The Wyckoff House Museum

Alternative name: Pieter Claesen Wyckoff House
Constructed: c. 1652
Builder: Pieter Claesen
Historic town: Flatlands
Modern neighborhood: East Flatbush
Modern address: 5816 Clarendon Road (intersection of Ditmas Avenue and Ralph Avenue)

When the English took control of New Amsterdam, they forced Dutch residents to adopt hereditary surnames. Claesen chose “Wykhof” in recognition of an ancestral farm in the Old World. Most of his descendants spell it Wyckoff, but regardless of the spelling variations, the surname is unique – the vast majority of American and Canadian Wyckoffs can trace their lineage to one of Pieter and Grietje’s eleven children.
Original farmhouse was a simple one room structure with a packed earth floor and unglazed windows, with doors at both ends and a large jambless (or open) hearth.
Over the centuries, the house has been reconfigured, expanded, and modernized to eventually encompass six rooms with three fireplaces, a walk-up attic above, and root cellar below.
The Wyckoff family occupied the site for eight successive generations, until 1901 when the land and house were sold to developers. But the house was left standing, and after more than a half century of disrepair and a devastating fire, the house was restored in 1982 and opened to the public as a museum.

For more information, see wyckoffmuseum.org.

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