Madam Brett Homestead
50 Van Nydeck Avenue
Beacon, NY 12508
(845) 831-6533
https://www.hudsonrivervalley.com/sites/Madam-Brett-Homestead-/details
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madam_Brett_Homestead
Admission: Adults $10.00
Open: Sunday-Friday Closed/Saturday (Every Second Saturday) 1:00pm-4:00pm
My review on TripAdvisor:
The Madam Brett Homestead at 50 Van Nydeck Avenue in Beacon, NY.
The Brett Homestead marker
The sign that welcomes visitors
I recently visited the Madam Brett Homestead on a walking tour and discovered that the family had a lot to do with the growth of not just Dutchess County but New York State as well. The house was the homestead for five generations of family members each who added to the home.
The homestead’s historic plaque
Since the family practiced thrift in the home and decor, we get to see the house with period furniture that has been donated back to the house from the family. Also, period pieces have been donated by other members of the community to show the home at different periods of time. It gave us a look into the home life of a prosperous farming and milling family.
The entrance of the Brett Homestead
The tour starts with a short video on the family and how Madam Brett got her inheritance from her father and built on the wealth that he had created. She leased out land with water and mineral rights thus adding to her wealth and had a grist mill that was the only one on the patent, so everyone had to go through her for grain processing.
The china cabinet with family related items.
The homestead was built by Roger Brett and Catherine Rombout Brett on land inherited by her father, which was part of the Rombout Patent (which covered much of lower Dutchess County). The couple had been married in 1703 and had originally moved in with her mother in the family’s manor home in Manhattan. Upon the death of her mother, Catherine inherited the land and the manor house in Manhattan. Land rich and cash poor, she and her husband mortgaged the manor house in Manhattan and built a small home and gristmill. They moved into their Dutch style home on Christmas Day 1709. The house was expanded in 1715. The home was later added on again in the 1800’s to the present house (Brett Homestead Pamphlet).
In the hallway on display is the original Rombout Patent, which everyone on our tour thought was very impressive. It had been found and was given back to the house. It shows the land deal that the settlers made with the Native Americans.
A copy of the Rombout Patent
We next headed to the Dining Room, where the family entertained guests. The room is full of period furniture and silver both family owned and donated to the homestead. The formality of entertaining is shown in the room set up.
The Dining Room at the Brett Homestead
Hannah Brett’s (Madam Brett’s granddaughter) bridesmaid dress was on display as well. This had been worn when she danced the Minuet with Marquis de Lafayette. I thought this was interesting in that she had this altered for the occasion and that it had lasted all these years. She had worn this for the wedding of Cornelia DePeyster, whose wedding dress in the New York Historical Society (Brett Homestead pamphlet). It was donated back to the house by the family descendants for display.
Hannah Brett-Schenck’s bridesmaid dress
Period furniture and decorations adorn the Brett Homestead
The decorative pieces in the Dining Room
The Dining Room fireplace
The kitchen was very interesting because when you walk through it you will see the modern kitchen in the front of the room that was put in around the late 1950’s and early 1960’s compared to the other side of the room which has the original fireplace and kitchen equipment. It shows the contrast in cooking and entertaining over the last two centuries.
The old versus the new in the Brett Homestead kitchen.
The house was constructed in three sections. The original section of the house from 1709, the addition in 1715 and then the grander addition in the 1800’s that gives the house the look it has now. You can see how the house evolved from a small residence to a grand showplace and you can see this in the way it was designed.
The upstairs hallway shows the contrast between the old home and the additions.
Each of the rooms were decorated with period pieces and some of the rooms has themes to them such as one was a Children’s Room, another was the family office and one contained farm equipment. All the items represented a different time in the home’s history.
The Children’s Room with a collection of dolls that creeped visitors out.
The upstairs bedrooms
The period farm equipment display.
The other bedrooms showed guest rooms for visitors to the area, the office where the Brett’s would have conducted business and rooms would have housed many family members.
The Master Bedroom with canopy bed and bedwarmer
The Guest Bedroom
The home office of the family.
The house stayed in the family until the death of Alice Sutcliffe Crary at 85 in 1953. The Melzingah Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution purchase the homestead to save it from becoming a supermarket. They have been lovingly restoring and holding events at the homestead as well as contributing to the community at large and promoting Historic Preservation, Education and Patriotism (Madam Brett Homestead pamphlet).
I recently visited the house with a group of people on a tour and we visited the house for Christmas and the local garden club had decorated part of the house for holidays with garland on the bannisters and on some of the mantels. The outside of the house was quite festive.
The house during the holiday season.
The house adorned with wreaths and garland on the holiday tour.
The welcoming entrance to the house during the holiday season.
The docent tours are very interesting and really give you a view of what life was like in the house for the families that lived here. They only take place on the second Saturday of the month so you need to plan ahead.
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