A Virtual tour of

Van Cortlandt House Museum

This virtual tour of Van Cortlandt House offers a brief glimpse of the rich history and collections interpreted at the museum.  For further information on the contents of the House or its history, please contact the Museum's staff.

Visitors to Van Cortlandt House enter through the front door of the home that Frederick Van Cortlandt built but may have never occupied.  Begun in 1748, Frederick's house was nearing completion by the fall of 1749.  In his will of October 2, 1748, he writes, 

“ … Whereas I am now about finishing a large stone dwelling House on the Plantation on which I now live ... ". 

 Frederick died 12, February 1749. 

Frederick's  "large stone dwelling House" was built in a vernacular version of the then-popular Georgian style of architecture. Despite his choice of an English-inspired Georgian aesthetic, Frederick also chose to represent the family's Dutch heritage in the keystone gargoyle faces placed above each window on the facade (front) elevation of the House.   This is a very unusual, treatment in Colonial American architecture, yet much more common in Europe during the same period.

The Central Hallway of a Georgian house was often used as a public space for receiving visitors before they were invited into one of the more private and formal rooms such as the East Parlor.  A plantation worker having business with Frederick or one of the Van Cortlandt's may have spoken with him in the hall and have never entered the parlors.  Two public reception rooms open off the front hall.

The East Parlor

The East Parlor

The East Parlor is the more formal of the two reception rooms in Van Cortlandt House.  The elaborately carved rococo mantelpiece compared with the much simpler trim in other rooms suggests that this room was a gathering place for entertaining and conducting important business.  It was during James Van Cortlandt’s occupancy that the carved mantelpiece was added.  It was also during this period that the portrait of Augustus Van Cortlandt (1728-1823), painted by John Wesley Jarvis c. 1810, was commissioned by a family member.  The Parlor’s pale wheat-colored paint is an exact restoration of the room’s color c. 1800.  Beneath the portrait of Augusts stands a mahogany low-boy, c.1770 that bears the label of William Savery, a prominent Philadelphia cabinet maker who worked in the Chippendale style.  A recent addition to the East Parlor is the c. 1760 New York Chippendale-style five-legged card table given to the Museum by Mr. William H. Savage in loving memory of Carolyn Mackie Savage and Carolyn Van Cortlandt Martin.  This table is illustrated at the top of the Table of Contents page.   

The West Parlor

Hudson River valley grisaille painted kast.

This less formal parlor hosted family meals and casual gatherings.  The Van Cortlandt children themselves may even have played here when foul weather kept them indoors. The bright orange and blue paneling is the exact color of the room at the end of the 18th century.  In this less formal parlor, decoration was achieved with color rather than expensive carving, as in the East Parlor.

The kast of painted pine and tulip poplar was made in the Hudson River Valley c. 1700.  Six grisaille kasten such as this are known to exist.  The term grisaille refers to the monochromatic multi-tonal gray painted decoration found on these kasten as well as other types of furniture and architectural features.  The peculiarly American kasten are markedly different from Dutch kasten such as the one on view in the Dutch Chamber.  Kasten were used to store textiles, which held great value.  

The Dining Room

The Dining Room will be restored starting in Spring of 2002!

Dinner plate from the Van Cortlandt family Chinese export porcelain service.

This room was used as a dining room only after the American Revolution. It was then that formal dining rooms became fashionable among wealthy families following a practice common in Europe since the mid 18th century.  Prior to its exclusive use as a dining room, this room was probably used as an office, library or additional parlor.

The mahogany pedestal dining table, c. 1820, descended in the Van Cortlandt family.  The Chinese export porcelain part-service, c. 1760, was given to the Museum by two family members, Miss Charlotte Van Cortlandt and Mr. William Savage in memory of his wife Carolyn Mackie Savage.   The knife boxes on the serpentine breakfront are also descended in the Van Cortlandt family.

At an elegant 18th century dinner party, two courses were generally served, a meat course followed by dessert.  Guests were ushered into the room and treated to the spectacle of a table heavily laden with ham, beef, and game birds accompanied by neatly arranged platters of vegetables.  For dessert, the table was cleared and the top tablecloth was removed for the presentation of a second course of puddings, creams and jellies served on fresh linen.  A fine meal was concluded with fruit, nuts and wine served on the bare mahogany table.  Often fruits were piled into dramatic pyramids with greenery and flowers tucked between them.  

The Kitchen

The Colonial Revival kitchen reflects the way an 18th century kitchen in a large, wealthy household may have been arranged.  A large fireplace provided the fire for cooking and many utensils are arranged in and around the fireplace to reflect this.  Tables provided a workspace and a place for the servants to eat.  The Van Cortlandt’s kitchen was most likely not in its present location in the basement.   The present-day kitchen was created from an existing basement room c. 1917 at the same time other work was being done in the house.  The original kitchen was probably located in an out-building near the house which may have been connected by a breezeway or covered walkway.  The Caretaker's Cottage follows this pattern of connected buildings.

The kitchen tables are set up with implements commonly used in every-day 18th century household chores.  The round chair-table (so-called because the top tilts up to form the back of a chair) is set with ingredients and implements used in the making of fish stew.    

 Among the utensils hanging from the rafters are two wafer irons.  One is etched in decorative motifs incorporating a pineapple – a symbol long associated with hospitality and the Colonial era.  Wafers were a favorite treat and were often made hearth-side by young adults socializing.  The following recipe from a booklet printed by the City History Club Committee of The Colonial Dames of the City of New York was submitted by  Miss Louisa Zabriskie of Flatbush, a member of the Lefferts family. 

The justly famed Waffles of Flatbush.

Receipt handed down through four generation for the Waffles always to be had in Flatbush at any High Tea among the old families.

One Pound of Sugar.

One Pound of Butter.

One Pound of Flour.

Ten Eggs.

Bake in window pane waffle-iron and when slightly cool, sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Second Floor Rooms

The East Bedchamber

The East Bedchamber 

In the 18th century, friends and family frequently sat together in bedchambers for tea or light meals.  Women often read to one another or did needlework together in their private chambers.  A tea table and comfortable chairs brought near the fire during the winter or near the open window during the summer offered a quiet setting for these leisure time activities. 

 The foot warmer on the hearth added a small measure of warmth to an otherwise chilly bedchamber.  The bed warmer was used to both warm up the bedclothes and to dry out any residual moisture in the bedding.

The William and Mary chest of drawers and matching dressing table were made in Boston between 1710 and 1730.  A looking glass usually hung over the dressing table where men and women applied make-up and groomed themselves for  appearances in polite society.

The West Bedchamber

Tea table and Worcester part service described below.

This bedchamber displays a reproduction of an English, resist-dyed fabric which many New Yorkers furnished their homes.  Though many visitors feel the pattern depicts pineapples, it does, in fact depict an-allover pattern of artichokes and foliage.  The taste for upholstering rooms “en suite” with furniture and curtains in a single fabric was very popular in the 18th century.  Such an elaborate display of imported textiles was possible only in the home a wealthy family.

The mahogany kneehole dressing table, c. 1770, beneath the mirror descended in the Van Cortlandt Family.

A Queen Anne figured cherry wood tray-top tea table, Massachusetts, circa 1740 is set with a part tea service of Worcester porcelain, circa 1770, consisting of a teapot and stand, sugar and waste bowls, as well as two tea bowls and saucers.

  The Dutch Chamber

The Dutch Chamber

This room is an exhibition created by the Colonial Dames in 1918 to represent a typical 17th century dwelling in New Amsterdam, the Dutch colony established on Manhattan Island.  An all-purpose chamber such as this would have provided cooking, eating, and sleeping space for a middle-class family.  The traditional Dutch cabinet bed kept parents snug in the top compartment and children warm below by trapping their body heat inside.

A painted “priksled” owned by Jacob Hop was used by the child on ice and snow and propelled with short poles resembling ski poles can be found in the Dutch Room. The sled’s back panel is carved with the phrase Hoop Op Vreede which translates to hope for peace.  

Third Floor Rooms

The Nursery

A peek into the Doll's House first floor.

The Van Cortlandt Children used this room as a sleeping chamber, a playroom and a schoolroom.  The nursery has seen the least number of alterations since the house was built in 1748 but may not have been finished off until the 19th century.  The room is furnished with objects representing a wide variety of time periods and styles typical of the second-class status accorded children. In the 18th century, children seldom participated in the social world of adults.  It is likely that the children ate many meals in the nursery and did not join their elders in the dining room downstairs.

The Georgian-style painted pine dollhouse is one of the earliest known American examples dated c. 1740.  It is descended in the Homans family of Boston and was the gift of Miss Patterson in 1935.

The Nursery also features a miniature mixed service for coffee and tea  in earthenware with a Whieldon-type spattered glaze.  Numbering  nearly 40 pieces, the set  includes 2 covered teapots (one with stand), 1 kettle, 1 coffee pot, and a tea caddy, sugar bowl and milk jug. It was manufactured in Staffordshire, England c. 1765.  

The Unfinished Chamber

This plain, unheated room was probably a storage area and a sleeping chamber for the enslaved servants who worked in the household.  An enslaved woman probably cared for the Van Cortlandt children, and her sleeping assignment across from the nursery would be near them during the night.  When it was used for sleeping, the chamber was likely furnished with a very simple table and chair and a low bed or a grass mattress placed on the floor. 

This room is referred to as the Unfinished Chamber because of the unfinished state of the walls.  You can see that the framing of the house was left exposed in this room unlike others in the house that have been finished off with plaster or wood paneling.  Rooms such as this one and the nursery would have been finished off as needed as the family or need for space grew.