Senate House State Historical Site

Accord, New York High 79 Low 64

Today was rainy all day. It is still warm.

We went to the old stone and brick house where the first New York State Senate met in the home of Abraham Van Gaasbeek in 1777. The tour guide was a young lady dressed in period costume. Cindy asked her about the pouch she was wearing around her waist. She told us that the women of that time wore the pouch instead of carrying a purse.

The house was empty when it was acquired by the State and has been decorated since with furnishings common to 1777. She told us that shortly after the Senate met the town of Kingston was burned by British General John Vaughn on October 16, 1777. Our guide told us the town had about 2 days’ notice to evacuate before the town was burned. She also told us that about 500 homes were burned. She told us that Kingston was officially the Capitol of New York State for only about 6 months, but that it was several years before Albany became the Capitol.

They made their own candles.

This large Burl Bowl would have been rare and she said it was very valuable. 

Some examples of Delft vases for the Netherlands.

This bag would have been used like a purse is today.

We noticed the house was built of stone and brick. The original house was built of stone and a later addition was brick. She said that the brick would have been used a ballast on a ship coming here from Europe, and the brick would then have been used to construct homes when the ship was loaded with goods from the New World.

The fireplaces had bird designs on the side tiles that would have come from Holland. We saw a lot of tools common to the time period, such as a Dutch rotating butter churn as opposed to the up and down churn used by the British.

Some of the doors had some round protruding glass in them that the guide called bull’s-eye glass. It was more to let some natural light in rather than to be able to see through. There were different shade of glass.

We thought the old eyeglasses were interesting. The guide told us they were colored from all the years since they were made.

We were allowed to take photos, just not flash photography.

We also saw a lot of old buildings in the area. The town by the RV Park was settled in 1703. That makes it over 300 years old.

Thanks for visiting.