Van Cortlandt Manor

Philip Van Cortlandt began building the stone-and-brick manor house around 1732, and his son Pierre transformed it into a self-sufficient 4,000-acre working estate by 1749. The property included its own orchard, dairy, blacksmith shop, and tavern. The house holds its original furnishings: Georgian and Federal-era pieces, a reconstructed tavern that once served travelers on the Albany Post Road, and a tenant house where interpreters ran cooking and textile demonstrations. Walking through these rooms, we encounter the enslaved and free Black Hudson Valley residents who worked the land alongside the Van Cortlandts during the nation's early years.