User:Etccerc/Van Pelt Manor House

The Van Pelt Manor House was the ancestral home of the Van Pelt Family of New York, an early Dutch settler family who were prominent landowners of New Utrecht, Brooklyn. The house was built in 1686 by Aert Teunisson Van Pelt, a Village Trustee and Magistrate of New Utrecht. Eight generations of the family lived in the Manor House until Townsend Cortelyou Van Pelt, the last 'lord of the manor', donated the house and adjoining property to the City of New York for one dollar. The familly's estates and surrounding area became known as Van Pelt Manor.

The Manor House caught fire in the early 1950s, and was demolished by the City in 1952. The grounds remain as a small park- Milestone park, administered by Parks and Recreation.

Later descendants of Teunis Van Pelt made generous donations to the University of Pennsylvania, commemorated in the naming of one hall of residence as "Van Pelt Manor".

The Van Pelts of Van Pelt Manor were part of a group of interrelated families :

The fulll extent of concentration of wealth in the old-line Dutch families is obscured by the intense intermarriage, “a kind of extended clan” reminiscent of the “Hapsburg martial connections.” This rule of endogamy included the following Dutch patrician pairings: