The southwest corner, the oldest part of the structure, was built around 1682 by
Dutch-born merchant and trader
Frederick Philipse, the first
lord of
Philipsburg Manor, and his first wife
Margaret Hardenbroeck who was a prominent merchant in her own right. Philipse, who by his second marriage became a son-in-law of
Stephanus Van Cortlandt, had amassed by the time of his death a estate along the
Hudson River that encompassed the entire modern city of
Yonkers and much of western and lower
Westchester County. For more than thirty years, Frederick and Margaret, and later their son
Adolphus, shipped hundreds of
enslaved African men, women, and children
across the Atlantic. By the mid-18th century, the Philipse family had one of the largest slave-holdings in the colonial North. During Philipse's life, the building, one of his two
manor houses, was used primarily as a stopover point on the long journey up and down the river between his home in
New Amsterdam and the northern parts of his estate, where he had another house (which is now the
Philipsburg Manor House historic site in
Sleepy Hollow, New York). That is where the majority of the Philipses' slaves lived and worked. Because of his
Loyalism, Philipse was branded a traitor and placed under arrest on orders signed by General
George Washington. He was held in
Connecticut for a time, but was given special permission to travel back to Philipse Manor Hall to settle his affairs on the condition that he was not to aid the British cause. In violation of his parole, he and his family fled to British-occupied
New York City and later to
Great Britain, leaving their estate and Philipse Manor Hall behind to be
attainted in 1779. Philipse family holdings, which included the
Philipse Patent, a 250 square mile tract that became today's
Putnam and part of
Dutchess counties, were sold at a public auction by New York's Commissioners of Forfeiture during the Revolution. the law predated all other emancipation-related landmark events in the United States. By 1908, the growing complexity of city government had made the building nearly obsolete as a government center. Public meetings were held, and options such as adding wings onto the building and tearing it down outright were discussed. The question became moot when Eva Smith Cochran, matriarch of a wealthy local carpet milling family, stepped in and donated $50,000 to the city as a nominal reimbursement for their care of the building during the previous 40 years. This allowed the city to turn ownership of the building over to the State of New York. Between that time and the 1960s, the building was owned by the state but cared for by the
American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society. Since the dissolution of the Society, the building is owned, maintained and curated by the
New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. From 1911 to 1912, the most intense restoration project in the building's history brought the house back to a semblance of its colonial appearance. The building has been open as a
museum of
history,
art and
architecture since 1912. The building was declared a
National Historic Landmark in 1961. == Enslaved Africans' heritage ==