Jacob Wynkoop: Building a Free Black Neighborhood Preview

Jacob Wynkoop

Welcome to Historic Huguenot Street’s walking tour of houses built by African American house carpenter Jacob Wynkoop, with an introduction to some of the families who made the neighborhood their home. I’m Chaundre Hall-Broomfield, a Newburgh, NY native and performer. I played dual roles as Hercules Mulligan and James Madison in the national tour of “Hamilton” with the Angelica company.

Jacob Wynkoop was born in New Paltz in 1829, the son of Thomas and Jane Deyo Wynkoop, both enslaved in the town as young people. Slavery was practiced in what is now New York State as early as 1626. It was not legally abolished until two centuries later, in 1827. Jacob’s mother and, later, Jacob, were eventually able to buy land and own a home in New Paltz. The fact that they could do this in the 19th century was exceptional. Undoubtedly, it was a testament to hard work, careful planning—and, probably, some level of respect from the white community. Few other African Americans were as fortunate. Once the practice of slavery was made illegal in the state, many freed Black community members left the area in pursuit of jobs and a better way of life. In the mid-1700s, the population of enslaved Africans was estimated at 300. By 1855, the number of Black community members was reduced by more than half. Those who remained often worked as servants in the houses of white families or ended up in the County Poorhouse on the outskirts of New Paltz.

Jacob Wynkoop’s life was varied for any man of his time, Black or white. In addition to joining his mother as one of the first African Americans to buy land in New Paltz, Jacob also served in the Union Army during the Civil War, organized politically on behalf of Black citizens in town, and built a series of homes that define the neighborhood you are about to explore. As lead carpenter, Jacob built homes for both Black and white families, but the houses in the Mulberry-Church-Broadhead area tended to be built for African Americans. The Wynkoops made this area their home in 1840. In the decades following, they were joined by the Olivers, Freers, Roses, Hasbroucks, and others. What follows is a bit of their story.

Here’s a map to orient you to the tour. In the latter half of the 19th century, the Village of New Paltz as we know it today was gradually taking shape. The population of the village had doubled from around 250 residents in 1863 to 500 twelve years later. By that time, there was a brick Village Hall, three churches (including the African Methodist Episcopal or A.M.E. Zion Church), the New Paltz Academy, two newspapers, two banks, three hotels, as well as several stores and mechanic shops of various kinds. The Wallkill Valley Railroad opened a few years earlier, and plank sidewalks gave way to flagstones. In 1885, Broadhead Avenue was created and Church Street was extended north to meet it.

The main part of our tour (Broadhead to Mulberry and ending at 127 Huguenot Street) is 0.5 miles. After your stop at 7 Broadhead, you have the option of turning left and continuing on the main tour, or turning right to see an additional house built by Jacob at 43 Church Street. Walking round trip to view this additional house adds another 0.1 miles to the tour.

Please be mindful that the houses you are viewing are privately owned and thus best appreciated from the street. Please be considerate of the residents’ privacy.

Now continue east toward Chestnut Street/State Route 32 and, when safe to do so, head straight across on Broadhead Avenue. As you walk, please be cautious and watch for cars. When sidewalks are not present, walk on the left side of the street, facing traffic.

4 Broadhead Avenue

We begin our tour in front of the Anna Banks House. Anna Margaret Banks was an African American woman born in what is now Gardiner, NY in 1849. She is believed to be a niece of Jacob’s wife Diana, who we will meet later. Anna’s father died when she was very young. At just 10 years of age, she had to work as a servant for an attorney and his family. By 1894, when she was in her mid-forties, Anna was able to hire Jacob Wynkoop to build this house. Anna rented the house for a time, but never lived in it. Later, she lived in Kingston with her brother George and mother Malinda. Both Anna and George worked as servants in wealthy family homes.

The Banks House was donated to Historic Huguenot Street in memory of Howard Hasbrouck Grimm in 1976. The semi-circle attic window was added to visually connect the house to the adjacent building (a former glass factory), known today as Deyo Hall. The adjoined buildings served as the HHS Visitor Center and a gallery from the late 1970s until the late 90s. The Banks House now serves as staff offices.

5 Broadhead Avenue

In December 1863, at age thirty-four, Jacob enlisted to serve in the 20th U.S. Colored Infantry of the Union Army. The regiment saw duty in Louisiana, Texas, Florida, and Tennessee during the American Civil War. Jacob returned home at the end of the war in 1865, but another Black soldier from New Paltz, Richard Oliver, was not so lucky. He died of malaria in 1865 before he could return home to his wife and family.

Richard’s widow was Ann Johnson Oliver. In 1885, she enlisted George DePuy (a white builder) and Jacob to erect the walls of her home. Jacob and George were both members of the Grand Army of the Republic (or G.A.R.), a fraternal organization of Civil War veterans. It was common for builders to work collaboratively on projects, with one usually credited as lead carpenter. In the case of Ann Oliver’s house, George DePuy was credited with the project’s completion. The first known building credited to Jacob (other than homes he built for family members) was the Parsonage for the A.M.E. Zion Church on Pencil Hill. The New Paltz Times reported in January 25, 1884 that work on the Parsonage was progressing steadily and stated that Jacob Wynkoop had “charge of the job.”

Ann Oliver had two children, Marguerite and James. She was known as a kind-hearted woman and a devoted nurse, taking care of elderly people in her home. She died at age seventy-seven in 1904.

The next stop on the tour is the house immediately next door.

7 Broadhead Avenue

In 1886, Jacob oversaw the construction of a house for Ann Oliver’s daughter Marguerite and her husband Augustus Freer. They had a son, William, who would also raise a family in the house until they moved from the area in the 1920s.

Most of the families in the neighborhood attended the A.M.E. Zion Church on Pencil Hill on the other end of the village. Several other Black families lived in that area, a number of them having relocated from the South after the Civil War. Church activities were central to the lives of these Black families. Several of the neighbors, including Marguerite and Augustus, sang or performed recitations as part of a Church event held at the Village Hall in 1887.

The façade of Marguerite’s original house is obscured by the enclosed porches, yet the pointed attic window remains. The pointed window is seen in several of the houses built by Jacob Wynkoop and is a nod to the influence of Gothic elements on American vernacular architecture in the second half of the 19th century.

The house next door at 9 Broadhead was the home of another Black family, the LeFevres: Jacob, his wife Agatha, and their children Edward and Viola. Agatha may have been a relative of Anna Banks, whom we met earlier. Jacob LeFevre worked at the feed mill owned by A.P. LeFevre, a white man, who was also the family’s landlord. Jacob LeFevre’s son, Edward (born in 1892), would also work for the white LeFevre family and lived in the house until his death in 1977.

Head up to the hill to the stop sign, being careful of moving cars. At the stop sign, you may turn left to continue on the main part of the tour, or turn right to view another house built by Jacob Wynkoop in 1886.

43 Church Street

In the summer of 1886, Jacob Wynkoop also had “charge of the carpenter work” for the construction of a dwelling for Charles Freer, a white man. Charles was a cousin of Cyrus Freer, a good friend of the Wynkoop brothers, who lived on Huguenot Street. According to the New Paltz Independent, the house was the fifth one put up on Church Street that season.

The Charles Freer House retains much of its original form. The main portion of the house is a full two stories with an attic. Like the Margaret Freer House, the gable end faces the street, a design appropriate for narrow village lots. The pointed attic window also appears.

Almost directly across the road at 44 Church Street is the former site of the Abraham J. DuBois House, which Jacob built in 1893. Unfortunately, that house was demolished in 2006 and replaced with the house that stands there today.

Turn back north on Church Street to rejoin the main part of the tour. The next stop is 66 Church Street.

66 Church Street

Ulster County land records show that in 1840, Jane Deyo Wynkoop, Jacob’s mother, bought one quarter acre from Maria Hasbrouck for $25. This is the site of that plot of land, although the original house no longer exists. The land purchase is one of the earliest documented purchases of land by an African American—man or woman—in New Paltz. Jane was surely aware that owning land would help open the door for her sons’ eventual right to vote. Based on a New York State law passed in 1821, in order for a Black man to vote he needed to own property valued at $250 or more (this qualification no longer applied to white men). Jacob and his brother John both appear on voter registration lists for New Paltz starting in the 1850s. In 1870, the land qualification was eliminated when the nation ratified the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, intended to guarantee all male citizens of the nation the right to vote, regardless of race.

Almost twenty years after their mother’s death in 1876, Jacob and John started building a rental property on the land their mother had purchased. The New Paltz Independent reported regularly on this project, announcing that the foundation had been laid in November 1894, and providing updates on the progress over the next year. At last, in January 1896, the Independent reported that the new house was completed, remarking on its “fine view of the Wallkill Valley and mountains.” (Although obscured by another house and trees today, one can imagine the view to the west, overlooking Huguenot Street toward Mohonk Mountain). The paper also noted the house was available “to-let,” or rent. Jacob and John, approaching seventy years old, were most likely looking to ensure a stable future income by renting the house, which they eventually did.

Next, continue north on Church Street to the stop sign. When safe to do so, head straight across Henry W. DuBois Road and continue down Church Street to where it intersects with Mulberry Street.

Corner of Church and Mulberry Streets

The small man-made pond on the corner is the location of the house Jacob built for himself and his family in 1852 on a roughly half-acre parcel he had purchased the year before. Jacob, at age 20 in 1850, had married Diana Rose. They had a daughter a few years later. Jacob’s daughter was named Jane (or Jennie) after her grandmother. Jennie married Isom Walker and had three children survive to adulthood. Jennie’s family lived with or near Jacob for the rest of his life.

The house that Jacob built for his family was demolished in the mid-1990s, but there are existing photographs of it from a decade earlier. One image, taken by architectural historian William B. Rhoads, shows that the main portion of the house was one-and-a-half stories, including low windows in a broad horizontal band across the top. The house was a modest version of the vernacular Greek Revival farmhouses common in the area in the 1850s.

Jacob and his brother John were among the first Black men eligible to vote in New Paltz. After passage of the 15th Amendment, the Republican Party (“The Party of Lincoln”) was eager to enlist new Black voters and apparently did so successfully in New Paltz. Jacob Wynkoop was at the forefront of Black political engagement in New Paltz in the 1870s. He and another Black man, Charles Moody, started a “colored Republican club.” Members hosted political meetings in their homes and marched in parades.

Before we move on to Jacob’s brother’s house two lots down, we want to tell you about some of the friends and family that joined the Wynkoops here on Mulberry Street.

Based on various sources, we know that Mulberry Street, in particular, served as home to other Black community members.

As early as 1880, it seems that John Wynkoop took in a boarder, Phebe Ann Elmendorf, who worked as a cook. She died just a few months later in January 1881, age forty-eight, suggesting she may have been in poor health when John took her in. Phebe was the widow of James Elmendorf from Modena, with whom she had two children, Alfred and Margaret. As the Wynkoop brothers grew in age, they seem to have shared their homes with a number of sick or elderly individuals.

Judy Jackson lived her last years on Mulberry Street and a photo of her appears to have been taken on Broadhead Avenue. Judy was born in New Paltz to an enslaved woman from whom she was separated while still a toddler. While in her young teen years, she was purchased as a wedding gift for Andries LeFevre and his new wife. Judy is believed to have obtained freedom in 1827, when she was in her late twenties. She married Thomas Jackson and the couple resided in Clintondale. When Judy died in 1898, her obituary in the New Paltz Independent stated that she “was a woman of great piety and delighted in singing religious songs.” The writer also remarked that Judy’s “recollections of events that transpired in her childhood was wonderfully good” and contributed greatly to what was known about various people that lived in New Paltz in the first part of the 19th century.

Other Black residents on Mulberry Street included members of the Rose family, relatives of Jacob’s wife Diana Rose, who died in 1888. In 1900, Jacob and John were living together and sharing their home with Bettie (?) Rose (believed to be Diana’s sister) and Maggie Rose (a sister-in-law). Forty-six-year old laundress Debbie DeWitt and her mother Jane (also believed to have been Diana’s sister) lived next door. Several of these family members worked as servants at various times for white families, including that of Abraham Deyo on Huguenot Street, for whom Jacob’s wife Diana had also worked.

In 1900, Jacob’s granddaughter Emma and her husband Charles Franklin lived nearby with three children. Charles was a farm laborer. Sadly, he died at age thirty-four in 1906. At least five of Emma’s children died as infants or toddlers, and two others died at age eleven and twelve. After her grandfather Jacob Wynkoop died in 1912, Emma eventually married a man named Clarence W. Thompson and moved to Poughkeepsie.

Proceed down Mulberry Street toward Chestnut Street/State Route 32. Before the stop sign, look to the left to view the next house on the tour.

11 Mulberry Street

The land for John Wynkoop’s house was purchased in 1855. Shortly thereafter, Jacob built a house for John, where he would be joined by their mother, Jane, and grandmother, Isabella DuBois. A two-story addition facing west (including Jacob’s signature pointed window) was added in 1890.

John Wynkoop worked as a laborer all his life, sometimes on farms but often on construction projects with his brother Jacob or other builders. He and Jacob are known to have worked on portions of the Mohonk Mountain House. John was known as a religious man, holding prayer meetings in his home and serving as a Trustee for the A.M.E. Zion Church. When John died in 1907, the obituary in the New Paltz Independent noted his “cheerfulness and his hearty laugh,” as well as “his sincerity and earnest piety.”

At the stop sign ahead, cross Chestnut Street/State Route 32 and continue on Mulberry Street to the next stop sign. Turn right. The next house is located at 127 Huguenot Street.

127 Huguenot Street

In 1892 and 93, Jacob built a dwelling for Margaret Hasbrouck Clow and her siblings, the adult children of John Hasbrouck. John Hasbrouck was born to an enslaved woman named Peg in New Paltz in 1806. He became one of the first Black men eligible to vote in the town a few years after purchasing property on what is now North Putt Corners Road in 1844. He is listed on New Paltz’s 1849 and subsequent voter registration lists. As an adult, John’s daughter Margaret worked for a time in Columbia County and married a man named Clow. She returned to New Paltz later in life. After her parents’ death, she hired Jacob Wynkoop to build a new home for her, her brother, and two sisters on Huguenot Street. Margaret worked as a nanny for members of the DuBois family and as a cook for the Reformed Church. Less is known about her sisters, Almira and Sarah Jane, one of whom may have worked as a cook in the Governor’s mansion in Albany. Their brother Philip (who sometimes used the name “Flip Murphy”) was revered as a “powerful, hardworking, light-hearted soul, whose wit and humor sparkled.” He was also admired as a dancer and musician and was hired to entertain at local parties and events.

By 1900, the overall Black population of New Paltz had fallen to fifty-nine, little more than half of what it had been in 1880. According to the 1900 census, eleven African Americans were living in the Poorhouse, indicating the difficult times the Black community faced. Six of the African American families in town were living in the Mulberry-Church-Broadhead neighborhood that the Wynkoop family had done so much to create. The fact that several of these families were able to purchase land and pay to have their own homes built was a significant indicator of their relative security, as compared to other African American families in this period. However, as described, their lives were difficult and successes were hard won. Their experiences were certainly not exempt from bigotry: one example being that both Jacob Wynkoop and Ann Oliver had to fight the U.S. Department of Interior for pension benefits they were entitled to as a Civil War veteran and a surviving widow. As John Hasbrouck’s son Flip once said, “We buy land and got stones, meat and got bones.” The lives of these families were no doubt full of challenges and inequities as African Americans living in the 19th century rural community of New Paltz

Thank you for visiting Historic Huguenot Street and taking the walking tour of houses built by Jacob Wynkoop. We hope you enjoyed your time exploring the multicultural history of New Paltz. If you haven’t already, you may want to take the walking tour of Historic Huguenot Street’s National Historic Landmark District, included in this app. That tour will tell you more about the practice of slavery and the contributions of enslaved people in 17th and 18th century New Paltz.

For more information about Jacob Wynkoop, his challenges and achievements, as well as his mother Jane Deyo Wynkoop’s story, please be sure to visit www.huguenotstreet.org/exhibits. If you have any questions or comments about your tour today, please contact us by email at info@huguenotstreet.org or by calling (845) 255-1660. You can help keep history alive by becoming a member or making a donation. Hope to see you back on the street soon!

To return to the start of the tour, you may follow Huguenot Street as it winds south to the National Historic Landmark District or backtrack west on Mulberry Street to where it intersects with the Wallkill Valley Rail Trail and head south.

[stop narration here]

Acknowledgments

The walking tour was written by Josephine Bloodgood, Historic Huguenot Street, with special thanks to Carol Johnson, Amber Neilson, Kara Augustine, and Frances Vigna. Narration was provided by Chaundre Hall-Broomfield with support from the Village of New Paltz Historic Preservation Commission. Images are courtesy of the Historic Huguenot Street Archives, the New Paltz Town Records Collection, the Haviland-Heidgerd Historical Collection at the Elting Memorial Library, Joan Miller, William B. Rhoads, and José Moreno-Lacalle.