Major Jacob Hasbrouck Jr. House

The land on which the house stands was originally part of Jean Hasbrouck's vast holdings in the area that is today the town and village of New Paltz and the surrounding lower Wallkill Valley. He died in 1714, thirteen years before the birth of Jacob Hasbrouck's youngest son, Jacob Jr., in 1727.[1]

Jacob lived in the family homestead with his father, as his older brothers moved out to the land their father had already planned to divide between them in his will. Jacob Jr. was originally to receive only cash and bonds, on the assumption he would inherit the family house, but shortly after the will was drawn up in 1747 Benjamin Hasbrouck, the oldest son, died in a fall from a horse. The document was quickly revised to give the younger Jacob title to the lands between the Wallkill and the mountains known today as the Shawangunk Ridge, considered the best in the Hasbrouck tract. Jacob the elder died in 1761 and the lands and house became his son's.[1]

The year afterward he served the first of two stretches as town supervisor. He continued to work with the other descendants of New Paltz's original Duzine ("Dozen") on the further subdivision and development of the original lands. In the early 1770s he returned as supervisor again, stepping down in 1776 when the war began as he had already been commissioned as a captain of the Second New Paltz Company of the Third Regiment of the Ulster County Militia. Three years later, he was promoted to major, and would forever after be known by that title in family histories to distinguish him from his father and his son, Jacob J. Hasbrouck.[1]

According to Hasbrouck family tradition, Major Hasbrouck built the house in 1786 for Jacob J., the younger of his two sons, to live in after he died, while his brother Josiah lived in the old house. The Major moved in to spend his later years there, no longer extensively involved in either farming the property or land deals, although an assessment done for the 1798 federal Direct Tax, when he still owned both houses, rated him the wealthiest man in New Paltz. He died in 1806, and passed the house to Jacob J. and his growing family.[1]

The younger man needed more space, and built the rear extension known as the "outlet", from the Dutch uitlayt, a common term for that kind of extension in Dutch architecture. It was 12 feet (4 m) wide, running the entire width of the house and continuing the slope of the roof. Jacob left his initials in the plaster of the north wall interior. A neoclassical-styled archway was the main portal between the outlet and the main house. These renovations were complete by 1810.[1]

In 1825, Jacob J. Hasbrouck moved out to a brick farmhouse two miles (3.2 km) along the Wallkill to retire; his son, Maurice, took over the main stone house and devoted himself primarily to the farm, as most of the family's land had been subdivided and sold. He undertook no major renovations other than whatever routine maintenance the house needed, and moved out in 1870 when his own son, Abram, married and needed the space as his grandfather had before him. The house, by this time, was almost a century old and badly needed to be restored. The original Hasbrouck land parcels had long been divided up, leaving only 400 acres (160 ha), and the family had moved on to other sources of income. By the mid-19th century, tax assessments suggest that the stone houses that had symbolized their earlier wealth were losing their appeal as younger homeowners embraced newer styles.[1]

Abram's most visible changes, begun in 1876, were the two front window gables, adding a Picturesque aspect to the house, and an update to the front entranceway and the accompanying hall, although it is uncertain from the house today exactly what changes were made. The porch roof may have been changed to its flat hipped style, more consistent with tastes of the time.[1]

Upon his death in 1910, the house passed to his daughter, Laura, and the woman he married after her mother had died. After her stepmother died in 1924, Laura began to spend more of her time at a house in the nearby village, reflecting the completion of the early aspirations of the Hasbroucks and other Duzine members. She sold half of the remaining land for houses after Route 32 was built through the property in the late 1920s.[1]

Eight years later, in 1932, she married and moved to Ossining, leaving the house to caretakers and returning to it only on weekends. Aware of the historic significance of the house, she became active in early local preservation efforts, and encouraged her caretaker, a Danish stonemason, to do some restoration work. He redid the walls (particularly the joints, removing any trace of earlier efforts) and the chimneys and fireplaces. Laura also had him build a new staircase inside, and remove the plaster ceilings to restore a more authentic original appearance to the house.[1]

In 1944, she sold the rest of the property save the two acres (8,000 m²) around the house. The north end was remodeled into a caretaker's residence, although it had to be rebuilt to its original appearance after a fire destroyed it. Laura Hasbrouck died childless in 1964 and willed it to Richard Relyea Hasbrouck, a descendant of Maurice Hasbrouck's brother Huram, specifically to keep it in the family, since he had two sons already.[1] He only found out when the estate's lawyer called and said he had to start paying taxes on the property.[3]

The newest Hasbrouck, like earlier residents, renovated the house to suit the needs of his family and his time. An interior frame wall was added to conserve heat in the old house, and a new kitchen was built. Thirty years after moving in, in 1994 one of the partitions in the outlet was removed to create a larger bedroom. He bought the 3 acres (12,000 m²) with the old farm buildings on it, bringing the property to its current size.[1]