An artist restores one of Beacon’s oldest structures

A home on South Avenue in Beacon, built around 1756, has a special place in the history of American thought.

Alexander Hamilton slept there during his honeymoon, says its longtime owner, Yuan Lee, although it was located elsewhere, on what is today a parking lot.

Inside the home, Hamilton wrote letters hashing out political positions developed in the Federalist Papers, which provided a conceptual framework for the Constitution, Lee says.

Built around 1756, the historic Chrystie House is located on South Avenue.
The Chrystie House is located on South Avenue. (Photo by M. Ferris)

Known as Chrystie House, the structure is likely the second-oldest residence in Beacon, behind the Madam Brett homestead built in 1709, according to Lee, who bought it in 2007 and operates a bed-and-breakfast. He says the income barely offsets the dump truck of money he poured into restoring and maintaining the house, where Lee’s impeccable interior design merges East and West, one of his goals.

Lee, a native of Taiwan, moved to New York City in 1989 to work as a painter and illustrator. Nearly 20 years later, a group of Beacon artists recruited him to relocate from his Manhattan apartment.

His paintings hang in guest rooms and common areas. The United Nations commissioned detailed depictions of endangered species in their habitats from Lee. A student of Matisse, his still-life paintings, Parisian street scenes and a study of two violin restorers adorn the sitting room.

“People always say my work is so realistic that it looks like a photo,” Lee says. “That insults me. I paint what I know, not just what I see. I bring reason to realism.”

Yuan Lee at the front door of the house, which he began restoring in 2007
Yuan Lee at the front door of the house, which he began restoring in 2007

He has turned his attention to landscape design; he sculpted the stonework on the grounds. Photos and reports on his ongoing research into the house are shared at chrystiehouseproject.com.

The rooms at the inn are named after key players in its past: William Few, Albert Chrystie, CJ Slocum and Henry Winthrop Sargent.

Madam Brett makes a cameo as the aunt and benefactor of the builder, fur trader Abraham DePeyster Jr., whose father served as the mayor of New Amsterdam and governor of New York. Beyond serving as a bustling port, Fishkill Landing attracted wealthy city folk. Initially, people referred to the peninsula as DePeyster’s Point.

Few is a largely forgotten founding father who moved from Georgia to Manhattan at the behest of his New Yorker wife. He served as president of an early predecessor to Citibank and, in 1820, deeded his summer home to his son-in-law, Albert Chrystie.

Two decades later, on a nearby slope, Henry Winthrop Sargent, a scion of a merchant family, built Wodenethe. Under the tutelage of Newburgh-born landscape architect Andrew Jackson Downing, Sargent turned the surrounding 25 acres into an experimental botanical garden.

In 1927, Clarence Slocum, described by Lee as “the pioneer of celebrity rehab,” bought Chrystie House and moved it by horse and roller to the nearby Wodenethe estate because excavating at Dennings Point Brick Works threatened its foundation.

The home being moved in 1927Beacon Historical Society
The home being moved in 1927 (Beacon Historical Society)

Slocum lived in the home but sent his patients to other buildings and campuses, including the circa 1840 Peter C. DuBois House on Slocum Road in Dutchess Junction and the mansion on Route 9D later known as Craig House. “They hid [the celebrities] well,” says Lee.

Wodenethe was razed in 1953; its footprint and most of its grounds became plots for tract housing. A few specimen trees from the experimental garden remain, including a male trunk that helped foster many of New York City’s ubiquitous and odiferous Gingko trees.

Despite the home’s association with psychiatric patients and dark celebrity — actor Henry Fonda’s wife killed herself on its grounds — there is no evidence of hauntings, says Lee’s wife, Yulina Zhang. “If there are ghosts, they’re good, positive ones.”

Behind The Story

Type: News

News: Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.

Marc Ferris is a freelance journalist based in Croton-on-Hudson. He is the author of Star-Spangled Banner: The Unlikely Story of America's National Anthem and performs Star-Spangled Mystery, a one-person musical history tour.

Join the Conversation

1 Comment

  1. The claim that Alexander Hamilton slept at the Chrystie House in Beacon during his honeymoon is incorrect. Hamilton and his wife, Elizabeth, stayed at the Abraham DePeyster house, built on 300 acres that DePeyster purchased from Madam Brett. This house — not Chrystie House — appears on Revolutionary War-era maps and is mentioned in letters to and from Hamilton. It was demolished in 1954.

    It was located on DePeyster’s Point, between Fishkill Creek and the Hudson River, which should not be confused with Denning’s Point nearby.

    The article also incorrectly states a connection between Abraham DePeyster, a former mayor of New York City, and Abraham DePeyster who built the house. The former had no connection to Fishkill Landing.

    The Chrystie House is not the second oldest in Beacon behind Mount Gulian. The Bogardus-DeWindt house and VanVoorhis house (the Southern Dutchess Country Club) and others were built earlier.

    Cring is the author of The Most Important House in the American Revolution That Nobody Knew About, a history of the DePeyster House.

    DePeyster House

Leave a comment

The Current welcomes comments on its coverage and local issues. All online comments are moderated, must include your full name and may appear in print. See our guidelines here.