireback that belonged to the British General Charles Cornwallis. It remains in the family until this day. Click on the above photo to see the fireback and a photo of how the house farm and barns looked in the 18th century.

The photo above shows what those fields look like now. The last farmer, John Bennett Lott, died in 1923. and since he had no sons to take over the farm, most of the Lott house's 200 acres were sold to developers. Middle-class track houses were constructed on the former property as part of the ever-growing suburbia of New York City. This neighborhood became known as Marine Park. The houses seen in the photo above are on the west side of the Lott house, and similar houses surround it on all four sides.

Next blog post I'll show you one more Dutch farmhouse that still stands in Brooklyn -- one that was occupied by Hessian soldiers who left their mark behind 233 years ago!  It is the Wyckoff Bennett House.

To see the oldest Dutch House in Brooklyn --The Pieter Claesen Wyckoff  House, click here.

Read my blog posts about the Revolutionary War of the Battle of Brooklyn, click here.