Van Cortlandt House Museum

Van Cortlandt House Museum Van Cortlandt House Museum - where history lives in The Bronx!

Since 1896, Van Cortlandt House Museum has been under the stewardship of The National Society of Colonial Dames in the State of New York through a license agreement with the City of New York. The Society is responsible for preserving and restoring the interiors, providing and caring for the collections, offering educational opportunities to school children throughout New York City, and assuring that the doors to Van Cortlandt House are open to visitors 5 days a week all year round.

01/04/2025

Van Cortlandt Connections to the Caribbean and Latin America: a special tour with VCHM Site Historian Nick Dembowski.

Join us on Saturday, January 25th at 1 PM to learn about an often overlooked aspect of New York's history that was crucial to its development.

🔶Admission is $5/ person. Registration is required as space is limited.

🔷Link to register is below in the comments.

Public domain images courtesy of NYPL Digital Collections and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

✨ Ring in the New Year with a punch that’s as grand as your celebrations! 🥂 This 18th century recipe is a festive deligh...
12/31/2024

✨ Ring in the New Year with a punch that’s as grand as your celebrations! 🥂 This 18th century recipe is a festive delight, perfect for gatherings big and small:

🍋 Punch Recipe:

- Pour 3 pints of boiling water over 1 ¼ lbs of loaf sugar.
- Add 1 pint lemon juice, juice of 6 oranges, 3 pints rum, and 1 pint brandy.
- Chill with a block of ice in a large punch bowl and finish with a quart of champagne.

“And welcomed him with old-time hospitality and a Bowl of fine Punch big enough to have swimm’d half a dozen young geese.” 🦢

​Delight your guests with this whimsical creation and toast to the year ahead. Here’s to 2025!🎉

#2025

✨ Thank You, , for an Incredible 6 Months! ✨For the past six months, we’ve had the privilege of partnering with to host...
12/27/2024

✨ Thank You, , for an Incredible 6 Months! ✨

For the past six months, we’ve had the privilege of partnering with to host their bilingual parent workshops. These sessions have empowered families with the tools and confidence to support their children’s literacy journeys while fostering a love for reading.

We are so grateful for the dedication and expertise that LINC NYC brought to our space. Thank you for inspiring families and making a lasting impact on our community.

Here’s to the power of literacy and the difference it makes! 🌟

✨Wishing you all the best for a happy holiday season! We are looking forward to what 2025 has in store at VCHM, and can'...
12/24/2024

✨Wishing you all the best for a happy holiday season! We are looking forward to what 2025 has in store at VCHM, and can't wait to see you in the new year!

✨Please note VCHM's holiday hours:
Tues 12/24: remote office hours
Weds 12/25: museum closed
Tues 12/31: remote office hours
Weds 1/1 : museum closed

❄️What a lovely snow on the winter solstice! ❄🕯Tonight is the final evening of Van Cortlandt by Candlelight - a perfect ...
12/21/2024

❄️What a lovely snow on the winter solstice! ❄

🕯Tonight is the final evening of Van Cortlandt by Candlelight - a perfect time to enjoy some warm wassail, make a craft, play a historic game, and learn about winter holidays past and present.

📸 While you're here, be sure to get in a photo op by our Delft tile tree!

Why the photo of a hospital parking lot? 🤔Few people realize that a number of Black-owned farms existed in the Bronx eve...
12/19/2024

Why the photo of a hospital parking lot? 🤔

Few people realize that a number of Black-owned farms existed in the Bronx even before the abolition of slavery in 1827. Dennis Heady was a mixed race man who owned an exceptionally large parcel at what is now the intersection of Eastchester Avenue and Pelham Parkway. Heady was a true pioneer, owning land as early as 1780, a time when virtually all Black people in the Bronx were still in bo***ge. The child of his former enslaver and an enslaved woman named Rose, Dennis and his family steadily developed and enlarged his land to the point that it was worth roughly ten times what he had paid initially.

This hospital parking lot is actually so much more: the site of Dennis Heady's farm.

Join us on Thursday, January 9th at 6 PM (at the museum or virtually) for historian Keith Doherty's talk on Black-owned Farms in the Bronx in the Early 1800s. A number of these previously undocumented properties will be discussed.

Admission is free. Links to register for both in-person and virtual talks are below in the comments.

Join us for our second night of ✨Van Cortlandt by Candlelight✨ this Saturday 12/21 from 4pm-7pm. Explore our historic ho...
12/18/2024

Join us for our second night of ✨Van Cortlandt by Candlelight✨ this Saturday 12/21 from 4pm-7pm.

Explore our historic house decorated for a variety of winter holidays. Learn how to play Nine Men's Morris, create pop-up cards of the house and enjoy some homemade Wassail!

Wassail is a traditional warm, spiced drink, usually made with apples and spices. You may know the holiday song, “Here We Come A-wassailing,” but did you know that it harkens back to the British winter holiday tradition of going from house to house, singing and merry-making while imbibing this warming drink?

Interested in making Wassail at home? Here is what you'll need:

- 2 apples
- 8 cups apple cider
- 2 cups orange juice
- 1/3 cup lemon juice
- 4 cinnamon sticks
- 15 whole whole cloves ,or ½ tsp ground cloves
- 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 Tablespoon light brown sugar , optional

Instructions

- Poke the whole cloves into the apples on all sides.
- Add all of the ingredients, including the apples, to a large pot over medium low heat.
- Bring to a simmer.
- Add in alcohol (brandy, rum or mead) if desired.
- Simmer for 30-45 minutes.
- Remove the apples and whole cloves.
- Enjoy!

12/11/2024

🕯✨Please note that the museum will be closed for regular public hours on Saturday, December 14th, but we hope that you will join us in the evening for the return of Van Cortlandt by Candlelight from 4 PM - 7 PM! 🕯✨

➡️Registration is required to attend this event - link to register is below in the comments!

VIRTUAL REGISTRATION for Dr. Steven Payne of the Bronx County Historical Society's talk on the Allerton Coops is now ope...
12/11/2024

VIRTUAL REGISTRATION for Dr. Steven Payne of the Bronx County Historical Society's talk on the Allerton Coops is now open! The talk will be both in-person at VCHM as well as streaming online this Thursday, December 12th at 6 PM. Admission is free, but registration is required to attend the event virtually.

Register for the online event here:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1110706285399?aff=oddtdtcreator

✨Collection Showstopper!✨Cream-colored earthenware Soup Tureen and Cover, Staffordshire, ca. 1765On view for the first t...
12/10/2024

✨Collection Showstopper!✨

Cream-colored earthenware Soup Tureen and Cover, Staffordshire, ca. 1765

On view for the first time in many years, this magnificent Staffordshire tureen is a rare survivor and in a remarkable state of preservation. Ceramics of this type were often termed Whieldon-ware for Thomas Whieldon (1719-1793), who was in partnership with Josiah Wedgewood from 1754-1759. The tureen sports wonderful basketweave and diaper moldings, and a tortoiseshell glaze of metallic oxides in green, brown and muted gray. It has twisty vining leaves for handles and stands on three lion masks and paw feet.

🔹 Wear History, Share History! 🔹Take a piece of New York City's rich past with you! Our Van Cortlandt House Museum pins ...
12/07/2024

🔹 Wear History, Share History! 🔹

Take a piece of New York City's rich past with you! Our Van Cortlandt House Museum pins and magnets are now available – a perfect way to show off your love for this Bronx landmark. 🏛️✨

Whether it’s on your jacket, backpack, or fridge, let history travel with you.

👉 Get yours today! The museum is open Weds - Sun from 11 AM - 4 PM and admission is always free for Bronx residents!

📣Today we want to give a shout-out to the Historic House Trust of New York City's Property Conservation Coordinator, Lex...
12/06/2024

📣Today we want to give a shout-out to the Historic House Trust of New York City's Property Conservation Coordinator, Lexi Echelman! Here he is delivering some safety and preparedness supplies to the museum.

Lexi and the Historic House Trust team are always on top of VCHM's maintenance, conservation, and safety needs, and we are so grateful for their work on our behalf and for their tireless advocacy for historic preservation in New York City.

🕯❄️️We are pleased to announce the return of Van Cortlandt by Candlelight on Saturday, December 14th and Saturday, Decem...
11/30/2024

🕯❄️️We are pleased to announce the return of Van Cortlandt by Candlelight on Saturday, December 14th and Saturday, December 21st! 🕯❄️️

Join us for self-guided tours of the museum by candlelight and decorated for the season with games, crafts, seasonally-inspired period refreshments, and insight into how the winter holidays were celebrated during the 18th and 19th centuries in New York.

Admission is $5/ adults, $3/seniors & students, and children under 12 are free. Advance ticketing is required to attend this event.

Get your tickets now at:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/van-cortlandt-by-candlelight-tickets-1091375957869?aff=oddtdtcreator

The museum will be closed on Thursday, November 28th. We will reopen on Friday, November 29th from 11 AM - 4 PM and look...
11/27/2024

The museum will be closed on Thursday, November 28th.

We will reopen on Friday, November 29th from 11 AM - 4 PM and look forward to seeing you this weekend!

Give your Thanksgiving table a historic twist with a recipe straight from the past!This Currant Sauce for Chicken or Tur...
11/23/2024

Give your Thanksgiving table a historic twist with a recipe straight from the past!

This Currant Sauce for Chicken or Turkey comes from our booklet Eighteen Colonial Recipes and Others. Sweet, tangy, and simple to make, this sauce is an excellent way to bring a touch of colonial heritage to your holiday table.

Perfectly paired with turkey, it’s a reminder that simple ingredients can be used to create something truly delicious.

​Would you try this on your Thanksgiving menu?

Join us at VCHM for this talk by Dr. Steven Payne, Director of The Bronx County Historical Society, on Thursday, Decembe...
11/21/2024

Join us at VCHM for this talk by Dr. Steven Payne, Director of The Bronx County Historical Society, on Thursday, December 12th at 6 PM!

Dr. Payne discusses some little-known aspects of the history of the United Workers Cooperative Colony—better known as the Allerton Coops—in The Bronx. Along with Amalgamated Houses, Sholem Aleichem Houses, and the Farband Houses, the Allerton Coops are one of four co-operative housing complexes built in The Bronx in the late 1920s by working-class Eastern European Jews. The Coops was an outlier at the time for being one of the first in*******al housing complexes in The Bronx, with evidence of African-American residents as early as 1930, almost four decades before this was the case in many other housing developments in The Bronx. (Parkchester, for instance, was almost entirely white in its tenancy until 1968, when New York State intervened.) Dr. Payne's talk will analyze the reasons for this unique yet complex history at the Allerton Coops while recovering the lives of some of the earliest African-American and multiracial residents during the 1930s–1960s, drawing on oral histories, documents, photographs, and other items from the collections of the Historical Society.

Admission is free, but registration is suggested. Register here:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-allerton-coops-an-in*******al-utopia-tickets-1069315253709?aff=oddtdtcreator

This program will also be available to attend virtually - info to register for virtual component to follow.

After New Amsterdam became New York in 1664 (and again in 1674), Dutch settlers were forced to adopt or integrate the E...
11/19/2024

After New Amsterdam became New York in 1664 (and again in 1674), Dutch settlers were forced to adopt or integrate the English language as well as English law, styles of manners, architecture, fashion, furnishings, and decorative arts into their daily lives. Still, expressions of Dutch identity could be seen in early eighteenth-century New York homes, like this kas in the VCHM collection.

A kas (or kast) is a large cupboard, often highly ornamented, that could be found among the possessions of well-to-do seventeenth-century householders in the Netherlands. Used to store precious textiles and other valuables in the age before closets were common features of domestic spaces, a fine kas such as this might have been given as a wedding gift to a young couple and passed along through generations.

VCHM's kas was made of pine and tulipwood circa 1700. It is in three parts: the bold overhanging cornice above paneled doors opening to 3 shelves with a long drawer disguised as 2 short drawers below on large turned bun feet. It is painted with grisaille motifs of festooned fruit (grisaille literally means "grayness" in French). It is believed to have been made right here in the Hudson Valley, and is a stunning example of defiant Dutch material culture production in British New York.

Picture it: Kingsbridge, 1844.This painting of Van Cortlandt house by artist George Harvey (1800-1878) is a staff favori...
11/16/2024

Picture it: Kingsbridge, 1844.

This painting of Van Cortlandt house by artist George Harvey (1800-1878) is a staff favorite collection item. It gives us a winter view of what is now Van Cortlandt Park during the mid-nineteenth century. Van Cortlandt descendants were still residing in the house in 1844.

Born in England, Harvey was a prolific landscape and botanical artist. He lived for a time in nearby Hastings-on-Hudson, and helped to design his friend Washington Irving's cottage, Sunnyside, in Tarrytown.

Address

6036 Broadway
New York, NY
10471

Opening Hours

Wednesday 11am - 4pm
Thursday 11am - 4pm
Friday 11am - 4pm
Saturday 11am - 4pm
Sunday 11am - 4pm

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Videos

Van Cortlandt Connections to the Caribbean and Latin America: a special tour with VCHM Site Historian Nick Dembowski. Join us on Saturday, January 25th at 1 PM to learn about an often overlooked aspect of New York's history that was crucial to its development. 🔶Admission is $5/ person. Registration is required as space is limited. 🔷Link to register is below in the comments. Public domain images courtesy of NYPL Digital Collections and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

🕯✨Please note that the museum will be closed for regular public hours on Saturday, December 14th, but we hope that you will join us in the evening for the return of Van Cortlandt by Candlelight from 4 PM - 7 PM! 🕯✨ ➡️Registration is required to attend this event - link to register is below in the comments!

Impromptu fife & drum jam session at the museum this afternoon! 🪈🥁 VCHM Site Historian Nick Dembowski is on the drum with Areg Varzhapetyan, a Revolutionary War reenactor and Manhattan College student, on the fife playing "The British Grenadiers" march. History lives in unexpected and delightful ways! #revolutionarywar #revwar #revolutionarywarhistory #kingsbridge #fifeanddrum #fifeanddrumcorps #revwarreenactors #bronxhistory #livinghistory

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