Albertus Van Loon House (1724)
This private residence is not open for interior tour.
This early-18th-century Dutch stone house was built by Albertus Van Loon, the fourth son of Jan Van Loon, the original patent holder of Loonenburg, the original name for the Athens area. An erection date of 1724 was established by two date stones, one in the lower southwestern corner of the house and the other, newly uncovered, on the upper southeast corner.
The southern half of the stone house was first erected with a very steep gable roof of 60 degrees, in the common urban Dutch style of the time; one entered the premises from the north wall side. About the middle of the 18th century, the northern half of the stone house was added and the orientation of the entire house was shifted west, to the road side. The English-style gambrel roof is original over the northern half, but the southern half of the roof is framed differently. The dormers were added in the 1830s.
The original one-room stone house had a jambless fireplace and one or two garrets, but was renovated in the 1760s to the Georgian style, and retains its paneling and elaborate fireplace mantel. At about this time the clapboard addition on the south end was added. The Georgian room is known as “the Dueling Room.” A liquor license was obtained in 1774, and it is possible a tavern was operated in the southern addition at that time. The many pieces of pottery shards, musket balls, and coins attest to a great deal of activity in this area.
The wooden addition to the north end may have been on-site earlier than the stone building, as a reference to its existence in 1717 is mentioned in The Albany Protocols. That building used an even earlier Dutch construction type than the stone house, but shows evidence that it may have been moved from elsewhere. Connecting two wooden additions at the rear of the stone house, facing the Hudson River, is a Victorian addition from approximately the 1880s that enclosed what was originally a long Dutch porch.
The property descended down to the fourth-generation Albertus/Albert Van Loon, who died in 1838. According to his will the house was bequeathed to an adopted daughter, Cornelia. The will was contested by relatives and a lengthy trial ensued. The challenge led to an argument between Anthony A. Livingston, one of the executors, and the attorney James Byrnes. It is said that Byrnes stabbed Livingston in this house, so perhaps this is where the legend of the Dueling Room materialized. The lengthy 140-day trial ended on November 7, 1839, with the will being sustained.
The house then passed through several private owners, followed by the New York Ice Company in 1858, and the Knickerbocker Ice Company in 1867. After numerous years of deterioration, the house was purchased in the late 1990s by current owners Randall Evans and Carrie Feder of the Athens Architectural Workshop who have performed a great amount of preservation work to stabilize and restore the structure.
If you are walking through Athens today, the Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church – the oldest continuously-active Lutheran Church in America – is two blocks north at 102 North Washington St.
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