Bevier-Elting House
Yesterday, we visited Huguenot Street in New Paltz, NY. About one hour south of Albany, Huguenot Street is a collection of six stone homes built prior to 1720 by the Belgian and French colonizers of New Paltz. These Huguenots bought land from the Esopus Indians and settled the area in 1678. The Bevier-Elting House dates from the beginning of the 18th century and contains an expansion to house African Slaves.
Jean Hasbrouck House
The Jean Hasbrouck House was built in 1721 and is an example of Hudson Valley Dutch architecture. It is a National Historic Landmark. Also, on the street is the DuBois Fort built in 1705 to protect the community, the Freer House and the Deyo House. The Deyo family bought and sold slaves and the Hasbrouck family owned slaves. By 1790, there were over 302 slaves housed in the area.
Abraham Hasbrouck House
The Abraham Hasbrouck House was built between the mid-1820 and mid-1830 and is located at 94 Huguenot Street. It was built in the Dutch style. There were a number of commonly used elements including gable ends to the street and a jambless fireplace (a style that dates in medieval Euorpe).
This house and the others located on “HHS”, or Historic Huguenot Street, are examples of Dutch influences on early rural American buildings.
Another important area of HHS is the French Reformed Church and burying ground. It was one of several churches in the area and it was built in 1717. It was originally called “Our French Church”.
1717 French Church
The photo shown here is a replica of the original building. A newer larger church called the Crispell Memorial French Church was built in 1839 and named after one of the 12 founders of New Paltz.
The settlers hoped to preserve their French language and culture but their numbers were small and New York was a Dutch colony so by 1753 services were held in Dutch.
More of the photos of HHS are available for viewing on my gallery. All these images were made using the Canon 10-22 mm lens with adjustments made using Lightroom and Nik HDR Pro and Nik Color Efex Pro.