Built circa 1652, the original portion of the Wyckoff House is the oldest structure in New York State. It typifies the vernacular farmhouse architecture of the Dutch-American areas of Brooklyn and Queens, and its history reflects the diversity of Brooklyn's colonial farms, where Dutch-American landowners, enslaved and freed Africans, and later European immigrants labored on some of the country's most fertile land. Generations of Wyckoffs enlarged and altered the house and continued to farm the land until 1901. Wyckoff descendants established the Wyckoff House & Association in 1937, repurchased the house from its last private owner in 1961, and donated it to the City of New York in 1969. After extensive restoration, it opened to the public in 1982.
