46. Ariaantje & Samuel Coeymans Stone House
28-31 Stone House Hill Road

ca.1700, 1720, ca.1761
 

A monumental five-by-two bay, four-story, center hall Dutch Colonial era house with later Georgian renovations. Built  in 1700 (based on dendrochronology), the building is one of the largest and earliest surviving Dutch Colonial homes in the upper Hudson Valley. The house is sited on a rise of land overlooking a broad lawn leading to the Hudson River at its confluence with the Coeymans Creek. The structure is three stories on its upland (west) elevation and four stories on its primary (east) elevation. The manor home is covered by a steeply pitched, wood shingle clad gambrel roof, which replaced the building original two-story tall, steeply pitched Dutch gable roof. Portions of the original Flemish brick
gables remain intact. The roof change occurred at the same time that the original Colonial-era timber frame windows were replaced with the present Georgian twelve-over-twelve light, double-hung sash and the five jambless fireplaces were replaced with English style fireplaces. It should be noted that one of these original timber windows on the upper north gable elevation of the house was not altered and remains in site. These changes occurred soon after the Revolutionary War when the property was acquired by Condradt Ten Eyck (Mayor of Albany, New York). A steep flight of steps lead from the ground level on the east elevation up to a Dutch Stoop and central entry. the entry is composed of a broad Dutch style door with top light. A rear entry composed of another Dutch door is situated at the grade level on the west elevation of the home. The North House, ca.1720, ca.1761. A two-by-three bay Dutch style dwelling built in 1720 (based on dendrochronology) and referenced in several documents of the Coeymans family. The structure had been significantly altered during the ca.1785 renovations of the home with the removal of one of its western bent and its steep Dutch gable roof. The structure retrained significant amount of original framing and finishes, including waddle and daub wall construction, original wide
plank flooring, eastern elevation Dutch entry door, timber window frames, and original Flemish bricks. Based on existing forensic data the house was carefully reconstructed using traditional construction materials and techniques adding lost fabric and retaining all original surviving materials. The completed work represents a remarkable example of private historic preservation work within New York State.

Dutch Barn, ca.1750 (Schoharie Valley), 2005 reconstructed
This large eighteenth century traditional Dutch Barn was relocated after it had been dismantled in its original location in the Schoharie Valley region of New York. The barn, which is typical of the structures that would have been located at the Coeymans House site, was reconstructed by timber framing craftsmen over several years using tradition timber framing techniques, materials and tools.
 

Stone Well, ca 1750
A dry-laid stone well is situated just east of the main house on the property.

Coeymans Mill Sites, ca.1670, ca.1850
The location on the north side of the Coeymans Creek adjacent to the house property was the site of series of mills operated first by the Coeymans family and through the late nineteenth century by a series of decedents. Some foundations ruins survive, as do cuts in the rock faces of the upper Coeymans Creek Falls that mark the location of nearly 300 years of sluices and flumes that powered the mills from ca.1670 into the early twentieth century.

 

The Hamlet of Coeymans, situated along the western bank of the Hudson River in Albany County, New York, preserves one of the most remarkable concentrations of historic architecture in the Capital Region. Its buildings span nearly three centuries of American design, from the heavy stone walls of early Dutch colonial construction to the ornate wooden porches of the late Victorian era. Together they form a living record of the families, craftsmen, and institutions that shaped this community from the seventeenth century through the early twentieth.

The oldest surviving structures in the hamlet trace their origins to the family of Barent Pieterse Coeymans, the original patent holder, and speak directly to the Dutch traditions that defined early settlement along the Hudson.

The most significant of these is the Ariaantje Coeymans Stone House, built around 1716 by Ariaantje Coeymans, daughter of Barent Pieterse Coeymans. A monumental dwelling by any measure, the house originally rose with crow-stepped gables and a central dormer in the distinctly Dutch manner. In the late eighteenth century it was renovated to its present English Gambrel form, softening its Dutch profile while preserving the substance of its construction. Listed on both the New York State and National Registers of Historic Places in 1973, it remains one of the most significant Dutch houses surviving in New York State.

 Ariaantje Coeymans (1672-1743) was a prominent Dutch colonial landowner in the Hudson Valley  and heir to the influential Coeymans family estates along the Hudson River. The daughter of Barent Peter  Coeymans, she inherited extensive property holdings that included mills, farmland, and riverfront lands in  present-day Coeymans, New York. Between 1716 and 1723, she oversaw the construction of the stone mansion  now known as the Ariaantje Coeymans House, a symbol of the family's prosperity and status in colonial New York.  In 1723, at age 51, she married David Verplanck, further connecting two prominent Dutch-descended families. Remembered as a capable landowner and  usinesswoman, Ariaantje helped preserve and expand the Coeymans family legacy during a period of rapid growth in the Hudson Valley.

David Verplanck (born April 14, 1695) married Ariaantje Barentse Coeymans on July 16, 1723, in  Albany, New York Colony.

Marriage Details: The marriage took place in Albany, New York. Ariaantje was the daughter of Barent Peter Coeymans.

Context: Ariaantje was considerably older than David, with some accounts suggesting the marriage, which occurred when  she was in her 50s, was unhappy.

Background: David was a member of the prominent Verplanck family and often associated with the Coeymans family landholdings in Albany County.

Outcome: Following this marriage, David Verplanck resided in Coeymans, where he later died on January 11, 1761.

The marriage was a notable union between two prominent Colonial-era families in the Hudson Valley.

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