NYC Arts: The Complete Guide to Art and Culture

This Dutch Colonial farmhouse, built circa 1652, may be the oldest existing family home in the city. A modest structure of pine floorboards, a shingled exterior and a gable roof, it is considered typical of its time. The oldest part of the house, the kitchen, has a low ceiling designed to retain heat in winter. Several stripped walls throughout show the mode of construction: wooden slats filled with insulating brick and mud covered in plaster. Pieter Claesen Wyckoff arrived in New Netherland in 1637 as an illiterate indentured servant. He went on to become a magistrate, a successful farmer and the wealthiest citizen of New Amersfoort, later the town of Flatlands. His descendants occupied the house until 1902. The city came into possession of it in 1970. 

On display are the original fireplace with tiles imported from Holland in the 1660s, as well as a kas, or Dutch cupboard, a spinning wheel and a 17th-century pistol. The kitchen garden contains plantings popular during the colonial era. The museum sometimes mounts small exhibits such as Domestic Life in Colonial Brooklyn. There are also children's programs and demonstrations on period craftsmanship.

• Directions: Subway: D or N to 18th Avenue Station. Take the B8 bus northbound toward Rockaway Avenue. Exit at Beverly Road and East 58th Street. Turn right on East 58th Street, walk one block south, cross street, and turn left and walk one block east on Clarendon Road to museum gate. See museum Web site for more transportation directions from other subway stations.

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