Celebrating Three Centuries of the Hendrick I. Lott House
The year 2020 marks the 300th birthday of the Hendrick I. Lott House, one of the oldest buildings in New York City. As part of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission’s Love NYC Landmarks initiative to share informative and uplifting stories with New Yorkers that recognize and celebrate our city’s history and culture, we wanted to celebrate this landmark birthday by taking a thoughtful look back at its notable history and remarkable preservation.
When historian (and Lott descendant) Charles Andrew Ditmas published Historic Homesteads of Kings County in 1909, he used an image of the Lott House as the book’s frontispiece. At the time, he proudly observed: “the house is still standing as firm as a rock, ready to stand another hundred years, if her owners so will it. It is hoped that they will, for where can you find a home of better, purer, nobler design among the modern houses which have been erected in Flatlands?”
This well-preserved Dutch Colonial farmhouse building, designated a New York City Landmark in 1989, has stood even longer than was predicted over a century ago. The Hendrick I. Lott House is located at 1940 East 36th Street in Marine Park (part of Flatlands), which was settled by the Dutch in the 1630s and originally named Amersfoort. The house occupies a generous midblock three-quarter-acre site, six blocks west of busy Flatbush Avenue. Unlike other 18th and early 19th century houses in Brooklyn that have been reoriented or moved to smaller lots, this house retains its original orientation and provides a sense of the original rural setting, sitting at a slight angle to the streets that later developed around it.
The house was constructed in two distinct phases and begins with Johannes and Antje (Folkerson) Lott. Johannes was a farmer and a member of the New York Colonial Assembly who purchased the land in 1719 to build a modest one-and-a-half-story wood farmhouse in 1720. The larger two-story main section was built in 1800 by Hendrick I. Lott, a grandson, and Mary (Brownjohn) Lott. At this time, the original building was moved slightly west and attached to the new structure, where it became the kitchen wing. Though the main section was built almost two decades after the American Revolution, it still displayed recognizable Dutch Colonial features, such as a two-sided gambrel roof, curved projecting eaves, and cedar shingle siding.
In the farm’s early decades, enslaved Africans and indentured servants worked the fields. More than two decades before slavery was abolished in New York State, in 1805, the Lott family freed most of their 12 slaves, hiring them back as paid employees. Artifacts discovered on the upper floors suggest that some workers lived in the house and historians believe it may have later functioned as a “safe house” where freedom seekers took shelter as part of the Underground Railroad. In 1925, the 200-acre produce farm closed and all, but the current parcel was sold.
Ella Suydam, a Lott descendent, lived in the eight-room house until her death in 1989. At the urging of neighborhood residents, the City of New York acquired the vacant building from relatives in 2001. Currently closed for restoration, this remarkable structure is part of the Historic House Trust and managed by the Friends of the Lott House, a not-for-profit organization.
Matthew A. Postal, Historian, Landmarks Preservation Commission Research Department
The Landmarks Preservation Commission is the mayoral agency responsible for protecting and preserving New York City’s architecturally, historically and culturally significant buildings and sites. Since its creation in 1965, LPC has granted landmark status to more than 37,000 buildings and sites, including 1,439 individual landmarks, 120 interior landmarks, 11 scenic landmarks, and 149 historic districts and extensions in all five boroughs. For more information, visit www.nyc.gov/landmarks and connect with us via www.facebook.com/NYCLandmarks and www.twitter.com/nyclandmarks.
