shadowkat | A visit to The Old Stone House

On Friday, instead of going into the city to see the Jane Austen exhibit, I decided to go tour the The Old Stone House Museum. I was in the general vicinity so it seemed like a good timing. It's not easy to get to from where I live, since it is located in the middle of Gowanus, and just a touch west of Park Slope, in the middle of the R line in Brooklyn.

Turns out that the Old Stone House had an art exhibit on the second floor. They do revolving contemporary art exhibitions. The House isn't refurbished to look like it did back in the day - instead, it has an interactive Revolutionary and Colonial Historical exhibit on the first floor, and on the second revolving art exhibitions, while outside various gardens, and space for theatrical performances, playing fields, and musical performances, also hearth cooking.

The Old Stone House dates back to 1699 and was commissioned by Dutch settlers who took the land from the Marechkawick and Lenape.

European settlers began purchasing land near the Gowanus from the leaders of Marechkawick and other Lenape towns in 1636. When Dutch West India Company Director Wilhelm Kieft ordered attacks on unarmed Indigenous visitors at Pavonia and Corlears Hook in February 1643, Marechkawick and other Lenape forced the Europeans back onto Manhattan. Two and half years later, in August 1645, European troops retook the area. With “Kieft’s War” over, these settlers founded Breukelen in March 1646 on top of Marechkawick.

The Vechte family came to New Amsterdam from the Netherlands in 1660. Hendrick Claessen Vechte commissioned the Old Stone House in 1699 on lands his father purchased along the Gowanus decades earlier. Hendrick was a wealthy man and served as Justice of the Peace for Brooklyn. His son Nicholas Vechte was born at the Old Stone House in 1704, living at the farm until his death during the Revolutionary War.

And was the site of one of the biggest battles of the American Revolutionary War - known as the Battle of Brooklyn. The Americans lost a pivotal battle at the Old Stone House, and proceeded to occupy Manhattan and Brooklyn for the next 7 years. Also, during this time, it should be noted that there were more slaves working and living at the Old Stone House than free people. The Dutch settlers, from the Netherlands, owned and brought slaves.

Little markup of the Old Stone House during the Battle of Brooklyn:

Gardens:

Farm Garden:

South Dutch Garden and Potting Shed:

And on the second floor of the house was an intriguing little art exhibit, which for once, I took pictures of. I normally don't - but there was no one up there and no one seemed to mind.

The Exhibition is a collective series of works around a general theme "Nothing is Fixed".

"Nothing is Fixed reflects the tumultuous Trump presidency and the destabilization of societal norms, echoing James Baldwin’s words:

“Nothing is fixed, forever, and forever, and forever. It is not fixed. The earth is always shifting, the light is always changing, the sea does not cease to grind down rock. What you have, you hold. What you don’t have, you can’t hold.”(Nothing Personal, 1964)

Just as the natural world constantly shifts, so too can our political and social systems evolve—sometimes for the worse, but also for the better. This exhibition examines the tension between a moment of deep division and uncertainty, and with an underlying optimism that change is inevitable and can lead to growth, healing, and progress. By confronting the instability of our current moment, the work suggests that while nothing is static, the direction of change remains in our collective hands."

1.