The Voorlezer’s House
All Work | Historic Richmond Town, Staten Island, New York
The Voorlezer’s House
Staten Island, New York
Scope
The Voorlezer’s House, had long been perceived as one of the oldest structures at the Richmond Town site. Now functioning as an historic house museum, the house has been used for decades to interpret 17th century life on Staten Island
An Historic Structure Report completed by JHPA, Inc. represented the culmination of an extensive assessment of the existing building and landscape features as well as the compiling and formatting of over 200+ years of documentation of the house. The report compiled the history based on the information confirmed in the dendrochronology study, a detailed discussion of the chronology of building construction and alterations, a detailed description of the building, assessment of existing conditions, recommendations for stabilizing extant building conditions, an assessment of the current landscape features and recommendations for landscape improvements to improve the safety and experience of the visitor.
The process of undertaking a document of this nature can sometimes offer a unique opportunity to revisit established history and folklore. Good or bad, this exercise is an excellent example of this. The dendrochronology investigation performed on the timber framing of the house confirmed that the structure is considerably newer than previously believed and in one moment the history of the Voorlezer’s House was re-written. The new understanding brings opportunities for an expanded interpretation that explains the process of architectural investigation and highlights the story of the house’s other inhabitants. The new programming has been extremely successful for the museum.