Edward Salyer House facts for kids
Quick facts for kids |
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Edward Salyer House
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South (front) elevation and east profile, 2008
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 Location in New York
Location in the United States
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| Location | Pearl River, NY |
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| Nearest city | Paterson, NJ |
| Area | 0.5 acres (2,000 m2) |
| Built | 1765 |
| Architect | Edward Salyer |
| Architectural style | Colonial, Dutch Colonial |
| NRHP reference No. | 86002178 |
| Added to NRHP | September 4, 1986 |
The Edward Salyer House is a really old wooden house in Pearl River, New York. It was built way back in the 1760s!
This house was once the main building of a large farm. It's special because it's one of the few old Dutch Colonial style wooden houses left in the area. It might even be the oldest house in Pearl River! Even though it has been updated over the years, it still has many of its original parts, like the inside walls and outside metal pieces. In 1986, the house and its old well were added to the National Register of Historic Places. This means they are important historical sites.
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Exploring the Edward Salyer House
The Edward Salyer House is on the west side of South Middletown Road. It sits closer to the street than other houses nearby. The property is about half an acre, which is like half a football field. Tall trees separate it from other homes. The area around it is mostly houses built more recently.
There are two other small buildings on the property: a wellhouse and a shed. The land slopes down behind the house, with pretty gardens and a path. You can also see a big black walnut tree and other evergreen trees.
Outside the House
The house has two and a half stories and is built on a strong stone base. This stone base is about 18 inches thick. Because the land slopes, part of the stone base on the west side looks like an extra story!
The outside of the house is covered with wooden boards called clapboard. The top parts of the roof have cool scale-shaped shingles. The roof is a special type called a gambrel roof, which has two different slopes on each side. There are brick chimneys at both ends of the house and a small window that sticks out from the roof on the south side.
The front of the house faces south. A wooden staircase leads up to the main door in the middle. On each side of the door are two windows with wooden shutters. The roof hangs out over the front, creating a nice overhang. While the front of the house looks very balanced, the sides have windows placed in different ways. Some windows are very old, with 12 small panes on the top and 12 on the bottom. Some even have their original wrought iron metal parts.
On the west side, there's a back door that's a Dutch door, which means the top and bottom halves can open separately. A small wooden room with big windows sticks out from this side, and it has a wooden patio.
Inside the House
When you go through the main entrance, you enter a hallway that divides the house. In the front, there's a living room and a dining room. Both rooms have fireplaces with fancy wooden decorations. The dining room also has a built-in cupboard with glass doors next to the fireplace. In the back of the house, there's a bedroom, a study, and a bathroom.
The floors are made of wide wooden planks held down with old, handmade nails. The walls are covered with plaster, which used to have clay and straw inside for insulation. The frames around the doors and windows are made of wood, with different levels of decoration. Some doors still have their original metal latches.
An enclosed staircase leads to the second floor. Upstairs, a wider hallway connects three bedrooms and another bathroom. The floors are also made of wooden planks. The ceilings are a bit low, about 6 feet 11 inches high. Another set of stairs goes up to the attic. In the attic, you can see the old wooden beams that were shaped with a special tool called an adz. You can also see how the roof frame was put together with numbered, pegged pieces.
The basement has two parts. One side is unfinished, and the other side used to be the kitchen and a common room. You can still see where an old fireplace and a beehive oven (a type of old bread oven) used to be in the kitchen. This fireplace has its original wooden mantelpiece. The stone walls in the basement are very thick, and the door and window openings get wider as they go up. Some newer wooden panels and a brick floor have been added. The old storage room is now a modern kitchen.
Other Buildings on the Property
Next to the house, there's a wellhouse. This is a newer building that protects the original well. The well is about four feet wide and 20 feet deep, and it's made of stones stacked without any mortar. There's also a wooden toolshed with a sloped roof and wooden siding.
Even though the wellhouse and toolshed look like the old house, they were built more recently. So, they aren't considered "contributing resources" to the historical listing. However, the well itself is very old and is considered an important part of the property's history.
History of the Edward Salyer House
Records from the 1760s suggest that the Edward Salyer House was built around 1765. Edward Salyer Sr. is believed to have built the house and lived there. He bought about 30 acres of land in the area.
The house has many features that were common in homes built by Dutch settlers and their families in the region. These include the special gambrel roof with its wide overhang, simple decorations, and a hallway in the middle of the house. It's also one of the few wooden houses from that time that is still standing; most other houses from that era were built with stone.
Edward Salyer Sr. later bought more land. He passed away on April 10, 1819. His son, Edward Salyer Jr., inherited the property. Over time, some of the land was sold off.
In 1818, Edward Salyer Jr. sold the house and about 90 acres of land to Tunis Cooper. Then, in 1837, Tunis Cooper sold it to Cornelius Demarest. Around this time, some of the fancy interior details were probably added. The Demarest family also added some Greek Revival style elements around 1840 to make the house look more modern. They sold the house in 1851.
For the rest of the 1800s, the house had several different owners. At one point, tall columns were added to the front to create a porch. However, the inside layout of the house didn't change.
In 1960, the Conques family bought the house. They worked to make it look more like its original design by removing the columns. Inside, they updated the kitchen. In 1980, they built the wellhouse and toolshed. Since then, there haven't been any major changes to the property.
See also
