The Cadmus House was built in 1808 by landowner Jacob Haring and his wife, Margarat. It was originally a two room farmhouse when it was built on their extensive farm land. The Harings’ sold the house to Abraham and Harmones Van Derbeek in 1815 and they turned around and sold the house to Thomas Cadmus and his wife, Margaret in 1816 and the name stuck from there.
The Haring house originally and then it had a gable and second floor built in the late 19th century
More information on the Haring Family from the novel “A Dutch Family for the Middle Colonies” by author Firth Haring:
Over the years, the house had had many owners and many uses. Before the house was moved in 1985 to its current location, it served as a real estate office at that time. When they were building new construction on the spot, the house was saved by a group of concerned Fair Lawn residents to preserved the town’s past and it was turned into the Cadmus House-Fair Lawn Museum.
The house is broken down into different themed rooms. The downstairs rooms are devoted to the Fair Lawn’s past with pictures of old homes that used to line the streets of the neighborhood. There are pictures of old farms and farm houses, relics from town such as arrowheads, farming equipment and old farm house decor such as ice boxes and apple presses for cider.
Pictures of Fair Lawn’s past
In the room that once served as a dining room, there are period Dutch items that would be needed to run a household or a business.
The apple press which was a big part of the farming community in Bergen County
The upstairs rooms have different displays. One room is devoted to Victorian living with furniture and bedroom decors along with dolls and cribs. The other room is dedicated to the history of the Fair Lawn Fire and Police Departments as well as memorabilia from Fair Lawn High School such as trophies, yearbooks and old films of football games.
There is plenty of parking in the front of the house and the parking lot is shared with the railroad station next door. The house is only open the third Sunday of each month and it is closed for the months of July and August.
If you want to take a glimpse of Bergen County’s past Colonial, Victorian, Motor Age or current, the Cadmus House will give you a perspective on living in Bergen County in the past into current times.
The house now sits by the train station in Fairlawn, NJ
I visited the Dia: Beacon in Beacon, NY many times and I have to say that is an interesting space to display art and the pieces themselves make a statement. The museum is sited on thirty-one acres on the banks of the Hudson River and is adjacent to ninety acres of riverfront parkland. The museum is located in a former printing plant built in 1929 by Nabisco (National Biscuit Company) (Wiki). The space square footage gives the museum the opportunity to display larger statement pieces of well known artists.
The history of the Dia: Beacon:
(from the museum website)
The Dia: Beacon presents Dia Art Foundation’s collection of art from the 1960’s to the present as well as special exhibitions, performances and public programs. The Dia invited artist Robert Irwin to conceive the master plan for a twenty-century museum that retained the original character of the factory’s interior spaces, Irwin also designed seasonally changing garden throughout the surrounding landscape. Following the renovation, the Dia: Beacon was added to the National Register of Historic Places (Dia: Beacon Museum).
Dia Art Foundation:
(from the museum website)
Founded in 1974, Dia Art Foundation is committed to advancing, realizing and preserving the vision of artists. In addition to Dia: Beacon, Dia maintains a constellation of iconic, permanent artworks and installations in New York City, the American West and Germany (Dia Museum).
Each of the galleries are devoted one artist’s work and these galleries make their own statements. There is also a really nice bookstore and gift shop on the extension of the museum and small restaurant.
It is nice to just walk around in your own time and visit each of the galleries. Plan about two hours to see the whole museum. It is an interesting place to see contemporary art in a gallery that is devoted to one artist at a time. The outside grounds of the museum and the parking lot makes it own statement. There is not much parking so plan on getting there early or later in the afternoon.
The museum has clean lines and big halls and a minimalist landscaping
The one thing about the Dia is that the works are quite large and pack a bold statement. The museum uses a combination of both American and Foreign artists and their works make a bold statement. The museums galleries are large and airy and can show larger works of art. The museum shows many of the artists largest pieces of work.
The inside of the Dia: Beacon’s large galleries
These larger pieces were interactive
Inside the museum, many contemporary artists are featured each season. Many of their larger works were featured in their galleries. While the shows rotate collections of many artists, these were the pieces that stood out to me on my visits to the museum over the years.
The Artists I most admired and their works that most stood out to me:
Artist Louise Bourgeois has displayed some interesting sculptures that dominate the upper floors. One of the most fascinating pieces was that of a large spider that dominates the corner of the floor.
This Louise Bourgeois work is a rather creepy piece of art like something out of the movie “It”.
In Bourgeois’s works on view in these galleries, organic formations fuse with the inorganic materiality of the media in which they are rendered, be it marble, wood, or bronze. The artist’s repertoire of materials spans traditional media and new textures, such as latex and synthetic resin. In her work, representation often entails the creation of a surrogate for the body and its suffering organs (Dia: Beacon museum website).
Artist Dan Flavin has some interesting light sculptures on display along the walls and floors of the gallery. Things are made of long fluorescent lights of various colors.
After 1963 Flavin’s work was composed almost entirely of light, in the form of commercially available fluorescent tubes in ten colors (blue, green, pink, red, yellow, ultraviolet, and four whites) and five shapes (one circular and four straight fixtures of different lengths). Initially arranging these fixtures in varying autonomous configurations, Flavin increasingly made work in relation to architecture, such as his monumental barriers that physically block a passageway or segment of a space with light (The Dia: Beacon museum website).
In the main gallery as you walk in are the large geometric shapes of artist Charlotte Posenenske who created these pieces in various colors and shapes. These pieces line the floors and walls.
The geometric shapes of Artist Charlotte Posenenske
Embracing reductive geometry, repetition, and industrial fabrication, she developed a form of mass-produced sculptural Minimalism that addressed the pressing socioeconomic concerns of the decade by circumventing the art market and rejecting established formal and cultural hierarchies. Posenenske employed playful conceptual devices to oppose compositional hierarchy and invite the collaborative engagement of the public in the continual reconfiguration of her variable sculptures (The Dia: Beacon website).
Artist Andy Warhol has one of his largest works displayed in the main gallery on the first floor.
What I loved about the work by Warhol was the continuous colorful pattern of the work and the way it wrapped around the room. The pattern took form in many colors and showed consistency and balance.
A single painting in multiple parts, Shadows is one of Warhol’s most abstract works, yet one that cohesively synthesizes key elements of his practice, including film, painting, photography, and screen-printing. Originally commissioned by Dia and acquired in 1979 for a solo exhibition at 393 West Broadway in New York, Shadows includes a total of 102 canvases; the final number of canvases on view in each installation is determined by the dimensions of an existing exhibition space (The Dia: Beacon museum website).
American artist Senga Nengudi had a some interesting works on display, one resembling melted ‘freeze pops’, which I thought was rather clever. Her large works took liquid forms and were colorful and spontaneous. These large works had lots of color and looked whimsical and fun.
One of Artist Senga Nengudi works
I thought this was a large ‘freeze pop’
One of her non-liquid works
Made of everyday materials such as vinyl, water, nylon, sand, dry-cleaning bags, lint, paper, and tape, Nengudi’s installations are at once proxies for bodies and sites for performance. The works accommodate a variety of cultural references from African, Japanese, and South Asian rites to Western avant-garde art. Characteristic of her openness to multiplicity, the artist, born Sue Ellen Irons, has assumed pseudonyms that inflect her creative identities as sculptor (Senga Nengudi), painter (Harriet Chin), photographer (Propecia Leigh), and writer (Lily Bea Moor) (The Dia: Beacon museum website).
Some of the other works that I liked as I walked around the museum:
Displayed on the first floor of the Dia: Beacon
Another interesting work on the first floor
The large galleries and open air space give patrons a chance to walk around the works and really get a feel for what the artists are trying to express. You really get to see the art up close and that is why I like the way they display their art. We can engage with each piece and develop our own meaning from it.
The grounds and the proximity to the river gives the museum a picturesque spot. It is nice to walk around the lawn on a warm day and enjoy the paths around the museum. The museum also has a very interesting gift shop featuring many books and gifts. The small restaurant can be pricey but offers a place for a light lunch or a quick snack.
The front of the American Museum of Arts & Letters at 633 West 155th Street
I was finally able to visit the American Academy of Arts and Letters on the last day it was open for the year to the public. It was for the ‘Ceremonial Exhibition: Work by New Members and Recipients of Awards’, an exhibition on members art that was chosen specifically for the show. Most of the work was very contemporary and some a little political. It was interesting work by new artists that filled the small gallery rooms.
The front of the American Museum of Arts & Letters
One of the buildings was used for the contemporary art while the one across the courtyard was used for the more architectural pieces. The galleries are small but the art was impressive. What I liked when I talked with one of the women who worked there said to me that after the show, the pieces would be donated to galleries and museums all over the country. The galleries are only open four months out of the year and this was the last day of the exhibition so the work being shown will be gone.
I visited the museum in January 2025 and it had just reopened after a three year renovation after it had been closed since Pre-COVID and it is now fully open with a new exhibitions. All the galleries are brightly lit and displaying new exhibitions.
The entrance to the museum from the courtyard
Some of the pieces that really stood out when I visited in 2019 were by Judith Bernstein, a contemporary painter who seems to not like the current administration too much. The themes were on power and money and corruption in the administration. Her work really shows what she personally thinks of our President. Her ‘Trump Genie” was very clever and I can see this in a major museum in the future.
Judith Bernstein’s work
Other work in the main gallery in 2019 were by artists Stephen Westfall with ‘Solid Gone’, Hermine Ford with ‘Paris, France’ and Paul Mogensen with several ‘Untitled’ pieces. The contemporary works I was not sure what the meaning of them were but they were colorful.
The works of the artists of the front gallery
One of the pieces in the front gallery that really stood out was by artist Francesca Dimattio, ‘She-wolf’ which was a classic Greek character made of porcelain, enamel, paint and steel.
‘She-wolf’ by Francesca Dimattio
There were light installations in 2019 that were very interesting by artist James O. Clark. He had one piece, ‘Wunnerful, Wunnerful’, which is a work that just keeps being creating itself by bubbles and ink markers moving along a turntable that stops and starts.
There was a permanent exhibition of Charles Ives home in Connecticut that was transported and recreated here. His studio and works are featured here as well as his family life. There are copies of his works in the display cases and his career.
The museum in 2025 was fully open with the exhibition by artist Christine Kozlov, a contemporary Video artist whose works were being featured in the main gallery.
The main gallery of the Kristine Kozlov exhibition
In more than fifty artworks arrayed across four galleries at Arts and Letters, Christine Kozlov shows the breadth of Conceptual artist Christine Kozlov’s practice with a focus on works from the mid-1960s through the late 1970s. Nearly all of the works Kozlov contributed to public exhibitions during this period will be on view, many of which were created for landmark exhibitions of Conceptual art such as: One Month (1969), organized by Seth Siegelaub; Information (1970), curated by Kynaston McShine at the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Arte de Sistemas organized by Jorge Glusberg / CAYC—Centro de Arte y Comunicación at the Museo De Arte Moderno (1971); and the Number Shows, a series of exhibitions curated by Lucy Lippard between 1969 and 1974 (American Museum of Arts & Letters website).
Part of the Kristine Kostov exhibition
Works by artist Christine Kozlov
The next exhibition that I viewed was by artist Wadada Leo Smith, which consisted of an exhibition based on colors and sounds. You could take the headsets around the gallery and tour and admire the work with the sounds of the musical groups.
The gallery with works by artist Wadada Leo Smith
Wadada Leo Smith (b. 1941, Leland, MS) is a composer-performer and Arts and Letters member. Formerly an educator at CalArts, he has influenced decades of musicians and artists, including Raven Chacon. In Kosmic Music, Smith’s first solo exhibition in New York, he shares over fifty years of Ankhrasmation (Museum website).
The “Sphere” works by artist Wadada Leo Smith
Ankhrasmation is a musical language Smith began exploring in 1965. Smith does not consider Ankhrasmation to be his creation but rather something he discovered. The name derives from Ankh,anancient Egyptian symbol of life; Ras,an Ethiopian word for leader or father; and Ma, for mother. The distinctive language uses line, color, and shape to designate musical components such as tonal range and intensity of activity. For Smith, performing Ankhrasmation requires focused practice and “having that space in your heart and mind so that you can play from inspiration.” (Museum website).
The last exhibition I saw was in the gallery across the courtyard from the main museum was by artist Raven Chacon. You would walk in the main gallery to the sounds of birds both living and extinct. Just five minutes in the main gallery by myself and I felt like Tippi Hedren in the movie “The Birds”. There were all sorts of bird sounds with no birds around.
The instruments that the artist uses to achieve the sounds of the birds
When Raven Chacon (b. 1977, Fort Defiance, Navajo Nation) visited Arts and Letters for the first time, he paused in our North Gallery to clap his hands, then counted how long it took for the room to go silent. It took around six seconds—a long rate of decay. Standing in that echoing chamber, Chacon noted the building’s Beaux Arts design by Cass Gilbert, with its imported Spanish tile and cage-like glass ceiling that filters the sky. He became curious to learn the history of the land it sits on, once owned by John James Audubon, who purchased it in 1841 with funds from the sale of his illustrated Birds of America (Museum website).
Chacon is a composer and artist who frequently works with the materials and histories of a given site and who considers, as he puts it, “what has been silenced and what happens when it is not.” For the past year, he has worked on Aviary, his site-specific commission for the North Gallery, creating a soundscape that makes space and time for careful listening (Museum website).
Museum Mission:
(from the museum website)
The American Academy of Arts & Letters was founded in 1898 as an honor society of the country’s leading architects, artists, composers and writers. Charter members include William Merritt Chase, Kenyon Cox, Daniel Chester French, Childe Hassam, Henry James, Theodore Roosevelt, Elihu Vedder and Woodrow Wilson. The Academy’;’s 250 members are elected for life and pay no dues.
The main gallery of the museum
In addition to electing new members as vacancies occur, the Academy seeks to foster and sustain an interest in Literature, Music and the Fine Arts by administering over 70 awards and prizes, exhibiting art and manuscripts, funding performances of new works of musical theater and purchasing artwork for donation to museums across the country.
Collections:
(from the museum website)
The Academy’s collection, which are open to scholars by appointment, contain portraits and photographs of members, as well as paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints and decorative art objects. The library has more than 25,000 books by or about members. The archives house correspondence with past members, press clippings, institutional records and original manuscripts of musical and literary works.
History:
(from the museum website)
The National Institute of Arts & Letters, the parent body of the Academy, was founded in 1898 for “the advancement of art and literature”. The Institute met for the first time in New York City in February 1899 and began electing members that fall. Architects, artists, writers and composers of notable achievement were eligible and membership was soon capped at 250. In 1913, President Taft signed an act of Congress incorporating the organization in the District of Columbia.
American Academy of Arts & Letters at twilight
In 1904, The Institution created the American Academy of Arts & Letters, a prestigious inner body of its own members that modeled itself on the Academie francaise. The first seven members of the Academy were William Dean Howells, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Edmund Clarence Stedman, John La Farge, Mark Twain, John Hay and Edward MacDowell. Those seven then chose eight more and so on, until the full complement of 30 and later 50 was reached. Only after being elected to the Institute, was a member eligible for elevation to the Academy. This bicameral system of membership continued until 1993, when the Institute dissolved itself and all 250 members were enrolled in the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
The Academy inaugurated its annual awards program in 1909 with the Gold Medal for Sculpture. Since then, over 70 awards and prizes have been endowed through gifts and bequests or established by the Academy’s board of directors in the fields of architecture, art, literature and music. There are conferred each year at the Ceremonial in May when new members are inducted and a distinguished speaker is invited to deliver the Blashfield Address.
In 2005, the Academy purchased the former headquarters of the American Numismatic Society, the neighboring building on Audubon Terrace. A Glass Link now connects the Academy’s existing galleries to newly renovated ones in the former Numismatic building. These new galleries house the permanently installed Charles Ives Studio.
For current information on guided tours, group tour reservations, school groups, special events or accessibility, call (845) 255-1660 or visit http://www.huguenotstreet.org.
The history of Slavery in the area
App:
Our free Walking Tour mobile app features histories of the houses on the street with archival photos as well as photos of the house interiors and the collection pieces within. Mobile users can download the app on both the App Store and Google Play.
The entrance to the site
The historic sign at the entrance
History of the site:
At our 10 acre National Historic Landmark District, visitors experience more than 300 years of history through the lens of a French Huguenot community as it evolved over time. Guided tours begin with an introduction to the pre-colonial Munsee Esopus landscape dating back 7000 years and the religion, culture and architecture of New Paltz’s earliest European settlers and enslaved Africans. The experience continues as guests visit fully furnished houses reflecting unique human narratives and changing tastes across the Colonial and Federal periods, through the Gilded Age and into the early 20th century.
(Promotional Materials)
I visited Historic Huguenot Street one afternoon after visiting here about five years earlier during the holidays. The houses are easy to tour and the street is blocked so that you can walk amongst the houses. There are tours every half hour when the site is open. Here you can tour inside the houses instead of just the grounds. On a nice day, it is interesting to look over the architecture of the homes.
Make sure that you take time to look at the historical cemetery by the church at the end of the block. Some of the original settlers are buried here. It is also nice to tour around the Waykill River.
Take the extra time to visit the gift shop and see the information video on the site and look over the literature of the site.
The area has a pretty interesting history.
The map of the site
History of the Huguenot Street Historic District:
The site is owned and operated by Historic Huguenot Street (HHS), which was founded in 1894. In 1899, Historic Huguenot Street purchased the Jean Hasbrouck House as the first house museum on the street. In the 1950’s and 60’s, the organization and related family associations purchased most of the remaining stone houses in the district and subsequently opened them as museums. These acquisitions were funded in large part by descendants of the original Huguenot founders. Their family associations play a key role in supporting the institution today.
The Individual Houses:
Bevier-Elting House:
Dating to the early 18th century, the house was originally a one room building built with the narrow or gable end facing the street-then the prevailing style of the low countries of Northern Europe. Two expansions were built later as was a small cellar that was used to house African slaves. The house was built by the Beiver family, one of the founding families and subsequently sold to the Dutch Elting family.
The structure as the Abraham Hasbrouck House was built in three phases in the 1720’s and 30’s. The first of the house-the center room-was constructed in 1721 by Daniel Hasbrouck, the son of Abraham Hasbrouck the patentee. The date 1721 is based on recent dendrochronology, which is a process by which wooden structural members are dated. This house represents a New World innovation in Dutch-style architecture. The initial houses in the Dutch region of New York, such as New Amsterdam, Albany and Kingston were built in the tradition of Dutch cities with the gable-ends to the street, which conserves street frontage. The basic structure of the house consists of a series of H-bents which spread the weight of the house across the entire expanse. The original one room house exhibited several defining elements of Dutch architecture, the jambless fireplace being the principal and most recognized feature in the house. Recently re-opened to the public in July 2012 following a restoration and reinterpretation focusing on the life of Widow Wyntje.
Also built in 1721 by Jean’s son Jacob (and perhaps incorporating elements of an early home built by New Paltz founder Jean Hasbrouck), this home is an excellent example of Hudson Valley Dutch architecture and the showpiece of Historic Huguenot Street. A National Historic Landmark in its own right, it boasts the only remaining original jambless fireplace of any of the Huguenot Street houses and is one of the few surviving examples in what was formerly the New Netherland.
In 2006, the north wall of the house was carefully dismantled, repaired and reconstructed. Reproduction Dutch-style casement windows were installed. Interior restoration followed, resulting in a house that is an excellent example of how a comfortable family in the region lived in the mid-18th century.
Built circa 1705 for the DuBois family, it might have served as a fortified place for the small community if needed. Originally a smaller 1 1/2 story structure, this building was expanded to its current size in the late 1830’s. Some historians and antiquarians believe that the presence of “gun ports” made it a fort but there is no evidence of the presence of any such portholes before the 19th century. The DuBois Fort currently serves as the orientation center and gift shop as well as a location for special events. Guest can purchase their admission tickets and memberships at this building. Over the last 300 years, it has also been used as a residence and a restaurant.
The Freer House is one of the six 18th century stone houses owned by Historic Huguenot Street. It was altered in various points in its approximately 250 years of occupancy with its most recent major alterations occurring in 1943 when it was purchased by Rev. John Wright Follette, a direct descendant of it s original builder, Hugo Freer. Over the years, the interior was modernized into a 20th century idea of a colonial home. This structure is not currently open to the public.
The original portion of the house was built around 1720 by Patentee Pierre Deyo. It began as a one room house was subsequently expanded to two rooms and ultimately to three when a stone addition was added off the rear by Pierre’s grandson Abraham. Circumstances for this house changed dramatically when at the height of the Colonial Revival movement, two descendants of Pierre Deyo, Abraham and Gertrude Brodhead, inherited the house.
The Deyo House at Christmas
Wanting to live on the street of their ancestors but also wanted a modern, gracious home that reflected their affluence, the Brodheads partially dismantled the original stone house and build a grand Queen Anne home around it in 1894. They also significantly changed their surrounding property in essence changing a small village farm into a handsomely appointed and landscaped mini estate.
The house passed out of Deyo family ownership in 1915. It was a private home until 1971, when it was purchased by the Deyo-Family Association and donated in order to be opened to be opened to the public as a house museum. The home was most recently restored in 2003 and features circa 1915 interiors.
The patentee Pierre Deyo died in 1700, so couldn’t have built the house in 1720 as stated. Per the plaque mounted outside the house it was built in 1692.
Since the community’s founding, there have been four sanctuaries built on what is today called Huguenot Street. The French-speaking Protestants who settled in New Paltz built their first church in 1683-a simple log building. This was replaced in 1717 with a straightforward, square stone building that reflected the permanence of the settlement. This existing building in the burying ground is a highly conjectural reconstructed of the 1717 building near its original location.
The Historic Walloon Church
As the New Paltz community increased in size throughout the 18th century, a larger church became necessary. A second stone church was built down the street in 1772. When it became too small, it was demolished and replaced by a third church built in 1839. This church survives today and is home to an active Reformed congregation.
The Church and the graveyard
The reconstructed church is named in honor of Antoine Crispell, one of the twelve founders or patentees of New Paltz and a direct ancestor of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. It was built as the result of a fundraising campaign led by the Crispell Family Association. The Crispell Family Foundation opted to create this reconstruction church in their ancestor’s honor. It was completed in 1972.
The 1717 church was designed to reflect Reform thinking; the pulpit was placed in a central location and the pews were placed so that everyone could see and hear more equally. This expressed the concept that each person had a direct relationship with God, rather than one mediated through a church hierarchy.
Built int 1799 by Ezekiel Elting, a prosperous merchant who was born in the Bevier-Elting House, this stone and brick building is quite different from the earlier stone houses on Huguenot Street. Its Georgian-style architecture reflects the transition of New Paltz from a French and Dutch settlement to an Anglo-American community and increasing refinement in architecture in this period as settlements matured. The house shows the changes in architectural style from the early 18th century. This house reflects the several changes in the society and home life of New Paltz in the early 19th century.
Located in the Roosa House, the Library and Archives at Historic Huguenot Street is a research facility devoted primarily to the history and genealogy of the Huguenot and Dutch settlers of the Hudson Valley. It also functions as a general repository for local history, regardless of ethnicity or religious persuasion. The collections consist of family genealogies, church, cemetery and bible records, wills and deeds, census records, genealogical periodicals, county histories and publications relating to Huguenot ancestry. Genealogists, local historians and other interested parties can access the collections by appointment. The colorful paint replicates the original colors of the house in 1891.
Native American presence on Huguenot Street:
Historians and archaeologist have learned more about the continuing relations between the Esopus, the original inhabitants of the area and the Huguenots. Some results of research can be found at the HHS site at “Relations between the Huguenots of New Paltz, NY and the Esopus Indians (http://www.huguenotstreet.org/library_archives/exhibits_research/Indian_affairs.html). The “Before Hudson” exhibit, currently on view at the DuBois Fort Visitor Center, shows some of the highlights of archaeological excavation in our area with artifacts dating back 6,000-8,000 years ago.
Visiting a Museum: The Unique, Unusual, Obscure and Historical 