Neher-Elseffer House
Encyclopedia
The Neher-Elseffer House is located on US 9 a short distance north of its intersection with NY 9G
New York State Route 9G
New York State Route 9G is a state highway in the Hudson Valley of New York in the United States. It runs north from U.S. Route 9 at Poughkeepsie, starting out as Violet Avenue, then follows the Hudson River mostly along the eastern side of the US 9 to Rhinebeck, where the two...

 in Rhinebeck
Rhinebeck (town), New York
Rhinebeck is a town in Dutchess County, New York, United States. The population was 7,548 at the 2010 census.The Town of Rhinebeck in the northwest part of Dutchess County in the Hudson Valley. Rhinebeck is also the name of a village in the town. US Route 9 passes through the town...

, 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...

 house built in 1746, one of the rare pre-Revolutionary
American Revolution
The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...

 frame houses in the Rhinebeck area. Its current appearance reflects renovations made circa 1800, and the interior was altered in the 1830s.

It is currently owned by the town and used for storage. In 2000 it was damaged in a fire, leading to some additional renovations and repairs. In 2003 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...

.

Building

The house is on a 2.5 acres (1 ha) wooded lot
Lot (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...

 on the east side of Route 9, the remainder of the much larger original farm. It is a one-and-a-half-story, five-bay
Bay (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:...

 clapboard
Clapboard (architecture)
Clapboard, also known as bevel siding or lap siding or weather-board , is a board used typically for exterior horizontal siding that has one edge thicker than the other and where the board above laps over the one below...

-sided
Siding
Siding is the outer covering or cladding of a house meant to shed water and protect from the effects of weather. On a building that uses siding, it may act as a key element in the aesthetic beauty of the structure and directly influence its property value....

 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...

 house on a stone foundation
Foundation (architecture)
A foundation is the lowest and supporting layer of a structure. Foundations are generally divided into two categories: shallow foundations and deep foundations.-Shallow foundations:...

. The main block is 40 feet 6 inches (12.3 m) long by 35 feet 6 inches (10.8 m) wide. A 12-foot-square (4 m) one-story flat-roofed wing projects from the south.

Its 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 saltbox-profile roof is surfaced in seamed metal with a shallow 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...

 at the front. Siding on the front is modern plywood
Plywood
Plywood is a type of manufactured timber made from thin sheets of wood veneer. It is one of the most widely used wood products. It is flexible, inexpensive, workable, re-usable, and can usually be locally manufactured...

, installed after the original 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"....

 was destroyed in a fire. The main entrance is located in the center. It leads to a central interior hall with large rooms on either side and a matching exit in the rear. A staircase to the second story is also in the rear.

The interior rooms are currently vacant, used for storage. An original mantelpiece and fireplace were located in the north end, but these have been removed and boarded up due to the damage caused by the fire. The second story has also been severely damaged. The basement retains the most original character of any room in the house.

There is one outbuilding on the property, a three-bay gabled barn to the east. It is considered to be a contributing resource
Contributing 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 Register listing since it is built around the remnant of an original Dutch barn
Dutch barn
Dutch barn is the name given to markedly different types of barns in the United States and Canada, and in the United Kingdom. In the United States, Dutch barns represent the oldest and rarest types of barns. There are relatively few—probably less than 600—of these barns still intact...

. Among those remnants is the center pole, which an inscription dates to 1770. There are also the remnants of another barn and well to the rear.

History

The first owner associated with the house was Franz Neher, one of the original Palatine German settlers of the area. He had come to New York from Birkenfeld
Birkenfeld
Birkenfeld is a town and the district seat of the Birkenfeld district in southwest Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is also the seat of the like-named Verbandsgemeinde.-Location:...

 with his father, Karel, as a boy in the 1710s. Karel's name appears on tax records in the area until his death in 1733. Franz is listed as the resident of the house on a contemporary map published by a local church. He served as a captain during the French and Indian War
French and Indian War
The French and Indian War is the common American name for the war between Great Britain and France in North America from 1754 to 1763. In 1756, the war erupted into the world-wide conflict known as the Seven Years' War and thus came to be regarded as the North American theater of that war...

 and later appears to have taken up shoemaking as a trade.

In 1762 the records of local landowner Robert Livingston show that a Ludowick Elseffer became the lessee
Lease
A lease is a contractual arrangement calling for the lessee to pay the lessor for use of an asset. A rental agreement is a lease in which the asset is tangible property...

 of the property, then 48.5 acres (19.6 ha) in size. His descendants would own the property until its last resident, Karen Losee. They modified the exterior around 1800, and renovated the interior in the 1830s, moving the staircase further back and plastering the ceilings, which previously exposed rafter
Rafter
A rafter is one of a series of sloped structural members , that extend from the ridge or hip to the downslope perimeter or eave, designed to support the roof deck and its associated loads.-Design:...

s. In 1872 the south wing was added, the last significant change to the house.

After it became vacant, it was damaged by a fire in 2000. The front facade had to be resided, and the north chimney and its fireplace and mantel were removed and boarded up. These actions further compromised the heavily damaged second story.

The property was later donated to the local Quitman Resource Center, which plans to restore
Building restoration
Building restoration describes a particular treatment approach and philosophy within the field of architectural conservation. According the U.S...

 the house and use it as a museum. In 2002 it received a grant
Grant (money)
Grants are funds disbursed by one party , often a Government Department, Corporation, Foundation or Trust, to a recipient, often a nonprofit entity, educational institution, business or an individual. In order to receive a grant, some form of "Grant Writing" often referred to as either a proposal...

 from the Preservation League of New York State to do a historic structure report on the house. Two years later, in 2004, it received a $25,000 matching
Matching funds
Matching funds, a term used to describe the requirement or condition that a generally minimal amount of money or services-in-kind originate from the beneficiaries of financial amounts, usually for a purpose of charitable or public good.-Charitable causes:...

 grant from the state to restore the rear wall and do archaeological
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...

research.

External links

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