Lynfeld facts for kids
Quick facts for kids |
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Lynfeld
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North profile of main house, 2008
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 Location in New York
Location in the United States
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| Location | Washington, NY |
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| Nearest city | Poughkeepsie |
| Area | 23 acres (9.3 ha) |
| Built | 1871 |
| Architectural style | Italianate |
| NRHP reference No. | 87000474 |
| Added to NRHP | March 19, 1987 |
Lynfeld is a historic farm located in the town of Washington, New York. It's close to the village of Millbrook. The main house on the farm was built in the late 1800s. It has a special design called Italianate, but its shape is quite unusual for this style.
The land where Lynfeld stands was once part of a much bigger farm from the late 1700s. In the 1870s, the grandson of the first owner built the main house we see today. His son was a very creative farmer. He was one of the first in the Hudson Valley and Dutchess County to raise new kinds of livestock (farm animals). The farm stayed in the same family for a long time, until the late 1960s. In 1987, Lynfeld was added to the National Register of Historic Places. This means it's an important historical site.
Contents
Exploring Lynfeld's Buildings and Land
Lynfeld is in the western part of Washington town. It sits on the south side of South Road. The land here is gently rolling, with small streams flowing towards the Wappinger Creek. A curved driveway leads to the six buildings on the property. Most of the land is open fields used for farming, just like the farms nearby.
The Main House: A Unique Design
The main house is located where the driveway curves. It's a two-story building made of wood, covered with clapboard siding. It has a low, gently sloped metal roof. A chimney sticks out from the roof on one side. The house has a unique "C" shape, with the inner curve facing northwest. The roof has wide overhangs, supported by fancy scroll-shaped brackets.
A porch with its own roof runs along the front of the house. Its roof is held up by square pillars that create an arched look. Beneath the roof, there's a wide, decorated band with more brackets. Most of the windows are paired and have rounded tops, with louvered shutters.
On the north side, a three-part bay window sticks out. It also has a bracketed roof. The back of the house has a two-story section with a porch that wraps around. Brick steps with iron railings lead to the back door.
The main front door is set back into the wall and has a rounded window above it. It's surrounded by decorative wood trim. Inside, some rooms have been changed with movable walls, and the upstairs is now apartments. But many original features are still there. This includes beautiful wood, plaster, and marble details. The doors and windows have finely carved wood frames. There are decorative plaster borders on the ceilings and marble around the fireplaces. Even though the fireplaces are decorative now, the house used to be heated by a furnace and hot-air pipes.
The main rooms have some special decorations. The front living room has a fancy design on its ceiling. The library has built-in bookshelves with glass doors. The winding main staircase has a beautifully carved railing that is still in great shape.
Other Buildings on the Farm
West of the main house, along the driveway, is a newer office building. It's now used as a home. This building is two stories tall with vertical siding and a sloped roof. Next to it, there used to be a greenhouse, built where an old carriage house once stood. Because this office building is newer, it's not considered a "contributing resource" to the historic listing. This means it wasn't part of the original historic farm.
The barn located further west is a "contributing resource." It was built around the same time as the farmhouse. It's a one-and-a-half-story wooden building with a pointed roof. It has a rounded window at one end.
Next to this barn is the dairy/hay barn, which is also a contributing resource. This barn is much larger and more complex, with several sections. It's a wooden building with a pointed roof, built into a slight slope. It has a similar section on the west side for cows. A small milkhouse is attached to the north side. Inside, the barn's wooden frame uses long diagonal braces. This new way of building meant more open space inside the barn.
Further along the driveway, there are two more buildings. A modern metal shed for machines, with a smaller shed attached, is to the northwest of the hay barn. To its northeast, near South Road, is a one-story guest cottage. Neither of these are contributing resources.
Lynfeld's History: From German Settlers to Innovative Farming
The family who built Lynfeld, the Hams, were German immigrants. They were refugees who came to America and settled along the Hudson River. They tried to grow certain crops, but the harsh winters made it difficult. So, the Germans spread out across the region looking for new work.
Sometime between the early 1700s and mid-1700s, the first Ham family member settled near Washington Hollow. He started farming a large area of land, which included the current Lynfeld property. Local stories say that Milton Ham, who took over the farm in 1871 and built the main house, was living on land his grandfather Frederick first bought. The farm was named "Lynfeld" because there were many linden trees on the property.
An older farmhouse had been on the property before Milton built the current one. But Milton was a modern thinker for a farmer in Dutchess County. He wanted a more stylish home. So, he hired an unknown architect to design a farmhouse in the Italian villa style. This style was usually used for fancy city homes or vacation cottages back then.
The Lynfeld house was special because of its unusual shape. Most Italianate buildings are made of smaller square or cube shapes. If they have wings, they usually stick out at right angles. But Milton Ham's house was shaped like a big, wide "C." It was a large square building with an inner curve on the northwest side that served as the front. It also had elegant decorative touches popular in the Victorian era.
After Milton, his son John Milton Ham took over the farm. John was involved in public service. He was the postmaster in Millbrook, a town supervisor for Washington, and the county clerk for Dutchess County. Like his father, he was interested in new ideas. The larger hay barn built during his time used diagonal braces to strengthen its frame. This new method meant barns didn't need as many large posts inside, which opened up more space.
On the farm, John Milton Ham experimented with new kinds of livestock. He was one of the first farmers in the Hudson Valley to raise Holstein-Friesian cattle and to keep Percheron horses for breeding. He also brought in Berkshire pigs and was one of the first American farmers to raise Dorset horned sheep.
In 1936, the original farmhouse, which was then used by farm workers, burned down. The guest cottage was built soon after. About 30 years later, in the 1960s, the farm left the Ham family's ownership after ten generations.
Later, the house was changed to be used for both offices and homes. Sometime after it was listed on the National Register in 1987, the outside of the house was made simpler. Some of the decorative parts below the roofline and above the windows were removed and replaced with plain siding.
