Hendrick I. Lott House

Johannes Lott constructed a simple farmhouse not later than 1720, which today is the low portion facing 36th Street. His grandson Hendrick I. Lott built the main house around 1800, incorporating the earlier farmhouse as the new kitchen to the main house.
Exterior is a traditional Dutch-American vernacular farmhouse. But the interior exhibits a much grander style, with high ceilings, decorative fireplaces and mantles, and moldings reflecting Hendrick’s profession as a house carpenter in Manhattan.
Bought by the City of New York in 2001 from the heirs of the Lott family, ending 282 years of continual ownership of the property by a single family, the longest stretch within the City.
The final Lott family owner was Miss Ella Suydam, who died at the homestead in 1989.
Hendrick inherited several slaves… he freed all but one before New York’s emancipation law in 1827. Several of the former enslaved persons remained on the farm as paid labor.
Long-lost slave quarters were found hidden behind a trapdoor in the garret in 2001 after the city acquired the property. Beneath the floorboards of one of the rooms, archaeologists found corncobs, a cloth pouch tied with hemp, an animal’s pelvic bone and an oyster shell. The artifacts suggest the slaves practiced African religious rituals under the eaves.

For more information, see lotthouse.org.

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