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The Hudson Valley Dutch and Their Houses

by Harrison Meeske

Read a review of this book.

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Currently out of stock.

From the introduction:

"The very lack of stylistic conceits lends the homes an enduring appeal. However, the simplicity and size of the houses can be socially misleading. Frequently, a small and unpretentious building was the home of an influential and wealthy owner. Even the manor homes of the landed magnates, such as the Van Rensselaers and Van Cortlandts, are 'homey' rather than 'grand.' H.W. Reynolds remarks on this phenomenon in reference to the Jean Hasbrouck House in New Paltz. The family was relatively wealthy and politically influential, nevertheless, they continued to live in the homestead of the founder generation after generation. Only later in the colonial era were some imposing homes built along the Hudson.

In many Dutch Hudson Valley homesteads built before the middle of the eighteenth century, the core, or basic house, typically has a ground level interior of one room approximately twenty-by-twenty feet. Some early homes began as two rooms, which joined at one gable end, forming a single unit some twenty feet deep-by-forty feet long. Each interior room has one, sometimes two, garret levels above the living floor. Two living stories were common in Albany and Manhattan, or by exception in a few rural areas, as in the Coeymans House in present day Albany County, but 'the general rule before 1776 was to build a house only a story and a half high.' "

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"For Three Generations our understanding of Dutch houses has been through two pioneering books: Helen Reynolds' Dutch Houses in the Hudson Valley before 1776 (1929), and Rosalie Fellows Bailey's Pre-Revolutionary Dutch Houses and Families in Northern New Jersey and Southern New York (1936). . . . Now for the first time since the 1930s, we have a new book on the subject of the Dutch and their houses. It differs from the previous books in important ways. It contains extensive background material on Netherlands history, New Netherland settlement, immigrant origins, land tenure, title and valuation, and regional types of Dutch houses. It describes the fundamentals of construction and materials, delving into details of building and use not done in other sources. It illustrates and describes both urban and rural Dutch houses, those long gone and those extant. . . . I have learned a lot from this book I did not know."
Roderic H. Blackburn
author of books about the Dutch in New York, from the preface.

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In studies of American period architecture, Dutch colonial homes of the Hudson Valley often have been slighted. This book presents an excellent overview of those homes, their construction, furnishings, and decor. It also brings the reader an awareness of the cultural contexts of this distinctive architectural style: The colony of New Netherland drew settlers from a wide area along the Channel coast from Normandy to Denmark. It is not merely coincidental that indigenous dwellings of that broad region contain homes that bear remarkable similarities to the Dutch houses of the valley.

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Educated at Long Island University and New York University, Harrison Meeske is employed by the New York Times. Dutch Architecture has been his lifelong passion, and he has traveled extensively in The Netherlands seeking the prototypes of small Hudson Valley Dutch houses..

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414 pages, more than 200 illustrations, glossary, index, 6 x 9
$29.00 quality paperback--A Purple Mountain Press original