1849-50 A House Transformed

Architect Richard Upjohn’s renovations to Lindenwald in 1849-50 greatly changed the main house, which Judge Peter Van Ness had originally built in 1797. The red brick was painted yellow and brown, a four-and-a-half story Italianate tower was added to the rectangular Georgian structure to break up the earlier style’s symmetry, and a Gothic Revival front porch with elegant Victorian tracery was added. When the work was complete, the house was far more fashionable and had many more rooms. The added space was welcomed because the house was often filled with the President’s family and guests as well as household servants and farm hands. Van Buren had four sons, three daughters-in-law, and 11 grandchildren ranging in age from infancy to their 20’s. Two maids, a cook, and a laundress, usually Irish immigrants, were employed and lived in the house. Friends, politicians, business associates, and farm hands came and went and sometimes stayed the night.

Kinderhook, New York · United States