Hammond House (Eastview, New York)

Bermuda-born William Hammond came to the colonial Province of New York in the early years of the 18th century. He eventually earned enough to lease 200 acres (81 ha)[9] of farmland on the Philipsburg Manor, the colonial land grant that took up what is today most of eastern Westchester County. He began building a house there in 1719, now the main block of the existing building, and finished it the following year.[1]

The house is architecturally noteworthy for several reasons. First, its full-length front porch under the overhanging roof is similar to that on the Elijah Miller House, also listed on the National Register, in nearby North White Plains, built a few years later. Second, Hammond built the house without a basement[1] and with its structural beams dovetailing with each other, so that the house could easily be dismantled, moved and reassembled in another location if he lost his lease (it has been described as an early version of a mobile home).[4] Third, of the approximately 200 homes known to have been built by tenant farmers on the manor, it is one of only two that have survived.[1]

Hammond would never need to move. He became a fixture of the community, serving as captain of the local militia from 1755 on. He also became an elder of the Old Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow, the oldest church in New York and today a National Historic Landmark.[1]

Upon William's death in 1762, his eldest son, James, inherited the house and leasehold. James Hammond followed his father into the local militia, serving as its captain as well when it fought on the Patriot side during the Revolutionary War shortly after he was promoted to lieutenant colonel. In August 1776, he was promoted to full colonel shortly before leading his troops into the Battle of White Plains.[1]

Some recently discovered evidence supports a long-retold legend that, minutes after George Washington left a brief meeting with Hammond at the house in 1780, it was surrounded by opposing Loyalists. Seeking to capture Washington, they instead settled for Hammond, and he was held prisoner on a ship on the Hudson River for a year and a half, then released at the end of the war.[3]

With the end of the war and the beginning of American independence came the end of the manor system. Hammond was able to buy not only the land the house stood on but the surrounding 242 acres (98 ha),[1] where he continued growing wheat and flax.[9] He further followed his father's footsteps to the leadership of the Old Dutch Church in Sleepy Hollow, where he was elected a trustee in 1786.[1]

James Hammond died in 1810. His family inherited the house; it stayed in their ownership for several generations over the course of the 19th century. Several of his descendants distinguished themselves in the military as well.[1]

Twice during their ownership, the house was expanded. In 1835 a small detached cottage on the property was moved and attached to the house, becoming the west wing. A quarter-century later, in 1860, the east wing was built.[1]

The Hammonds eventually departed, and the house was left unoccupied. By the early 20th century it came into the ownership of the New York City Bureau of Water Supply. It was the only improvement on a 157-acre (64 ha) parcel surrounding the important junction of the Catskill and Delaware aqueducts. To better protect the city's water supply, the bureau planned to demolish the neglected and deteriorated structure.[4]

In 1926, however, the Westchester County Historical Society persuaded the city to sell them just the house for $50 ($800 in modern dollars[10]). As part of the transaction, the city retained the right to demolish the structure and the society retained the right to move it, as well as use the acre around the house for its purposes. The society restored the house and reopened it three years later, operating it as a historic house museum, with a "hodge-podge" of displays that inaccurately represented early 19th century farm life as being authentic to the period of the house's construction.[4]

During the next half-century, the house would become known around the county for its museum use. The society did some minor repairs, replacing some floorboards and replastering some walls. After the 1960s, however, it limited its work to routine maintenance, neglecting the building's structural system. The house's 1976 listing coincided with a change in the society's mission from historic preservation to historical research, to the detriment of the house and its contents. Potentially valuable artifacts and records languished in unorganized, insufficiently protected conditions within the house.[4]

By the early 1980s it was obvious that some more work needed to be done. With a grant from the Norcross Wildlife Foundation, the society commissioned a historic structure report.[9] It turned out that repairs would cost $500,000. Since they could not justify that level of spending without assurances that the city would not invoke its right to tear down the house, the society's board tried to persuade the city to donate the underlying acre or sell it to the society at a token price.

Those discussions were unsuccessful, and in 1984 the board turned to another Westchester-based historic preservation organization, Historic Hudson Valley (HHV), which operates and maintains several historic homes, including some National Historic Landmarks, as far north as Annandale-on-Hudson in Dutchess County. The board hoped that HHV would help them with moving the house, the city's preferred option, to the main Philipsburg Manor house in Sleepy Hollow, a site managed by that organization. HHV was interested, but only found the main block worth preserving, as it was the original house.[4]

The society's board was unwilling to sacrifice the wings. So, in 1989, it went public with its predicament and put the house up for sale. It hoped to be able to keep it on the original site, but said it would talk with anyone who had a viable plan for adaptive reuse. The poorly stored artifacts and records were moved to the county's newly built Records Center in Elmsford.[4]

At the end of that year it announced that it had found a buyer—nearby New York Medical College, which was starting to expand in the area to the north of the house, along with Westchester Medical Center, the former Grasslands Hospital. The sale price was undisclosed at the time, but it was reported that the college would pay $50,000 to update the house's electrical and heating systems, as well as repaint both the interior and exterior. The house became its center for field research on Lyme disease, then a growing public health problem during Westchester's summer months.[5]

By 1995, however, the house was again facing the threat of demolition or relocation. Antiques dealer Frederick Rock and his younger brother Michael were able to put together the money to buy it, and spent several years fixing it up so he could live there. A folk music enthusiast, he began hosting regular hootenannies in 1999. These grew into a series of backyard performances featuring artists like The Kennedys, Jack Hardy and Terre and Maggie Roche.[6]