Daniel Winne's House, Built About 1751
Town of Bethlehem, Albany County, NY
Webpage by Cliff Lamere Nov 2003
Although the article below reports that the house was built around 1730, Brian Parker told me (24 Jan 2004) that after the article was written a dendrology boring of a beam showed that the wood used to build the house was cut in 1750. This determination was made by comparing the tree rings of the beam to known tree rings in the collection at Columbia University. Determining the year of cutting requires that you know the year that the tree stopped growing. Finding a beam that has a piece of the bark still attached insures that you will have the final growth ring of that tree. Chances are pretty good that the house would have been built the following year, after the wood had dried. Wood that is still "green" may warp as it dries, thus throwing parts of the house out of alignment. Green wood is avoided as a building material whenever possible.
** The following copyrighted article is presented here with permission from Albany's newspaper, the Times Union.
Times Union
Section:
CAPITAL REGION
Page:
B1
Date:
Wednesday, March 5, 2003
SLEUTHING REVEALS A DUTCH MASTER
Bethlehem House found to date from 18th
century and now is on its way to the Metropolitan Museum of Art
ANNE MILLER Staff writer
A
large piece of Bethlehem history that was almost demolished soon will find a new
home at New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art.
This
week the 18th-century, two-story Dutch house, which had been hidden amid
decades' worth of additions, is being dismantled and shipped to the museum in
Manhattan. By Friday, barring unforeseen weather, the last beams will be stacked
in a shipping trailer. Curators hope to include it in an overhaul of the
museum's American Wing in the next five to 10 years.
The
original homestead's condition is so pristine that restorers recently discovered
antique blue and white ceramic tiles in the fireplace, untouched for centuries,
said Michael Kelley, who is in charge of the project. The original owner's
initials, DW, are clearly carved into the wood siding, although few details are
know of the life of Daniel Winne, who built the structure around 1730.
"This
house could be right out of Amsterdam,'' said Kelley of Niskayuna, whose
company, J.M. Kelley Ltd., renovates, rebuilds and moves historic homes. "It's
the best possible thing for this house,'' he said of the museum's involvement.
The
project, which came close to disappearing, was saved by a series of
coincidences.
Rocco
Marando, a New Scotland construction contractor and real estate investor, said
he bought the 16 acres that include the house about two years ago. After the
tenants moved out, he planned to renovate the building. When that proved too
costly, he considered tearing it down.
"
I
didn't think it was that old,'' he said.
His
attorney, John Howard Breeze of New Scotland, an amateur architectural
historian, saw something of interest in the beams and called Kelley, an old
friend.
"
When
I found this building hidden away within another building, it seemed appropriate
that it should be preserved, only in the way Michael Kelley could,'' Breeze
said. "The rest has become history.''
Kelley
purchased the house from Marando -- he declined to name the price -- with the
intention of selling it and moving it for the buyer. But he couldn't find one.
He
mentioned his struggle to a friend whose house he had restored a few years
earlier. That friend, who preferred to remain anonymous, is an antiques dealer
who occasionally contracts with the Metropolitan Museum. The friend told
curators about the Winne House, Kelley said.
"
It
was just one of those perchance things,'' Kelley said.
Kelley
said it's a minor miracle that the house survived this long.
"
Think
of the chances that someone didn't burn the house down over the past 250 years,
that somebody didn't accidently leave the stove on,'' he said.
The
homestead lies a few yards down a driveway off of Creble Road in an area of
farmland and industry. The debris of later years -- vinyl siding and plywood,
linoleum and foam -- lie in big piles around the small house. The original beams
are still secure in their tongue-and-groove joints, planed and polished to a
smoothness that would have gleamed, literally, in candlelight, Kelley said.
The
fireplace rose from the basement into a hood that would have hung from the
ceiling of the first floor, Kelley said. He traced an imaginary vent with his
hands as he talked, hovering above his workers using sledgehammers on the brick
foundation. At his feet lay square, red hearth stones, also original.
Kelley
began restoring homes when he was 16. Now he does it full time. His firm was
featured on Home and Garden Television a year and a half ago for its work on the
restoration of a 1709 Dutch house in New Paltz.
To
work on a house like the one in Bethlehem and to have the Metropolitan Museum
entrust him with the project are highlights of his career, he said.
"
It's
hoped for that it would be part of a room setting,'' said museum spokesman
Harold Holzer. "The American Wing collects at the same time that it
contemplates improvements.''
Kelley
is using drawings and photographs to document each item in the building. The
physical labor calls for delicacy and caution. "You have to treat this not as
building material but as an antique,'' he said.
He
has offered to provide copies of the paperwork and photographs to the town
historian.
Marando
said he is glad not to have to pay to demolish the structure.
Breeze
said he cannot wait to see an exhibit include the tiny home long forgotten on
the edge of Bethlehem.
"
If
they come from Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) and they want to see what housing was like
here, they'll see that,'' Breeze said. He predicted that the day an exhibit
opens, his family and Marando's will make a field trip to see it -- led by
Kelley.
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