Milan Historic Homes Guide & Tour

TOWN OF MILAN HISTORIC DRIVING TOUR DUTCHESS COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY, notes from bus tour October 15, 1983 Reprinted & Illustrated by Milan Concerns for the tour’s 20th anniversary: October 2003

LEAVE MILAN-WILCOX HALL AND TURN RIGHT TO ROWE ROAD

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1.a. on right. Rowe Cemetery. Known as Rowe Family Ground for over 200 years. Johannes Rau came in 1760, bought a Great Lot from R. Livingston. Earliest stone is of his son in 1765 see page three of this newsletter for photo 1-a). His family and descendents are buried here. There are three Revolutionary graves here. Cemetery is maintained by the Rowe Methodist church.

1. on right. Site of Johannes Rau Stone House; built approximately in 1766 of local field stones.

Owned by Rowe family until sold to Benjamin Shelley in 1842, who later built a new house west of the stone house. Stone house taken down and stones were later bought by a local resident and used in building another house. There was a pond in the hollow, part of the stone dam may still bee seen.

2. on right. Site of Shelley-Bromiley House; built about 1860 for Benjamin Shelley’s second wife. House took 7 years to finish. Three generations of Shelley family born in house. Four story, Victorian elegance, fish-scale slate roof with colored slate designs; towers and bay windows. House burned in April 1973.

3. on right. Mark Rowe House; built 1819, by son of Johannes Rowe. Georgian style architecture. Noteworthy for the delicacy of exterior woodwork, Palladian window and a carved band of interlaced curves at the cornice and in the gables. (Landmarks, page 156). Addition built in 1974-75, consists of an indoor pool and living room, bed and bathroom upstairs and a greenhouse. Windmill is the only operating one in the town. Formerly an Angus operation.

4. on right. Henry Jackson Home. Predates 1850. Henry’s son Ferris Jackson lived in the house until 1940; born in 1865 was a musical man who played piano and organ and sang hymns; well loved in town. Kept diaries, but they were destroyed after his death.

TURN RIGHT ONTO ACADEMY HILL ROAD

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Quaker Farms. About 1780 there was a movement of Quaker families north from the Pawling area and an establishment of fringe meetings. There was a tendency to settle closer to lines of trade without relinquishing power of meeting over its members’ affairs. Meetings at the Little Nine Partners began in 1790’s. There were a number of Quaker families who settled in the Academy Hill area: Hoag, Haviland, Carman, Crandall, Wilbur and Carpenter….

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on left. Samuel Haviland on left. Milan Town Garage…also used for Town Offices and voting place prior to building of Milan-Wilcox Hall. on left. Peter Cookingham…later Wm. Rowe, Mark Rowe. Original farm of 195 acres purchased by George Cookingham in 1769. Original house was 20x20; brick fireplace took up half of the north wall and small extension on front housed Dutch ovens that were four feet deep.

Two small windows had bulls eye glass in them. Main part of the house built in the mid1800’s. on left. Allendorf home. on left. W. Carmen. 1835 Quaker house. Two front doors. One opened into front parlor, used only occasionally. East door opens into large room with Dutch oven and fireplace (9-a), family quarters. Stood vacant for many years and put up for sale in 1971. on right. J. Cornelius. on left. W. Pelham (1850), later J. Kilmer on left. William Hoag, Henry Haviland, Ephraim Case. Site of large two-story stone house, gambrel roof and 12-over-12 windows. Burned early in this century when a lady tired to get the wood stove going in a hurry and loaded it with pine cones. Stones were taken and used as fill in the roads, for patios and fireplaces in various parts of the town. on left. At North Road. Milan School District # 2 (Briggs School). Incorporated in Pine Plains School District. on left. Rowe House. Built about 1818. Exterior trim identical with Mark Rowe House. Six fireplaces, original cupboards were all intact (1969). Mantels in the house are Adam style.

Kitchen wing on the left side of the house is oldest part. Stone wall in front is new (1983).

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15. on right. Ferris Lane: on right is the site of the old Quaker Cemetery of ½ acre. Fourteen monuments listed in 1914. Then left in 1969; also 47 large field stones set in rows, some with smaller stones as “foot stones.”

16. on left. Pells Homestead (Owner Walter Hermans). Original lease 1790 from George Clinton to Gabriel Dusenbury for two lives. 1827 Clinton heirs sold property to Jeptha Wilbur, who sold it to Jeremiah Pells in 1828.

17. on right. Sit of old sawmill. Operated only in the spring when the water was high. Major work was planking for the bridges in town. Mill burned in the early 1920’s and was owned

by Martin Kilmer who lived in the now Steckler House (# 21).

18. on left. Stone foundation for Railroad Trestle. Train ran from Rhinecliff through Red Hook, Spring Lake (Cokertown), with next stop at Jackson Corners. Chartered in 1870 as Rhinebeck-Conn. RR for 41 miles. Served summer vacationers, bonanza of the ‘70’s and ‘80’s.

Tracks were pulled up in 1938 and 1939, the trestle was gone before WWII. There was a barrel of water with a bucket in the middle of the wooden trestle for emergencies.

19. Roeliff Jansen Creek 20. on right. Railroad Station. Now residence of Fred Long (1983). House has been built around the original two-room station.

22 TURN LEFT ONTO DUTCHESS COUNTY HIGHWAY 50 21. on right. Just before Turkey Hill Road. Knickerbocker-Kilmer homestead (now Stickler, 1983). House built by Peter Knickerbocker about 1753. Original 20x20 room now South front of the house. Sold to George W. Kilmer in 1807, who died leaving 11 children (house must have been enlarged to accommodate family). In 1887 his son Hiram died and 43 nieces and nephews, cousins, etc. contested the will over the “showplace of Jackson Corners.”

TURN LEFT ONTO TURKEY HILL ROAD…JACKSON CORNERS 26

22. on right. Gaddis General Store. Built as a Colonial Inn about 1773; it was a stagecoach stop on what was then Nobletown Road. Has also served as a doctor’s office, hotel and the former Jackson Corner Post Office. Now operated as a general store by Mrs. Gaddis (1983).

Jackson Corners was a busy community: Methodist Church of North Milan (1847), Milan School District # 3, Distillery…Grist and Plater Mills.

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23. on right. Bathrick Home (later Otto Friske) 24. on right. Site of Indian Cemetery. Eight field stone markers. State marker reads: Indian Burial Ground, Chief Crow and other Mohican Shacomecos of Moravian Faith buried here.

Last burial about 1850. No proof. Markers were initiated under the Regents program in 1925 for observance of the 150th anniversary of the Revolution. Ed. Dept of NYS forwarded a copy of the original application; it was hearsay that had been handed down for generations.

Invite you to read the newsletter of ’73.

25. on right. Alendorph (Wermuth) 26. on right. H.L. Feller (Franklin Berhmer) 27. on right. Fulton Homestead. Has been farmed by the Fulton family since 1771.

TURN LEFT ONTO BECKER HILL ROAD

28 There is a spectacular view of the Catskills from the road, originally many summer cottages, some now occupied year around.

28. on left. Just before Milan Hill Road. Peter Barker Farm.

TURN RIGHT ONTO MILAN HILL ROAD 29. on right. Old Teats family cemetery (atop hill on Battenfeld Road) 30. on left. Philip Teats house. Now Schneider.

31. on right. John Teats house. Clinton House has an 1829, 1830 Account Book of Henry I. Teats of Milan. Good source for names of those living in the area at that time.

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32. on right. Gray, Later Conrad Battenfeld grew violets, foundations of the violet houses still by road.

33. on left. Philip Teats (1795), Daniel Morehouse (1805) now William Landauer, Black Angus farm, one of the stops on recent County Agriculture Tour.

34. on right. Nathaniel Morehouse, later Barry Van Kleeck. Original part of the house built in 1799. Last 53 years has been changed hands six times. Has been remodeled, rebuilt and refurbished for the last 100 years always bringing it up to date.

35. on left at Rte 199. Widow Stewart, central section Revolutionary period. House is on 1797 map of the George Clarke lots drawn by Cockburn. Center part restored.

TURN RIGHT ONTO ROUTE 199 36. on left. Battenfeld Greenhouses. Richard Battenfeld and his son, Fred will give a history of the violet industry and the change to production of anemones (1983 bus tour).

TURN BACK ONTO RTE. 199 AND GO EAST, TURN LEFT ONTO MOREHOUSE LN.

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37. on left. James Stewart (1780), Seth Morehouse (1839). Now H. Thompson.

38. on right. Site of old Quaker Meeting House, Little Nine Partners Area settled by Quaker families and meetings began in 1790’s. LNP meeting settled in 1800…about equal in size to Stanford meeting; LNP raised $21 of every $50 collected by Standford Monthly Meeting. Old meeting house had “high posts in front with a long roof in the rear, extending nearly to the ground.” This Salt Box type structure was an oddity among the Friends meeting houses.

The LNP Meeting House was taken down in 1872.

39. on right. Thorne Family Cemetery. Listed in Dutchess County Gravestones by Dr. Poucher as Quaker Ground or Friends Burial Ground with 14 stones listed…very few left, some are only fragments. (Stone of Milan’s first Supervisor, Stephen Thorne shown right, “To the memory of Stephen Thorne, who died Jan. 18, 1849, aged 66 years.”

RETURN TO ROUTE 199, EAST TO WILCOX MEMORIAL HALL FOR LUNCHEON Display of pictures, maps, etc. During noon break perhaps a short talk about Mrs. Wilcox and the Hall (from 1983 bus tour).

AFTERNOON SESSION. ROUTE 199 EAST, THEN RIGHT ON WILLOWBROOK ROAD AND RIGHT ON ROWE ROAD / TO 199 AND LEFT ON SALISBURY TURNPIKE.

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40. on right. Site of John I. Rowe house and saw mill. House built same as Mark Rowe and Sebastian Rowe houses.

41. on left. Rowe church and Parsonage 42. Thorndale or Links Corners (at Field Road). Thorne Family first settlers in this area.

43. on left. Jeremiah Link homestead. Built in early 1870’s. J. Link operated a grist mill, tannery and large farm. At one time there were six small houses here.

44. on right. Benjamin Thorne home. One of the earliest houses in the town (Sept. 2003 note: house now demolished). Born in 1755, came to Milan after the Revolutionary War, but prior to 1787. Bought 200 acres, was of Long Island origins, house built like Long Island salt boxes.

Brick filled walls. Had twelve children. Three additions and one more in the back. He was a Quaker and one of 1-a three purchasers of land for the Quaker Meeting House in The oldest gravestone 1791. Sons and grandsons were leaders in the town. Son in Milan is from 1765, Stephen was the first Supervisor in 1818. son of early founder 45. on left. Stephen Thorne home, Milan’s first Supervisor.

Johannes Rau. 46. on right. Herrick Thorne home, later Camp Habonim.

TURN LEFT ONTO CASE’S CORNER ROAD

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47. Milanville and Cases’s Corners area. R. Case home. (47). Store, Wagon shop, Post Office (47-a) Sawmill, Blacksmith shop, Good Templers Lodge, Doctor’s office (47-b). Dr. Walter Herrick, his grandfather, Ephrain established the Christian Church on Milan Hollow Road prior to 1800…now gone. Dr. Herrick practiced in Pine Plains in 1850 and moved to Milan in 1866. Design of the building is similar to Rowe Church. Two rooms, a small waiting room and larger examining room to the rear. Rear room is the only one that had a coal stove.

RIGHT ONTO MILAN HOLLOW RD., THEN RIGHT ONTO DUTCHESS COUNTY ROUTE 52 48. on right. J.W. Yates home. & 49. on right. J.A. Yates home LEFT ONTO BOICES LANE

47-a 50. on left. Golder (1865) later Annie Doyle, raised violets and asters 51. on right. Boyce-Hicks Farm (Dr. E. Dunlap). Earliest wing is 1779, central portion in 1840.

Features dentil work on the mantel copied by a local carpenter of ones he had seen elsewhere. Each “tooth” is handcarved and nailed with a small brad into place. Left wing was added in 1890 and remodeled by Dr. Dunlap into one large “family type” room, with large fireplace, bay windows and kitchen. In 1920 a journeyman plasterer spent the winter at the farm and paid his board by doing plaster frieze work on three ceilings in the central part of the house.

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LEFT ONTO LAMOREE ROAD 52. on right. D.J. Hoag in 1853. House predates 1800, owner now Ingles (1983). Has an eight foot wide fireplace on the first floor, with cooking crane and Dutch oven. Exposed, handhewn Roman numeraled beams and wide planks form the ceiling. Upstairs are two small corner fireplaces in the bedrooms with cooking cranes. Dutch doors and latches, there isn’t a doorknob in the house. William Johnstone of “Shadow” fame and Judge Lowell as “As the World Turns” were also owners. Upstairs there is a 19” plank floorboard 52-a with a mark like an anchor (right, 52-a) either cut or burned it in. These marks were used for pine trees marked for the British Navy.

RIGHT ONTO ROUND LAKE ROAD; LEFT ONTO MILAN HOLLOW ROAD 53. on right (at Rte 52 & 15). Wildey house. Property was owned and occupied by members of the James R. Wildey family since 1806, house was built prior to that time.

TURN RIGHT ONTO RTE. 199. EAST TO INTERSECTION OF NORTH AND SOUTH ROADS.

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54. Lafayetteville. Hotel (54-a), stores, taverns, school (54-b), post office, blacksmith shop.

Perhaps the first settlement in Milan, it was on the main road from Ancram mines to the river. Salisbury Turnpike, built in 1802, but it was an old road prior to that time. Hotel built in 1837, former relay station between East and Hudson River, overnight stop for post riders before RR era.

CONTINUE EAST ON RTE 199 TO WILCOX PARK.

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LAST STOP ON TOUR

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This text was written in 1983 for a bus tour, so “now” should be read as 1983.

Thanks to the Norton family for providing a copy of the text and to the owners and residents of these fine homes for letting us feature their homes. Photos: Bill Jeffway.

And thank you to the owners of these fine homes for their permission to show them.