Stephen Hogeboom House
Encyclopedia
The Stephen Hogeboom House is located on NY 23B
in Claverack
, New York, United States. It is a frame
Georgian
-style
house built in the late 18th century.
It was renovated in the mid-19th century, with several Greek Revival
embellishments, but otherwise remains intact. In 1997 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
.
at the southeast corner of Route 23B and Stone Mill Road. It slopes down slightly at the south end toward Claverack Creek
. Across the highway is the First Columbia County Courthouse
. There are two outbuildings on the property, a garage and a wellhouse. A row of large, mature trees is planted on the east side of the lot. The neighborhood is residential, with houses from different eras.
wide and two rooms deep. It is sided in narrow weatherboard. A deep, plain cornice
delineates the overhanging eaves of the steeply pitched
gable
d roof pierced by pairs of brick chimneys at either end near the roof crest.
On the north (front) facade
, the centrally located main entrance is sheltered by a Greek Revival
portico
, with two tapered columns supporting a deeply corniced roof. The paneled door has glass sidelights and transom
with a flat arched top, echoed on the window above it. There are two porches on the south (rear) facade, a small shed-roofed modern one and larger, ornate one with scalloped cornice and Regency
-style lattice
work. Four unevenly placed eyebrow windows are on the second story.
ed arches on the doors and windows. All the fireplaces have Doric
mantels
. On the first floor, double doors (hinged on the east and sliding on the west) separate the front and rear rooms. A tall narrow cupboard
is built into the entry recess of the northeast parlor.
A plain staircase leads up to the second floor. There, closets separate the front and rear rooms. Paneled doors from the house's original construction open onto the bedrooms. The southeast bedroom's chimney was built to serve a stove; all the other rooms have fireplaces.
Enclosed stairs lead to the attic. It is one large space, running the width of the house with exposed post-and-beam framing under the high roof. Corbel
s support the chimneys, also exposed, in the gable ends. Two layers of old wallpaper on the rear wall suggest that the space was once servants' quarters.
The cellar is also one large space. Its ceiling framing suggests that double fireplaces now on the side walls were originally located in the center of the house. The floor has supported this observation.
Staircases lead from the cellar and second story to the rear kitchen wing. It has its original cooking hearth, complete with crane, and a brick oven that protrudes slightly from the rear wall. A small pantry
made from old panel doors and other reused woodwork is in the passageway to the main block. A steep, turning staircase leads up to the garret
.
to the property's historic character.
Closer to the house, near the kitchen door, the wellhouse is considered contributing as it appears it was built during the mid-19th century renovations. It is frame, with a gabled roof and uses beaded posts and wainscoting.
rolls, show otherwise. Hogeboom had been married for 20 years at that time, to Hilletje Muller, daughter of Cornelius (whose nearby house
is still extant and also on the National Register). Tax rolls in 1779 show him living on a small house near the corner of that property, a house shown on maps as late as 1799. It is thus much more likely that the current house was built after the courthouse across the street, which dates to 1786.
At that time the intersection was the center of not only the hamlet of Claverack but Columbia County as well. Stone Mill and Old roads were the original route of the Albany Post Road
, the main north-south route through the county, and combined with the road now followed by routes 23
and 23B made, the main east-west road, it was the crossroads of the county and thus the ideal location for the courthouse until Hudson
was designated the new county seat in 1805. The Hogeboom House was equal in scale and form to the courthouse, making it as much of a landmark as that building.
Stephen Hogeboom was active in local politics. He served as Claverack's town supervisor
in the late 1780s, and ex officio on the county's Board of Supervisors, then in the state legislature as both an assemblyman
and state senator
. His son Kilian was also county clerk.
Upon his death in 1814, his will
provided that Kilian receive a separate house and property. His daughters and their descendants lived in the house for another 40 years. In 1854, the property was sold to a Peter Best of Stuyvesant
for $4,000 ($ in contemporary dollars).
It is likely that it was Best who made the renovations in the then-popular Greek Revival mode. The house's roof is pitched
more steeply than usual for that style (as the narrow weatherboard siding is unusual for Claverack), but otherwise it lent itself well to the renovations. The fireplaces were moved from the center of the basement to the walls, the upstairs closets installed and the rear porch and wellhouse added. The kitchen wing remained unaltered. A front portico that echoes one installed in a contemporary renovation to the courthouse was also added.
Best's family lived in the house for the remainder of the 19th century. Throughout the 20th and 21st, it has remained a private residence in the hands of several owners. The garage has been added, as well as the smaller, shed-roofed rear porch. There have been no other significant changes to the building.
New York State Route 23B
New York State Route 23B is an east–west state highway located in western Columbia County, New York, in the United States. The route is a former section of NY 23 that runs for from NY 9G southwest of Hudson to NY 9H in Claverack...
in Claverack
Claverack-Red Mills, New York
Claverack-Red Mills is a census-designated place in Columbia County, New York, United States. The population was 913 at the 2010 census....
, New York, United States. It is 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...
Georgian
Georgian architecture
Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1720 and 1840. It is eponymous for the first four British monarchs of the House of Hanover—George I of Great Britain, George II of Great Britain, George III of the United...
-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...
house built in the late 18th century.
It was renovated in the mid-19th century, with several Greek Revival
Greek Revival architecture
The Greek Revival was an architectural movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in Northern Europe and the United States. A product of Hellenism, it may be looked upon as the last phase in the development of Neoclassical architecture...
embellishments, but otherwise remains intact. In 1997 it 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...
.
Property
The house is on a 1.1 acres (4,451.5 m²) lotLot (real estate)
In real estate, a lot or plot is a tract or parcel of land owned or meant to be owned by some owner. A lot is essentially considered a parcel of real property in some countries or immovable property in other countries...
at the southeast corner of Route 23B and Stone Mill Road. It slopes down slightly at the south end toward Claverack Creek
Claverack Creek
Claverack Creek is a tributary to Stockport Creek in Columbia County, New York, in the United States. Its source is in the town of Claverack at the hamlet of Mellenville, and its mouth is at its confluence with Kinderhook Creek to form Stockport Creek, in the town of Stockport.-History:The lower...
. Across the highway is the First Columbia County Courthouse
First Columbia County Courthouse
The First Columbia County Courthouse is located along NY 23B near the center of the hamlet of Claverack, New York, United States. It is a brick building in the Federal style constructed in 1786 and renovated in the mid-19th century....
. There are two outbuildings on the property, a garage and a wellhouse. A row of large, mature trees is planted on the east side of the lot. The neighborhood is residential, with houses from different eras.
Interior
Two stories high, the house is five baysBay (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:...
wide and two rooms deep. It is sided in narrow weatherboard. A deep, plain 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...
delineates the overhanging eaves of the steeply 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...
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 pierced by pairs of brick chimneys at either end near the roof crest.
On the north (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"....
, the centrally located main entrance is sheltered by a Greek Revival
Greek Revival architecture
The Greek Revival was an architectural movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in Northern Europe and the United States. A product of Hellenism, it may be looked upon as the last phase in the development of Neoclassical architecture...
portico
Portico
A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls...
, with two tapered columns supporting a deeply corniced roof. The paneled door has glass sidelights and 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...
with a flat arched top, echoed on the window above it. There are two porches on the south (rear) facade, a small shed-roofed modern one and larger, ornate one with scalloped cornice and Regency
Regency architecture
The Regency style of architecture refers primarily to buildings built in Britain during the period in the early 19th century when George IV was Prince Regent, and also to later buildings following the same style...
-style lattice
Latticework
Latticework is a framework consisting of a criss-crossed pattern of strips of building material, typically wood or metal. The design is created by crossing the strips to form a network...
work. Four unevenly placed eyebrow windows are on the second story.
Exterior
Inside, the main entrance opens onto a wide central hallway with pedimentPediment
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...
ed arches on the doors and windows. All the fireplaces have Doric
Doric order
The Doric order was one of the three orders or organizational systems of ancient Greek or classical architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian.-History:...
mantels
Fireplace mantel
Fireplace mantel or mantelpiece, also known as a chimneypiece, originated in medieval times as a hood that projected over a grate to catch the smoke. The term has evolved to include the decorative framework around the fireplace, and can include elaborate designs extending to the ceiling...
. On the first floor, double doors (hinged on the east and sliding on the west) separate the front and rear rooms. A tall narrow cupboard
Cupboard
A cupboard or press is a type of cabinet, often made of wood, used indoors to store household objects such as food, crockery, textiles and liquor, and protect them from dust,vermin and dirt....
is built into the entry recess of the northeast parlor.
A plain staircase leads up to the second floor. There, closets separate the front and rear rooms. Paneled doors from the house's original construction open onto the bedrooms. The southeast bedroom's chimney was built to serve a stove; all the other rooms have fireplaces.
Enclosed stairs lead to the attic. It is one large space, running the width of the house with exposed post-and-beam framing under the high roof. Corbel
Corbel
In architecture a corbel is a piece of stone jutting out of a wall to carry any superincumbent weight. A piece of timber projecting in the same way was called a "tassel" or a "bragger". The technique of corbelling, where rows of corbels deeply keyed inside a wall support a projecting wall or...
s support the chimneys, also exposed, in the gable ends. Two layers of old wallpaper on the rear wall suggest that the space was once servants' quarters.
The cellar is also one large space. Its ceiling framing suggests that double fireplaces now on the side walls were originally located in the center of the house. The floor has supported this observation.
Staircases lead from the cellar and second story to the rear kitchen wing. It has its original cooking hearth, complete with crane, and a brick oven that protrudes slightly from the rear wall. A small pantry
Pantry
A pantry is a room where food, provisions or dishes are stored and served in an ancillary capacity to the kitchen. The derivation of the word is from the same source as the Old French term paneterie; that is from pain, the French form of the Latin panis for bread.In a late medieval hall, there were...
made from old panel doors and other reused woodwork is in the passageway to the main block. A steep, turning staircase leads up to the garret
Garret
A garret is generally synonymous in modern usage with a habitable attic or small living space at the top of a house. It entered Middle English via Old French with a military connotation of a watchtower or something akin to a garrison, in other words a place for guards or soldiers to be quartered...
.
Outbuildings
The larger of the two outbuildings, the garage, is a frame building roofed in asphalt on the south side of the house. It is one and a half car widths wide, and accessed from Stone Mill Road. Since it is of more modern construction, it is not considered a contributing resourceContributing 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 property's historic character.
Closer to the house, near the kitchen door, the wellhouse is considered contributing as it appears it was built during the mid-19th century renovations. It is frame, with a gabled roof and uses beaded posts and wainscoting.
History
Local tradition has it that Jeremiah Hogeboom built the house in 1784 for his son Stephen, then 40 years old. Historical records, such as property taxProperty tax
A property tax is an ad valorem levy on the value of property that the owner is required to pay. The tax is levied by the governing authority of the jurisdiction in which the property is located; it may be paid to a national government, a federated state or a municipality...
rolls, show otherwise. Hogeboom had been married for 20 years at that time, to Hilletje Muller, daughter of Cornelius (whose nearby house
Cornelius S. Muller House
The Cornelius S. Muller House is located along NY 23B in Claverack, New York, United States. It is a pre-Revolutionary brick house in a Dutch Colonial style with some English influences....
is still extant and also on the National Register). Tax rolls in 1779 show him living on a small house near the corner of that property, a house shown on maps as late as 1799. It is thus much more likely that the current house was built after the courthouse across the street, which dates to 1786.
At that time the intersection was the center of not only the hamlet of Claverack but Columbia County as well. Stone Mill and Old roads were the original route of the Albany Post Road
Albany Post Road
The Albany Post Road was a post road - a road used for mail delivery - in the U.S. state of New York. It connected the cities of New York and Albany along the east side of the Hudson River, a service now performed by US 9.The rough route was as follows:...
, the main north-south route through the county, and combined with the road now followed by routes 23
New York State Route 23
New York State Route 23 is an east–west state highway in the eastern portion New York in the United States. It extends for from an intersection with NY 26 in the Central New York town of Cincinnatus to the Massachusetts state line in the Berkshire Mountains, where it continues east as...
and 23B made, the main east-west road, it was the crossroads of the county and thus the ideal location for the courthouse until Hudson
Hudson, New York
Hudson is a city located along the west border of Columbia County, New York, United States. The city is named after the adjacent Hudson River and ultimately after the explorer Henry Hudson.Hudson is the county seat of Columbia County...
was designated the new county seat in 1805. The Hogeboom House was equal in scale and form to the courthouse, making it as much of a landmark as that building.
Stephen Hogeboom was active in local politics. He served as Claverack's 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...
in the late 1780s, and ex officio on the county's Board of Supervisors, then in the state legislature as both an assemblyman
New York State Assembly
The New York State Assembly is the lower house of the New York State Legislature. The Assembly is composed of 150 members representing an equal number of districts, with each district having an average population of 128,652...
and state senator
New York State Senate
The New York State Senate is one of two houses in the New York State Legislature and has members each elected to two-year terms. There are no limits on the number of terms one may serve...
. His son Kilian was also county clerk.
Upon his death in 1814, his will
Will (law)
A will or testament is a legal declaration by which a person, the testator, names one or more persons to manage his/her estate and provides for the transfer of his/her property at death...
provided that Kilian receive a separate house and property. His daughters and their descendants lived in the house for another 40 years. In 1854, the property was sold to a Peter Best of Stuyvesant
Stuyvesant, New York
Stuyvesant is a town in Columbia County, New York, United States. The population was 2,188 at the 2000 census.The Town of Stuyvesant is in the northwest part of Columbia County...
for $4,000 ($ in contemporary dollars).
It is likely that it was Best who made the renovations in the then-popular Greek Revival mode. The house's roof is 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...
more steeply than usual for that style (as the narrow weatherboard siding is unusual for Claverack), but otherwise it lent itself well to the renovations. The fireplaces were moved from the center of the basement to the walls, the upstairs closets installed and the rear porch and wellhouse added. The kitchen wing remained unaltered. A front portico that echoes one installed in a contemporary renovation to the courthouse was also added.
Best's family lived in the house for the remainder of the 19th century. Throughout the 20th and 21st, it has remained a private residence in the hands of several owners. The garage has been added, as well as the smaller, shed-roofed rear porch. There have been no other significant changes to the building.