page_title: Hendrick I. Lott House
section_title: 18th and 19th centuries
hierarchical_section_title: Hendrick I. Lott House / History / 18th and 19th centuries
caption_attribution_description: English: Looking southwest at en:Hendrick I. Lott House on a sunny early afternoon. NYCLPC designation 1989.
context_page_description: The Hendrick I. Lott House is a historic home located at 1940 East 36th Street between Fillmore Avenue and Avenue S, in Marine Park, Brooklyn, New York City. Lott House, one of the oldest Dutch Colonial houses in Brooklyn, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a New York City designated landmark. The house remains structurally sound and virtually unchanged from the time Hendrick Lott constructed it in 1800, incorporating a section of the 1720 original homestead built by his grandfather, Johannes Lott.
context_section_description: Family patriarch Johannes Lott, a member of the New York Colonial Assembly, purchased land from Coert Van Voorhees in the rural area of Flatlands in 1719 to use for farming. Lott expanded the family holdings from Kings Highway south to Jamaica Bay and "Lott's Landing." On this property, Johannes built his homestead just east of the present house. Johannes died in 1775, leaving the farm to Johannes Jr., who occupied the property until 1792.
  The Lott family quickly became leaders in the area. When Hendrick I. Lott married Mary Brownjohn in 1792, he found his grandfather's house was too small, too old, and too outmoded for an established member of a prominent family. Hendrick built a larger, grander house, combining Dutch architecture with that of the English, making it into a distinctly American building. Hendrick did not abandon his grandfather's house entirely, however. Moved to the eastern end of the new house, it served as the kitchen wing. He balanced this 1720 wing with a west wing, creating the symmetrical composition. Although Hendrick added Federal-style dormer windows, the gambrel roof with graceful spring eaves is typical of the Dutch colonial architectural style. The interior features 18 rooms organized in a center hall plan.
  In the 19th century, at its peak, the Lotts’ farm included more than 200 acres (0.81 km²). Like most large farmers in southern Kings County, the Lotts relied heavily on the labor of slaves to grow the crops that they sold in the markets of Brooklyn and Manhattan. They held the most slaves in the neighborhood. Legal documents from 1803 showed that elders, who were inefficient field workers, were less valued than children and adults. After 1799 however, the value of all slaves began to decline. New York wanted to free male slaves born after July 4, 1799, who had served their masters until age 28. Females, on the other hand, would be freed by the age of 25 if they met the same qualifications. These actions by the state made holding slaves more difficult. Therefore, the Lotts freed all but one of their slaves by 1805, long before the abolition of slavery in New York State in 1827. The Lotts then hired the freed slaves back as paid workers. These actions taken by the Lotts support the claim that they were abolitionists. Later, it is said, the House may have served as a stop on the Underground Railroad.
  By 1825 the 200-acre (0.81 km²) farm, on which the Lotts raised cabbage, potatoes, vegetables and wheat, included outbuildings, barns and a separate stone kitchen. The kitchen foundation, located between the home and the present East 36th Street, was excavated in 1998 by the Brooklyn College Archaeological Research Center.
caption: The Lott house under restoration
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