This post is about the Hardenbergh House itself. Future posts will deal with the Great Patent, Hardenbergh Patent, Hardenbergh family and life at the “Manor,” and–finally and most fun–The Haunting!
The House is known by several names: The Hardenbergh House, The Isaac Hardenbergh House, or The Hardenbergh Manor. Each one of these names tells us a little bit of the history of the building. Hardenbergh House is the simplest: it was owned by one or more Hardenberghs. We’ll tackle the family in my next post.
Isaac Hardenbergh House tells us that the house was built by or for Colonel Johannes Hardenbergh’s son, Isaac Hardenbergh. Finally, Hardenbergh Manor tells us that the location is more than just a house but was a manor or the principal house of a landed estate.
So, there was a lot going on in and around this house that I suspect made it an important and central part of a budding and ever-growing community that would one day be as we know it today: Prattsville, Grand Gorge, Roxbury, Gilboa and Conesville.
The House was built somewhere around 1790 and is a two-story dwelling where a combination of Dutch/German and English building techniques were used. The east façade has a center entrance reminiscent of the Georgian style.
The House’s interior floor plan includes a central chimney, small entrance vestibule and boxes stairs instead of a central hall. Floor joists are exposed which is common in Dutch/German houses in eastern New York. The House is said to have many secret rooms and passageways, which may be the source of the claim that it was once a stop on the Underground Railroad. I can’t say for sure because, sadly (for me) I’ve never been in the house.
More about the Hardenbergh Family in the next post.
Carolyn Bennett
Prattsville Historian
Photo credit of Hardenbergh Fallls today: By Wildhart – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=26885155
Other photos include an interior shot of Hardenbergh House about 30 years ago; Hardenbergh Falls with mills at top of photo; and a brochure about Hardenbergh House after it had been turned into an Inn by Agnes Hardenbergh (daughter).
Zadock Pratt Museum 