Wyckoff Farmhouse Museum

The Wyckoff House, or Pieter Claesen Wyckoff House is located at 5816 Clarendon Road in the Canarsie area of Brooklyn. The house itself is located in Milton Fidler Park. The house was one of several ordered built by Wouter Van Twiller before he was recalled to Holland by 1640. The house is estimated to have been built ca. 1638, making it the oldest surviving example of a Dutch saltbox frame house in America, and it was one of the first structures built by Europeans on Long Island. The majority of the current structure was added in the 19th century, with the small kitchen section dating back to the 18th century. Only a small section remains from 1638. It is situated on land that Wouter van Twiller purchased from the local Lenape people in approximately 1636. (Europeans often referred to the native inhabitants simply by the Lenape language place name for the larger area: "Canarsie", in this case) It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1967. It is owned by New York City but is operated by The Wyckoff House & Association. It is believed that the majority of Americans with the name Wyckoff (or its variations) descend from Pieter (Claessen) Wyckoff from this house. Pieter Claessen was forced to adopt a surname after 1664 and chose "Wyckoff," the place name of an estate near Marienhafe, Ostfriesland, where he, as an orphan, may have occupied a sleeping cupboard. At that time there were no other known Wyckoffs in America. Some 60 known variations of the name appeared between 1790 and 1900.