Van Cortlandt House Museum Dining Room
All Work | Van Cortlandt House Museum Dining Room, Van Cortlandt Park, Bronx, New York
Van Cortlandt House Museum Dining Room
Van Cortlandt Park, Bronx, New York
Scope
Built by Frederick Van Cortlandt between 1699 and 1749, the Van Cortlandt House is the oldest building in the Bronx, and NYC’s first historic house museum. The discovery of eighteenth-century paneling concealed within one wall of the dining room during an earlier chimney stabilization project launched the National Society of Colonial Dames in the State of New York into years of significant research regarding the original configuration of the dining room at the time this wing was added to the house in 1752.
JHPA, Inc. worked closely with the NSCD in NY to document existing historic paneling throughout the house, as well as historic documentation performed during the early 20th century. Details for long removed elements were replicated based upon historic evidence elsewhere in the house. The team performed careful documentation of subsequent alterations performed in 1848 and 1896 that were removed as part of resetting the dining room to be representative of Augustus Van Cortlandt’s ownership of the house from 1781-1823. The original 1752 paneling was fully restored while the paneling at the remaining section of the north wall was accurately replicated based on historic details. The wallpaper is a replication of an early Jacquemart et Benard pattern which was found concealed beneath the plaster.