The Pieter Claesen Wyckoff House --the Oldest Structure in New York City

The Pieter Claesen Wyckoff Farmhouse, located at 5816 Clarendon Road in Brooklyn, NY, was built in 1652, and is the oldest structure in New York City and was the first structure to be named a New York City landmark in 1965. It became a National Historic Landmark in 1968.

The Wyckoff Farmhouse typifies the farmhouse architecture of Dutch - American farms in Brooklyn and Queens during that era.

More views of the farmhouse --please click on an image to enlarge.

The Wyckoff Farmhouse Museum from Historic House Trust on Vimeo.

Information from the house website:

"Pieter Claesen Wyckoff emigrated from the Netherlands in 1637 as an indentured farmworker and through connections to Peter Stuyvesant, Director-General of New Netherlands, settled in what was then known as New Amersfoort in 1652 ( which is now East Flatbush - Flatlands neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York) Successive generations of Wyckoffs farmed the land until 1901. His descendants donated the house to the City in 1969 and after an exhaustive restoration it opened as a museum in 1982."

Please click to enlarge


During the Revolutionary War in 1776, a great-great-grandson, Peiter A. Wyckoff and his wife Heyltie Remsen lived there with their three small children and several slaves. Many of the farmhouses and homes in Brooklyn were occupied by British and Hessian soldiers during the historic "Battle of Brooklyn" which occurred on August 27, 1776.

I will be showing many of the historic sites of that battle on my blog during the next two weeks. I hope you will join me as I tell the story of the largest and bloodiest battle of the American Revolution --the first battle under the command of the newly appointed General George Washington--The Battle of Brooklyn--where tens of thousands of soldiers fought to decide the fate of America!