Lynfeld
Encyclopedia
Lynfeld is a farm located on South Road in the Town of Washington, New York
, United States, near the village of Millbrook
. Its farmhouse, a frame
structure dating to the late 19th century, is in an unusual shape for a building in the Italianate
architectural style
.
The land was first part of a much larger farm established sometime in the late 18th century. In the 1870s, the original owner's grandson built the main house. His son was an innovative farmer who was among the first in the Hudson Valley
and Dutchess County
, and in one case the country, to raise several new species of livestock
. It remained in the original family's hands until the late 1960s. In 1987 the farm was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
.
-NY 82
highway. The terrain is gently rolling, with many tributaries draining to the East Branch of Wappinger Creek
to the north. A semicircular driveway with trees clustered near it provides access to the six buildings. The land is mostly cleared and under cultivation, as are neighboring farms, a contrast with the wooded areas across Tyrell to the northwest.
clapboard
-sided structure with a low pitched
metal hipped roof
, pierced by a chimney at the southwest, arranged in a rough C shape with the interior angle to the northwest. A wide overhanging eave at the roofline is supported by scroll brackets
.
A hip-roofed porch runs the entire width of the five-bay
tripartite main facade
, on the interior angle. Its roof is supported by square piers that form an arcaded
frieze
embellished with drop pendants beneath a wide panelled and bracketed cornice
. Windows on all facades are mostly paired round-arched windows with louver
ed shutters
.
A tripartite bay window
projects from the westernmost bay on the north. It, too, has a bracketed cornice and hipped roof. The south elevation has a two-story rear wing with a porch on the east that also wraps around to part of the main block. Brick steps with iron rails lead up to the rear door.
The main entrance is a deeply recessed paneled door with a round-arched transom
. It is surrounded by a molded
architrave
with a decorative scroll-bracket keystone
. Inside, the room layout has been altered moderately with the addition of removable partitions and the conversion of the upstairs into residential apartments. Much of the original finishing remains, including wood, plaster, and marblework. The door and windows have fine molded
wooden surrounds. There are cornices in the plaster and marble mantelpieces around the fireplaces, those purely decorative
as the house was heated by a system based on a furnace, stoves and hot-air piping.
There are some major decorative touches in the main rooms. The front parlor has an elaborate ceiling medallion, and the library features built in bookcases with glass cabinets. A carved balustrade on the winding, spacious central staircase is intact.
, built on the site of an earlier carriage house. Because of its recent construction it is not a contributing resource
to the Register listing.
The barn on its west is a contributing resource, since it was built within a few decades of the farmhouse. It is a one-and-a-half-story frame building in horizontal flushboard with a gable
d roof. A round-arched window is within its gable end.
Next to it is the dairy/hay barn, also contributing. It is much larger and more complex, with several wings. It is a frame gable-roofed structure built into the slight westward slope, with a similar wing on the west for cows. A small milkhouse is attached to the north side of the wing. Inside, the barn's framing is augmented with long diagonal braces.
Continuing along the driveway, there are two more buildings. A four-bay frame corrugated
metal modern machine shed, with an attached smaller shed, is to the hay barn's northwest. To its northeast, close to South Road, is a one-story frame guest cottage. Neither are contributing resources.
, war refugees from the Palatine
who were resettled on Livingston family
lands along the Hudson River
in what is now the area between Rhinebeck
and Germantown
. A plan for them to grow naval stores
in the area soon failed due to the region's harsh winters, and the Germans scattered throughout the region looking for new work and living quarters.
Sometime between the late 1710s and 1760s, the first Ham settled near Washington Hollow and began farming a 225 acres (91.1 ha) tract that includes the present Lynfeld. Local histories suggest that Milton, when he took over the farm in 1871 and built the house, was living on land first purchased by his grandfather Frederick, although it is not known when that transaction took place. The farm was known as "Lynfeld" due to the perceived abundance of linden trees on the property.
An earlier frame farmhouse had been built on the property in Frederick Ham's time. It was not enough for Milton, relatively progressive and sophisticated by the standards of taste among Dutchess County
farmers. From an unknown architect, he commissioned a farmhouse in the Italian villa
style more commonly used for urban houses and cottage
s of the era's affluent.
The Lynfeld house was further distinguished among the style by its unusual configuration. Most Italianate buildings combine smaller squarish or cubical forms, with wings, when they exist, at perpendicular angles to the main block. Ham's house was, instead, shaped like a large, fat "C" — a large square block with an interior angle on the northwest that served as a segmented front facade
. It was further enhanced with elegant Victorian
decorative touches.
From Milton, the farm passed to his son John Milton Ham. The younger man served in several public offices at different levels of government: federally as the Millbrook postmaster
, locally as Washington town supervisor
and at the county level as Dutchess's county clerk. Like his father, he was drawn to innovations of the era. The hay barn, the larger of the two built during his ownership, used diagonal brances to augment its framing. This newer method eliminated the need for post-and-beam structural systems barns had traditionally used, opening up most of the interior space.
On the farm, he tried out new breeds of livestock
. He was one of the first Hudson Valley
farmers to raise Holstein-Friesian cattle and keep Percheron
horses for stud
. He also introduced Berkshire
swine and was one of the first American farmers to raise Dorset horned sheep
.
In 1936, the original farmhouse, now used as a tenant house, burned down. The cottage was built shortly afterwards. Three decades later, the farm passed out of Ham family ownership after ten generations when Conrad Ham sold the current parcel.
It was later converted
for mixed office and residential use. Sometime between its listing on the Register in 1987 and the present day, the house's exterior was made plainer. The frieze
and decorative eyebrow windows were removed from below the roofline, replaced with clapboard, and the pediment
s over some of the first floor windows were also removed.
Washington, New York
Washington is a town in Dutchess County, New York, United States. The population was 4,742 at the 2000 census. The town is named after George Washington, who passed through the town during the Revolution....
, United States, near the village of Millbrook
Millbrook, New York
Millbrook is a village in Dutchess County, New York, United States. It is often said to be a "low-key version of the Hamptons" and one of the wealthiest towns in New York State. Millbrook's estimated town population was 1,551 in 2008. Millbrook is located in the Hudson Valley, an hour and thirty...
. Its farmhouse, a frame
Framing (construction)
Framing, in construction known as light-frame construction, is a building technique based around structural members, usually called studs, which provide a stable frame to which interior and exterior wall coverings are attached, and covered by a roof comprising horizontal ceiling joists and sloping...
structure dating to the late 19th century, is in an unusual shape for a building in the Italianate
Italianate architecture
The Italianate style of architecture was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. In the Italianate style, the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian Renaissance architecture, which had served as inspiration for both Palladianism and...
architectural style
Architectural style
Architectural styles classify architecture in terms of the use of form, techniques, materials, time period, region and other stylistic influences. It overlaps with, and emerges from the study of the evolution and history of architecture...
.
The land was first part of a much larger farm established sometime in the late 18th century. In the 1870s, the original owner's grandson built the main house. His son was an innovative farmer who was among the first in the Hudson Valley
Hudson Valley
The Hudson Valley comprises the valley of the Hudson River and its adjacent communities in New York State, United States, from northern Westchester County northward to the cities of Albany and Troy.-History:...
and Dutchess County
Dutchess County, New York
Dutchess County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York, in the state's Mid-Hudson Region of the Hudson Valley. The 2010 census lists the population as 297,488...
, and in one case the country, to raise several new species of livestock
Livestock
Livestock refers to one or more domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to produce commodities such as food, fiber and labor. The term "livestock" as used in this article does not include poultry or farmed fish; however the inclusion of these, especially poultry, within the meaning...
. It remained in the original family's hands until the late 1960s. In 1987 the farm was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
.
Buildings and grounds
Lynfeld is located in the western section of the town, on the south side of South Road just east of its junction with Tyrell Road, a half-mile (1 km) southeast of where South Road splits from the US 44U.S. Route 44 in New York
U.S. Route 44 in the state of New York is a major east–west thoroughfare in the Hudson Valley region of the state. Its entire length is maintained by the New York State Department of Transportation, with the exception of the Mid-Hudson Bridge, which is maintained by the New York State Bridge...
-NY 82
New York State Route 82
New York State Route 82 is a state highway in the eastern Hudson Valley of New York, United States. It begins at an intersection with NY 52 northeast of the village of Fishkill, bends eastward towards Millbrook, and then returns westward to end at a junction with U.S. Route 9,...
highway. The terrain is gently rolling, with many tributaries draining to the East Branch of Wappinger Creek
Wappinger Creek
Wappinger Creek is a creek which runs from Thompson Pond to the Hudson River at New Hamburg in Dutchess County, New York, United States. It is the longest creek in Dutchess County, with the largest watershed in the county.- Overview :...
to the north. A semicircular driveway with trees clustered near it provides access to the six buildings. The land is mostly cleared and under cultivation, as are neighboring farms, a contrast with the wooded areas across Tyrell to the northwest.
Main house
The main house is located at the driveway's eastern turn. It is a two-story frameFraming (construction)
Framing, in construction known as light-frame construction, is a building technique based around structural members, usually called studs, which provide a stable frame to which interior and exterior wall coverings are attached, and covered by a roof comprising horizontal ceiling joists and sloping...
clapboard
Clapboard (architecture)
Clapboard, also known as bevel siding or lap siding or weather-board , is a board used typically for exterior horizontal siding that has one edge thicker than the other and where the board above laps over the one below...
-sided structure with a low pitched
Roof pitch
In building construction, roof pitch is a numerical measure of the steepness of a roof, and a pitched roof is a roof that is steep.The roof's pitch is the measured vertical rise divided by the measured horizontal span, the same thing as what is called "slope" in geometry. Roof pitch is typically...
metal hipped roof
Hip roof
A hip roof, or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope. Thus it is a house with no gables or other vertical sides to the roof. A square hip roof is shaped like a pyramid. Hip roofs on the houses could have two triangular side...
, pierced by a chimney at the southwest, arranged in a rough C shape with the interior angle to the northwest. A wide overhanging eave at the roofline is supported by scroll brackets
Bracket (architecture)
A bracket is an architectural member made of wood, stone, or metal that overhangs a wall to support or carry weight. It may also support a statue, the spring of an arch, a beam, or a shelf. Brackets are often in the form of scrolls, and can be carved, cast, or molded. They can be entirely...
.
A hip-roofed porch runs the entire width of the five-bay
Bay (architecture)
A bay is a unit of form in architecture. This unit is defined as the zone between the outer edges of an engaged column, pilaster, or post; or within a window frame, doorframe, or vertical 'bas relief' wall form.-Defining elements:...
tripartite main facade
Facade
A facade or façade is generally one exterior side of a building, usually, but not always, the front. The word comes from the French language, literally meaning "frontage" or "face"....
, on the interior angle. Its roof is supported by square piers that form an arcaded
Arcade (architecture)
An arcade is a succession of arches, each counterthrusting the next, supported by columns or piers or a covered walk enclosed by a line of such arches on one or both sides. In warmer or wet climates, exterior arcades provide shelter for pedestrians....
frieze
Frieze
thumb|267px|Frieze of the [[Tower of the Winds]], AthensIn architecture the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Even when neither columns nor pilasters are expressed, on an astylar wall it lies upon...
embellished with drop pendants beneath a wide panelled and bracketed cornice
Cornice
Cornice molding is generally any horizontal decorative molding that crowns any building or furniture element: the cornice over a door or window, for instance, or the cornice around the edge of a pedestal. A simple cornice may be formed just with a crown molding.The function of the projecting...
. Windows on all facades are mostly paired round-arched windows with louver
Louver
A louver or louvre , from the French l'ouvert; "the open one") is a window, blind or shutter with horizontal slats that are angled to admit light and air, but to keep out rain, direct sunshine, and noise...
ed shutters
Window shutter
A window shutter is a solid and stable window covering usually consisting of a frame of vertical stiles and horizontal rails...
.
A tripartite bay window
Bay window
A bay window is a window space projecting outward from the main walls of a building and forming a bay in a room, either square or polygonal in plan. The angles most commonly used on the inside corners of the bay are 90, 135 and 150 degrees. Bay windows are often associated with Victorian architecture...
projects from the westernmost bay on the north. It, too, has a bracketed cornice and hipped roof. The south elevation has a two-story rear wing with a porch on the east that also wraps around to part of the main block. Brick steps with iron rails lead up to the rear door.
The main entrance is a deeply recessed paneled door with a round-arched transom
Transom (architectural)
In architecture, a transom is the term given to a transverse beam or bar in a frame, or to the crosspiece separating a door or the like from a window or fanlight above it. Transom is also the customary U.S. word used for a transom light, the window over this crosspiece...
. It is surrounded by a molded
Molding (decorative)
Molding or moulding is a strip of material with various profiles used to cover transitions between surfaces or for decoration. It is traditionally made from solid milled wood or plaster but may be made from plastic or reformed wood...
architrave
Architrave
An architrave is the lintel or beam that rests on the capitals of the columns. It is an architectural element in Classical architecture.-Classical architecture:...
with a decorative scroll-bracket keystone
Keystone (architecture)
A keystone is the wedge-shaped stone piece at the apex of a masonry vault or arch, which is the final piece placed during construction and locks all the stones into position, allowing the arch to bear weight. This makes a keystone very important structurally...
. Inside, the room layout has been altered moderately with the addition of removable partitions and the conversion of the upstairs into residential apartments. Much of the original finishing remains, including wood, plaster, and marblework. The door and windows have fine molded
Molding (decorative)
Molding or moulding is a strip of material with various profiles used to cover transitions between surfaces or for decoration. It is traditionally made from solid milled wood or plaster but may be made from plastic or reformed wood...
wooden surrounds. There are cornices in the plaster and marble mantelpieces around the fireplaces, those purely decorative
Ornament (architecture)
In architecture and decorative art, ornament is a decoration used to embellish parts of a building or object. Large figurative elements such as monumental sculpture and their equivalents in decorative art are excluded from the term; most ornament does not include human figures, and if present they...
as the house was heated by a system based on a furnace, stoves and hot-air piping.
There are some major decorative touches in the main rooms. The front parlor has an elaborate ceiling medallion, and the library features built in bookcases with glass cabinets. A carved balustrade on the winding, spacious central staircase is intact.
Outbuildings
To the house's west along the entrance drive is a late 20th-century office building, now used as residential space. It is a two-story frame building with vertical siding and a shed roof. On its east was once a greenhouseGreenhouse
A greenhouse is a building in which plants are grown. These structures range in size from small sheds to very large buildings...
, built on the site of an earlier carriage house. Because of its recent construction it is not a contributing resource
Contributing property
In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing resource or contributing property is any building, structure, or object which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic district, listed locally or federally, significant...
to the Register listing.
The barn on its west is a contributing resource, since it was built within a few decades of the farmhouse. It is a one-and-a-half-story frame building in horizontal flushboard with a gable
Gable
A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of a sloping roof. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system being used and aesthetic concerns. Thus the type of roof enclosing the volume dictates the shape of the gable...
d roof. A round-arched window is within its gable end.
Next to it is the dairy/hay barn, also contributing. It is much larger and more complex, with several wings. It is a frame gable-roofed structure built into the slight westward slope, with a similar wing on the west for cows. A small milkhouse is attached to the north side of the wing. Inside, the barn's framing is augmented with long diagonal braces.
Continuing along the driveway, there are two more buildings. A four-bay frame corrugated
Corrugated galvanised iron
Corrugated galvanised iron is a building material composed of sheets of hot-dip galvanised mild steel, cold-rolled to produce a linear corrugated pattern in them...
metal modern machine shed, with an attached smaller shed, is to the hay barn's northwest. To its northeast, close to South Road, is a one-story frame guest cottage. Neither are contributing resources.
History
The ancestors of Lynfeld's builder, Milton Conrad Ham, were German immigrantsGerman American
German Americans are citizens of the United States of German ancestry and comprise about 51 million people, or 17% of the U.S. population, the country's largest self-reported ancestral group...
, war refugees from the Palatine
Palatine
A palatine or palatinus is a high-level official attached to imperial or royal courts in Europe since Roman times...
who were resettled on Livingston family
Livingston family
The Livingston family of was a prominent family which migrated from Scotland to the Dutch Republic to the Province of New York in the 17th century. Descended from William, 4th Lord Livingston, its members included signers of the United States Declaration of Independence and the United States...
lands along the Hudson River
Hudson River
The Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...
in what is now the area between Rhinebeck
Rhinebeck (town), New York
Rhinebeck is a town in Dutchess County, New York, United States. The population was 7,548 at the 2010 census.The Town of Rhinebeck in the northwest part of Dutchess County in the Hudson Valley. Rhinebeck is also the name of a village in the town. US Route 9 passes through the town...
and Germantown
Germantown (town), New York
Germantown is a town in Columbia County, New York, United States. The population was 2,018 at the 2000 census.The Town of Germantown is located in the southwest part of the county.- History :...
. A plan for them to grow naval stores
Naval stores
Naval Stores is a broad term which originally applied to the resin-based components used in building and maintaining wooden sailing ships, a category which includes cordage, mask, turpentine, rosin, pitch and tar...
in the area soon failed due to the region's harsh winters, and the Germans scattered throughout the region looking for new work and living quarters.
Sometime between the late 1710s and 1760s, the first Ham settled near Washington Hollow and began farming a 225 acres (91.1 ha) tract that includes the present Lynfeld. Local histories suggest that Milton, when he took over the farm in 1871 and built the house, was living on land first purchased by his grandfather Frederick, although it is not known when that transaction took place. The farm was known as "Lynfeld" due to the perceived abundance of linden trees on the property.
An earlier frame farmhouse had been built on the property in Frederick Ham's time. It was not enough for Milton, relatively progressive and sophisticated by the standards of taste among Dutchess County
Dutchess County, New York
Dutchess County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York, in the state's Mid-Hudson Region of the Hudson Valley. The 2010 census lists the population as 297,488...
farmers. From an unknown architect, he commissioned a farmhouse in the Italian villa
Italianate architecture
The Italianate style of architecture was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. In the Italianate style, the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian Renaissance architecture, which had served as inspiration for both Palladianism and...
style more commonly used for urban houses and cottage
Cottage
__toc__In modern usage, a cottage is usually a modest, often cozy dwelling, typically in a rural or semi-rural location. However there are cottage-style dwellings in cities, and in places such as Canada the term exists with no connotations of size at all...
s of the era's affluent.
The Lynfeld house was further distinguished among the style by its unusual configuration. Most Italianate buildings combine smaller squarish or cubical forms, with wings, when they exist, at perpendicular angles to the main block. Ham's house was, instead, shaped like a large, fat "C" — a large square block with an interior angle on the northwest that served as a segmented front facade
Facade
A facade or façade is generally one exterior side of a building, usually, but not always, the front. The word comes from the French language, literally meaning "frontage" or "face"....
. It was further enhanced with elegant Victorian
Victorian architecture
The term Victorian architecture refers collectively to several architectural styles employed predominantly during the middle and late 19th century. The period that it indicates may slightly overlap the actual reign, 20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901, of Queen Victoria. This represents the British and...
decorative touches.
From Milton, the farm passed to his son John Milton Ham. The younger man served in several public offices at different levels of government: federally as the Millbrook postmaster
Postmaster
A postmaster is the head of an individual post office. Postmistress is not used anymore in the United States, as the "master" component of the word refers to a person of authority and has no gender quality...
, locally as Washington town supervisor
Town supervisor
Town Supervisor is an elective legislative position in New York towns. Supervisors sit on the town board, where they preside over town board meetings and vote on all matters with no more legal weight than that of any other board member .Towns may adopt local laws that allow them to provide for an...
and at the county level as Dutchess's county clerk. Like his father, he was drawn to innovations of the era. The hay barn, the larger of the two built during his ownership, used diagonal brances to augment its framing. This newer method eliminated the need for post-and-beam structural systems barns had traditionally used, opening up most of the interior space.
On the farm, he tried out new breeds of livestock
Livestock
Livestock refers to one or more domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to produce commodities such as food, fiber and labor. The term "livestock" as used in this article does not include poultry or farmed fish; however the inclusion of these, especially poultry, within the meaning...
. He was one of the first Hudson Valley
Hudson Valley
The Hudson Valley comprises the valley of the Hudson River and its adjacent communities in New York State, United States, from northern Westchester County northward to the cities of Albany and Troy.-History:...
farmers to raise Holstein-Friesian cattle and keep Percheron
Percheron
The Percheron is a breed of draft horse that originated in the Perche valley in northern France. Percherons are usually gray or black in color. They are well-muscled, and known for their intelligence and willingness to work. Although their exact origins are unknown, the ancestors of the breed were...
horses for stud
Stud (animal)
A stud animal is a registered animal retained for breeding. The terms for the male of a given animal species usually imply that the animal is entire—that is, not castrated—and therefore capable of siring offspring...
. He also introduced Berkshire
Berkshire (pig)
Berkshire pigs are a rare breed of pig originating from Berkshire in England.Herds of the breed are still maintained in England by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust at Aldenham Country Park, Hertfordshire, and by the South of England Rare Breeds Centre in Kent. The Berkshire is listed as 'vulnerable',...
swine and was one of the first American farmers to raise Dorset horned sheep
Dorset (sheep)
The Dorset or Dorset Horned breed of sheep is known mostly for its prolific lambing. It has been known to produce two lambing seasons per year: bred in May for lambs finished by the holidays, and bred again immediately after the first lambing to produce again in March or April...
.
In 1936, the original farmhouse, now used as a tenant house, burned down. The cottage was built shortly afterwards. Three decades later, the farm passed out of Ham family ownership after ten generations when Conrad Ham sold the current parcel.
It was later converted
Adaptive reuse
Adaptive reuse refers to the process of reusing an old site or building for a purpose other than which it was built or designed for. Along with brownfield reclamation, adaptive reuse is seen by many as a key factor in land conservation and the reduction of urban sprawl...
for mixed office and residential use. Sometime between its listing on the Register in 1987 and the present day, the house's exterior was made plainer. The frieze
Frieze
thumb|267px|Frieze of the [[Tower of the Winds]], AthensIn architecture the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Even when neither columns nor pilasters are expressed, on an astylar wall it lies upon...
and decorative eyebrow windows were removed from below the roofline, replaced with clapboard, and the pediment
Pediment
A pediment is a classical architectural element consisting of the triangular section found above the horizontal structure , typically supported by columns. The gable end of the pediment is surrounded by the cornice moulding...
s over some of the first floor windows were also removed.