Bevier-Elting House

Historic Marker Reads:
Bevier House
Built by Louis Bevier,
the Patentee, in 1698.
Elting Homestead from
1740. This house has an
interesting sub-cellar.

Louis Bevier - The Patentee

Little is known of where or when Louis Bevier was born or grew up. There is evidence of a Bevier family near the town of Speyer in the German Palatinate in the 1660's. It is very possible that Louis Bevier is part of this family as it is known that he married his wife, Marie LaBlanc, in Speyer in 1673.

What is known of Louis Bevier is that he arrived in the New World in 1675 and took up residence on Staten Island in the then Dutch colony of New Netherlands. Two years later he traveled up the Hudson to Wiltwyck (now known as Kingston), and joined in the community of other Huguenots there. His late arrival is evidenced by his name not appearing on the original application for the land Patent. But his name does appear on Governor Andros' documents affirming the grant of land, so he became involved mid-way in the process.

Louis Bevier was probably the wealthiest member of the group of 12 families and over time accumulated a large estate purchasing additional lands. His wealth made him the cultural leader of the settlement. In 1705 his sons Jean and Abraham moved onto the separate parcels of land purchased by Louis Bevier in Wawarsing and Marbletown and their homes can be found there today.

The Eltings

In the early 1700's Roelif Elting arrived in New Paltz with "a belt of gold about his waist." In 1703 he married the daughter of Abraham DuBois, Sarah. By 1740 Roelif had rented the western street side room of the Bevier House and operated a general store from it and in 1760 Roelif purchased the Bevier House from Louis Bevier's son Samuel. From that point the focus of the Bevier family shifted away from New Paltz to their other land holdings in Ulster County.

The house was passed on to Roelif's son Josiah upon his death. Josiah passed it to his son Roelif who married the daughter of Rebecca Freer and Johannes Low and lived in the house during the American Revolution. Their son Ezekiel in 1799 built the house further to the south on Huguenot Street now known as the LeFever House.

The Bevier-Elting House remained continuously in the families hands into the 20th century. In 1963 the Beveir-Elting Family Association gave it to the Huguenot Historical Society. Until that time it had been continuously occupied by direct descendants of the Elting Family.

The House

The original structure of the Bevier-Elting House followed a very similar plan to the others of the settlement, with three exceptions, making this structure unique within the New Paltz settlement. The original section, what is now the middle of the house was finished by 1698 and followed the same three tier plan.

After his death Louis Bevier passed the house to his son Samuel. Samuel and his family had moved into the house with his father sometime after 1715 when his sister, Esther married. Sometime between 1715 and 1720 Samuel added onto the house creating the room on the west adjacent to the street. It is speculated that the construction was during this time as Samuel had 9 children and there was obviously a need for additional room. This addition was lower, at street level, but followed the same configuration of main room, loft and cellar.

In 1735 Samuel added onto the house for the second time, this addition to the east of the original structure sandwiching the original building between the two new additions. Again, this addition followed the same three level design turning the Bevier-Elting House into a Hudson Valley Dutch Three Room. Of note in this addition are two things. First, the beams supporting the floors are set at right angles to the original structure and western addition ending on the gable end of the building rather than the side walls, unique in the houses in New Paltz. Second interesting architectural detail is that in building this section of the house they added a "drip edge" on the outside. This detail is purely decorative but plainy visible and helps to deliniate this addition from the rest of the building. The drip edge is roughly at the level of the main interior room floor and protrudes out from the face of the wall about an inch and a half.

When you are touring the Bevier-Elting House you should pay particular attention when you enter the newest addition, the east addition, of the house. Unlike all the other houses you will enter in New Paltz, including the other two rooms of the Bevier-Elting House, the windows in this room are very small. These windows are the original size, if not the original windows, that would have been built into the room. They are also the size windows that would be found in all the buildings of New Paltz. Somehow this set of windows survived the centuries and were never enlarged, and so provide an excellent way to experience what it was actually like in the stone homes.

Despite the Bevier-Elting House following the standard three level plan used in all of the early houses of New Paltz, there are three very interesting differences that set this structure apart from everything else in the settlement.

The first departure is the orientation of the house to the street. It is constructed with the gable end facing the street. This orientation is standard of an urban setting as it minimizes the street exposure. If you look at contemporary paintings of Dutch urban architecture you will find this orientation to be almost universal. This is the pattern followed in New Amsterdam (now known as New York City) and Beverwyck (now known as Albany). Only this house and the Fort across the street put their gable ends to the street.

The second departure is plainly obvious as you go to enter the house from the kitchen side. You must climb a set of stairs. The original main room of the house is raised substantially above the level of the ground. Beneath the main room of the house is the standard cellar room and kitchen as in the other houses of New Paltz. Unique to the Bevier-Elting House is another room beneath the kitchen, a sub-cellar. It is speculated that the level of the main room of the house was dictated by this sub-cellar, they could only go so far down. To construct the sub-cellar required extensive excavations even to achieve its current depth. Even so, the extent of the excavations have caused enormous settling of the house over the centuries, more so than any of the other structures in New Paltz.

When the sub-cellar was discovered there was intense speculation that it provided an access to a tunnel leading across the street to the Fort. Or that it was used to hide slaves or that the settlers used it to hide from the Indians. All of these speculations have been completely disproven. It was a root cellar.

The third departure is the obvious side porch that was added onto the house after all other construction was completed. The side porch was an after thought believed to have been added by Samuel as a convenience for his wife.

This "sticking on" of the porch is plainly evidenced by just looking up at where it joins with the roof. All along the eaves of the house were run wooden gutters to catch and divert the rain. On the Bevier-Elting House these were supported by stones set into the walls protruding out for the gutter to rest upon. These protruding stones continue along the entire length of the eave of the house, under the porch roof.

This side porch provided covered access to the kitchen after the interior trap door was closed off. It would also have provided the women of the family with a covered place outdoors to do their spinning and other domestic chores.

The interiors of the Bevier-Elting House have been restored back to and are being interpreted roughly to the Samuel Bevier period of about 1735. Within the house are several fine examples of period furniture in each of the three main rooms. Visitors are taken through these three rooms as well as down into the cellar kitchen where they can see the sub-cellar.

The Bevier-Elting Family Association has been central in the restoration and furnishing of the home. Many of the pieces are family herilooms passed down through the generations and finally brought back together. However the furnishings of the house are not all specific to the time period of 1735. There are many later pieces in the collection as well.

Effort has been made to discover the correct color paint used on the interior wood surfaces, and many have been restored to the original colors of dark burgundy and turquoise.