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The oldest home in Upstate New York and the headquarters of the Greene County Historical Society is open for tours annually from May to October.
HOURS of OPERATION
Wednesday - Saturday: 11AM, 1PM and 3PM
Sunday: 1PM and 3PM
ADMISSIONS
Adult (18+) $15.00
Youth (12-17 years) $6.00
Child (5-11 Years) $3.00
Children (5 & below) free admission
Please note that payments for the Bronck Museum Tour are to be done in person. The day of your scheduled tour please arrive 15 minutes in advance.
The Bronck Houses
Visitors to Bronck Museum participate in guided tours of National Historic Landmark structures that reflect over three hundred and fifty years of architectural history. Pieter Bronck's single room stone house, built 1663, is believed to be the oldest surviving house north of the metropolitan area. This simple sturdy one room stone structure is an excellent example of the utilitarian dwellings favored by many of the first Northern Europeans to settle the valley. The house built in 1738 by Leendert Bronck possesses the rawboned elegance that distinguishes classic Dutch Colonial houses. This spacious three story home is graced with patterned brickwork, a steeply sloping roof, and parapet gables. Both structures and the diminutive Kitchen Dependency are filled with eighteenth and nineteenth century family furniture, regional art, textiles, and household furnishings.
1663 Stone House
In January 1662, Pieter Bronck entered into a contract to purchase from the Katskill Indians a tract of land known by the Indian name "Koixhackung". Choosing a site at the base of the Kalkberg Ridge, Pieter built his dwelling, a small single room structure with cellar and storage garret. The original massive beams, wide floor boards, cellar hatchway, and early Dutch door still dominate the interior. This house is the oldest surviving home in Upstate New York.
1685 Stone Addition
The first expansion of the original structure to accommodate the growing family. This "west wing" consists of a hallway, main room, and loft. A great storm in the late 18th century caused extensive structural damage, requiring rebuilding . It was during this rebuilding that the distinctive paneling was installed.
1738 Brick House
An excellent example of rural Hudson Valley Dutch architecture modified by a federal period taste. This four room dwelling has a large garret and cellar. The structure's size attests to the growing affluence of the Bronck family. Shortly after completion, the brick dwelling was connected to the stone dwellings with the construction of the "hyphen hallway".
Kitchen Dependency
A house in miniature, with main room, loft, and cellar, it faces the rear courtyard in a manner typical of the detached kitchen in a plantation economy. On display are local furniture and equipment used in the preparation and serving of food to a large household of family and servants.
The Bronck Barns
The barns at Bronck Museum reflect 276 years of changing agricultural practice. In the early years when wheat was the farm's primary cash crop, the family built a New World Dutch barn with a broad thrashing floor and massive grain storage space. By the 1830's a switch to dairy farming combined with interest in new "scientific farming" methods prompted the Bronck family to build an innovative thirteen-sided hay barn. Both of these unique have survived and now provide exhibit space for a varied collection of agricultural equipment and horse drawn vehicles. The farm's refurbished nineteenth century horse barn houses Greene County exhibits, including a large model of the famous Catskill Mountain House. The Visitor Center Gallery and the Bronck Museum Gift Shop are located in one of the farm's smaller agricultural buildings.
13-Sided Barn
Built in the 1830's is the oldest, documented, multisided barn in New York. The weight of the roof of this unusual structure rests solidly on its thirteen sides. The only interior framing, apart from the side walls, is a single center pole.
Dutch Barn
Representative of typical New World Dutch barns, these structures were specifically suited to a farm economy based on wheat production. This barn retains its massive anchor beams supported by columns linked together with 50' long purlin beams which support the weight of the roof. The early thrashing floor with pegged 3 inch thick oak planning, remains intact.
Victorian Horse Barn
A converted Victorian horse barn, is now home to an exhibit featuring various aspects of Greene County life. The famous model of the Catskill Mountain House occupies the entire center of this building.
In 1652 a family settled at Beverwyck to begin a new life...
The head of the family was a sailor from Jonkoping, Sweden named Pieter Bronck, and he was accompanied by his wife Hilletje Jans of Quakebrugge, Holland. Pieter and Hilletje had been married on Ridderstraat in Amsterdam in 1645 when they were both 28, possibly unaware that within the decade they would find themselves carving out a new life near the edge of the known world at Beverwyck in the Dutch Colony of New Netherland.
At Beverwyck Pieter and Hilletje opened a tavern and brewery which catered to the influx of traders, fur trappers, and adventurers passing through along the frontier. However, the vicissitudes of frontier economy and what appears to be Pieter’s own "contentious personality" resulted in an unstable income stream which made supporting a family difficult. By the early 1660’s Pieter and Hilletje were considering another move. Pieter purchased a tract of land approximately 20 miles south of Beverwyck, near the present village of Coxsackie from the native Mohicans. Pieter Bronck and his family moved to settle their land at Coxsackie in 1663.
On a small hillock in the midst of the flood plain of Coxsackie Creek Pieter found a small clearing and commenced construction of a typical rural European style dwelling. Built of local rubble stone the one room 20’ x 20’ structure had both garret and cellar for storage. Pieter, Hilletje, and their young son Jan carried on all daily activities in the single first floor room. It is likely that Pieter dabbled in the fur trade at the Coxsackie site but certainly by the time of his death in 1669 the family had transition to selling timber and subsistence farming.
In 1738 Pieter’s grandson Leendert and his wife Anna de Wandelear built a handsome Dutch brick dwelling adjacent to Pieter’s old stone house. Pieter and Hilletje’s descendents were by that time established grain farmers and considered themselves to be culturally Dutch despite Pieter Bronck's Swedish roots. By the time the American War for Independence commenced the Bronck family had already been farming their land at Coxsackie for 113 years.
For 276 years seven generations of Pieter’s descendents would pass the family dwellings and the accompanying farm directly from father to child. The last family owner, Leonard Bronk Lampman, willed the Bronck farm to the Greene County Historical Society in 1939, and the site has been open to the public as a museum ever since. Thanks to the stewardship of the Bronck family and the Greene County Historical Society, descendents are still able to enter Pieter’s door and walk Pieter‘s floor over 350 years after he built them.