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Deyo House
Historic
Marker Reads:
Deyo House
Built by Pierre Deyo,
One Of Twelve Original
Patentees Of New Paltz, In 1692.
Deyo Family - The Patentees
Christian Deyo was the
oldest of the 12 Patentees having been born in France
sometime after 1610. Christian, his wife and four
of his five children emigrated to New Netherlands
in the company of Abraham Hasbrouck in 1675. His eldest
daughter, Anna, had previously emigrated three years
earlier with Abraham's brother Jean, her husband.
In 1677 Christian and
his son Pierre joined with the other 10 men to form
the 12 Patentees and moved with them to the Wallkill
river. In 1687 Christian died.
His son, Pierre, also
a Patentee, was born in 1648 in France. In 1675 just
before leaving the German Palatinate he married Agatha
Nickol and sailed with the rest of the Deyo family
for the colony of New Netherlands. In the early 1690s
he began the construction of his stone home which
was finished by 1692.
Upon his death in 1700
the house and property passed to his eldest son Abraham.
The house remained in the Deyo family passing through
four more generations until it came into the hands
of Abraham Deyo Brodhead. Abraham Deyo Brodhead is
responsible for the major reworking of the house into
the configuration we see today.
In 1915 the house was
sold out of the family.
The House
Of all the stone houses
of New Paltz, the Deyo House is the most radically transformed.
In fact, if you approach the house from the east or
south you man not even notice stone in the construction
at all. Pierre
Deyo built the first structure following the typical
plan common in New Paltz, three levels; a cellar,
main room and loft. Later the house had an addition
of another room put on making it look very similar
to the Freer House located north on Huguenot Street.
The house then remained relatively unchanged for the
next four generations. Until it came into the hands
of Abraham Deyo Brodhead.
Abraham Deyo Brodhead
was a man of means and became the mayor of New Paltz.
In 1894 he determined he needed a grander home and
laid plans to remodel the original stone structure.
It would have been much simpler to simply tear down
the stone house and start from level ground, but Abraham
wanted to preserve the continuity of his family. What
is visible now is the result of his efforts.
To accomplish the
transformation they built a completely separate frame
structure on the eastern side of the stone one and
then proceeded to build up and over the original house.
 When
you enter the Deyo house you will not be able to find
any trace of the original structure except for possibly
noticing that the wall containing the doorway leading
into the main parlor is exceptionally thick. In its
transformed state, the Parlor and Dining Room occupy
the original two rooms of the stone house. From the
outside you can see the original stone walls on the
Huguenot Street side of the first floor of the renovated
house, but substantial work was done including converting
the original front door into a bay window.
The interiors of the house
appear much as they might have in Abraham Deyo Broadhead's
time. The furnishings and interpretation are to the
late Victorian and Edwardian periods. |
