page_title: Blauvelt, New York
section_title: Historical markers
hierarchical_section_title: Blauvelt, New York / Tourism / Historical markers
caption_attribution_description: English: Jacob Blauvelt House in New City, Rockland County, NY
context_page_description: Blauvelt is a hamlet and census-designated place, formerly known as Greenbush and then Blauveltville, in the town of Orangetown, Rockland County, New York, United States. It is located north of Tappan, east of Nauraushaun and Pearl River, south of Central Nyack, and west of Orangeburg. As of the 2010 census, the CDP had a population of 5,689.
context_section_description: The Jacob J. Blauvelt house and its four remaining acres of land had been in the Blauvelt family since the time it was built, in 1832, up until when it was acquired by the Historical Society of Rockland County in 1970. The Blauvelt family first arrived in America in 1638, and first arrived in Rockland County in 1683. Their genealogy today contains more than 26,000 names.
  Johannes J. Blauvelt - 514 Western Highway - Jacob A. Blauvelt and family, the first of seven generations of Blauvelts to live on this farm, occupied a log structure nearby early in the 18th century. Jacob's son, Johannes J. Blauvelt, built the sandstone south wing of the home ca. 1755. The center section was added after the Revolutionary War, and the north wing ca. 1862. This house was used as an officers' club during World War II.
  Jacob J. Blauvelt (1757–1834)  - 525 Western Highway
  Johannes Isaac Blauvelt - 820 Western Highway - Johannes (1743–1828) was a charter member of the Greenbush Church. His son David began Rockland County's first tobacco farm and business there. Abraham M. Blauvelt (gunsmith) repaired guns and watches here and rented boats on the Hackensack River in the rear. The Blauvelt family occupied these premises for 135 years. The Dutch farmhouse is located on the northwest corner of the Tappen Patent and contains many original construction features.
  Blauvelt-Norris-Burr House - 608 Western Highway - The main section and south kitchen of this Dutch home were built ca. 1790-1800, the north addition ca. 1840, on land previously owned by David Bogert. The first known occupant was Garret I. Blauvelt. In 1853 the farm was acquired by John S. Norris, an architect and builder. In 1885 it was purchased by the Burr family who owned it for 56 years. The current owner of the house did a great deal of restoration in 2008/09. In the course of removing 1960's changes and opening walls to correct structural damages, a different scenario for the house has emerged. There is evidence of a door and a window suggesting the south kitchen was added later than previously thought. The south chimney of the main section of the house differs from the north, in that it contains three fireplaces off a center chimney, suggesting it is the remnant of a previous building. In checking with the Historical Society, there are two maps of early Rockland County homesteads — the earlier one dated 1750. The Blauvelt-Norris-Burr House appears on that map suggesting it was built before 1750. Also, the house is larger than most in the area, and the construction of the upper floor suggests it is not as old as the bottom. Photographs from the later part of the 1800s show the addition of a front porch, which explains the unusually large section of clapboard between the stone foundation and roof. The owner feels a reasonable chronology is thus: The house that predates the 1750 map was torn down and rebuilt (possibly) in 1790, as the Society states. There is no evidence that the so-called "south kitchen" was a kitchen, because the room was structurally altered in the early 20th century (early plaster board suggests this), and there is no evidence of a large cooking fireplace. At one point the main south chimney did have a large kitchen fireplace, as did the north wing which was added later using "recycled" hand-honed beams that may have come from the pre-1750 house. This stone addition seems to have replaced another, possibly of wood and half its present size, as the interior wall of the main building is partially whitewashed. Again, this suggests that the north wing was an addition. The upper floor was most certainly added to the house in the 19th century. Possibly the architect Norris did this after he purchased it because he was the most capable. (He had also recently married a woman with two daughters, and this would have given him plenty of room.) Raising the roof would explain the absence of plaster behind the wainscoting upstairs, floor seams that suggest a different wall configuration at one point, the unusually high window dormers which can only reasonably have been added at
caption: Jacob Blauvelt House In New City, NY
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