Knox Headquarters State Historic Site
289 Old Forge Hill Road
Vails Gate, NY 12584
(845) 561-5498
https://parks.ny.gov/historic-sites/5/details.aspx
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knox%27s_Headquarters_State_Historic_Site
Open: Sunday-Saturday (Seasonal-Please see the website)
Admission: Free but donations are accepted
My review on TripAdvisor:
The Georgian side of the Elliott home
The Dutch style side of the home
The sign welcoming you
The estate from the road
The historic sign outside the home
The Welcome Center tells the story of both the Ellison family and their war visitors, the Knox family.
The Ellison family history sign
The Knox family history sign
The family history in the Visitor’s Center
The tour of the house was very interesting. The house was built in three stages as the family grew and prospered over the generations. There was the original Dutch house which is the side of the house that faces the current road, the Georgian addition which faces the back of the house, where the original Kings Highway was located and the addition, where the Visitors Center was located.
My tour guide, Tiffany, explained there had been other additions to the home over the years but they had been removed for the historical integrity of the house.
The Georgian addition of the home featured more rooms for socializing
The Georgian addition to the back of the home was built with the family fortunes. This included a spacious formal Parlor, Dining Room both with large window to let in natural light and high ceilings for circulation and to show the families affluence.
The large windows let in the natural light in the warmer months
Much of the furniture in the house was not original to it but was of the period. Here and there though there were pieces donated back to the house and gave it its historical dignity.
The formal dining room was used to impressi visitors with the large fireplace
The Dining Room used for meals and formal entertaining was spacious yet cozy. There was room to move around but it was still intimate for conversation.
The room had built in China cabinets
The wood work contained china cabinets, storage for silver and family serving pieces. The large metal tombstone looking item in the fireplace was a metal slab meant for retaining heat for the room once the fire went down. This is how the room was kept warm in the colder months.
The natural light was perfect for late afternoon supper
Once you left these rooms for the front hallway, this led to the Dutch front portion of the house, once the living quarters and now was were the business office and storage for the family business was attended to during working hours.
The office of Mr. Ellison was in the front part of the original Dutch portion of the house
The rooms in the front section of the original house were separated from the formal part of the current back of the house. This is where Mr. Ellison and his son attended to business calls and stored their goods for shipping.
The storage room was probably a family bedroom for the original house
The trip upstairs was part of the addition of the house and contained two spacious bedrooms with high ceilings and large windows. When the Knox family joined the Ellison family during the encampment, each family had one bedroom for use. The Ellison’s did not have any children and the Knox’s had two small children, a small girl and an infant boy. From what the tour guide explained the Ellison’s welcomed them in the home and relations were very good with both couples, who welcomed the children into their home. It brought extra life to the house.
The formal bedroom of the Ellison’s would be the bigger room and more formal
The Knox family bedroom would have been not less elaborate with a small bed and crib for the children
The Knox’s bedroom for the family during the war years
Mrs. Ellison kept her own office at the top of the stairs and this was reflective in the desk and table in the nook at the top of the stairs. The tour guide explained there had been a wall to provide privacy to Mrs. Ellison which had been removed over the years.
The office of Mrs. Ellison to run the household
The office contained the family heirloom desk and a portrait of Mr. Ellison’s brother who was a General in the war.
The portrait of General Ellison, Mr. Ellison’s brother
Part of the cannon
When I finished the tour of the house, my tour guide and walked around the Visitor Center room and she showed me some of the artifacts in the room including a small cannon the had been found. My tour guide suggested after we were done in the house a tour of the grounds. The King’s Highway had originally run in a different location that passed the front door of the Georgian side of the house. Also down by the stream were the ruins of the old grist mill.
The map of the original King’s Highway when it passed in front of the home
The original front door of the Ellison home where the street was once located
The stone wall is the marker of the original part of the road that passed by the home
The highway path as it passed over the stone bridge
There was not much left of the family mill by the stream but the site did a nice job preserving the path of the highway and up keeping the stone bridge and grounds.
The woods area by the stream where the ruins of the old mill were located
The stream area
The stream area by the old mill
A better view of the old stone bridge
When I returned from the stream area (unfortunately leads to someone’s property on the other side of the stream), I walked the grounds of the home. There was a small smokehouse on the property to the side of the house.
The old smokehouse on the property
What was originally the back side of the house is now the front side of the house on the Dutch side of the home with the addition to the left
The view of the homestead from what is now the front of the street
The view of the house from the entrance when I was leaving
The front of the homestead as you enter an exit from the new direction of the home
I found the tour to be very informative and an interesting look on how two families shaped our history during the Revolutionary War.
*A special note that the house is seasonal and is closed from Labor Day until Memorial Day the next year and is only open for special events at Halloween and Christmas.
The Halloween Event:
I attended the Halloween events at the Knox Headquarters when in the spirit of the 18th Century Gothic Literature, an author took us on a tour of treason and tides turning during New Windsor Cantonment and inside the Knox Headquarters. The ghosts of the past tried to find a traitor in the midst of the war.
Meeting the ghosts of the author and her characters on the site of the Knox family estate
The Knox House lit for the Halloween holidays had a eerie look to it that night
The Ghosts trying to find a traitor in the ranks
The Ghosts of the past trying to find a traitor during the war
Leaving the Continental Army camp after the performance was over that evening
We walked the estate and followed the storyline with the actors. There were people on both sides of the war who thought they were right. It was an interesting Halloween event.
The History of the Ellison/Knox Site:
(from the New York State Parks, Recreation and Historical site)
On several occasions during the Revolutionary War, Major General Henry Knox, Commander of the America artillery, established his military headquarters at John Ellison’s 1754 Georgian-style house in Vails Gate. From October 1782 until the spring of 1783, as 7,000 soldiers and 500 “camp followers” were establishing winter quarters at the New Windsor Cantonment, and General Washington was lodged at Jonathan Hasbrouck’s house in Newburgh, New York, Major General Horatio Gates occupied the elegant home from which he commanded the cantonment. Here the army awaited the end of the Revolutionary War that became effective when Washington issued the cease fire orders on April 19, 1783.
For most of the 18th and into the 19th century, the Ellison family had important commercial dealings in milling and trade. From their mill, flour was shipped down the Hudson River to New York City and the West Indies. At present, remains of the mill, with traces of the underground raceway may be visited. Explore how the Ellison’s and other families of the mid-Hudson Valley lived 200 years ago.
The Christmas Open House event:
I returned to the Knox Headquarters again for their Colonial Christmas Open House in early December and that was a festive event. The snow had just fallen giving the house a very picturesque look to it.
The Knox/Ellison Home the day of the event
The estate looked so picturesque with the snow
When I first arrived to the estate, it was still light out and they had just lit all the torches in front of the house. It really lit the pathways to the house. By the outside fire, a lone soldier stood guard, and he looked like he was freezing.
The torches that lit the paths
The snow gave the woods a festive early Christmas look
The house was decorated for a Colonial Christmas during the war years
The Officers used the Living Room as an office and for entertainment
The hearth was beautifully decorated with garland and dried fruits
The mistress of the house talked and entertained me on my visit
The house had an eerie but festive feel about it that evening
The festive garland decorations in the Living Room
The decorations in both windows
I passed the foyer where garland and misotle decorated the stairs
We were then entertained by visiting officers of the home in Mr. Ellison’s office who told us their stories of General Washington’s visit.
The Officers visit to visit the Generals
The office lit for a late night visit
The holiday decorations in the Office space
Then I took a trip upstairs where we were met by another officer who described the sleeping arrangements of both the Knox and Ellison families of this time of occupation.
The officers conversation with us
The decorations as we walked up the stairs
The bedroom decorated for the visit
The opposite bedroom used by the family
The staircase decorated for the holidays
My last stop on the visit was to the Dining Room, where the last officer on the visit talked of Christmas dinner in the house during the war.
The officer explaining entertainment during the war
The Dining Room decorated for the Christmas holidays
The elaborate decorations in the room in the war years
The creativity of the Dining Room table with the creative table decor
The elaborate holiday desserts
The officer explained entertainments during the war, the use of the elaborate decorations on the table and the foods that would have been eaten at the holidays. Plus, entertainment of a major officer would have been during the war years.
The garland and fruit decorations in the Fining room
The officer finished his talk on the holidays and then I left for the evening
The outside of the house with the torches lit to full extent
The fire outside to warm up
The officer outside looked so cold. Thank God he kept going inside to warm up
The house as I left for the evening
The torches as I left the property
The house from a distance
The glow of the house at the end of the evening
The event was wonderful and the enactment was fun but it got really cold outside at the end of the evening and by 6:00pm it got to be freezing. I left the estate and headed home . The Knox/ Ellison House closed for the season after this night.
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