| Craver Farmstead | |
| Coordinates: | 42.6231°N -73.6436°W |
| Built: | 1790 |
| Architecture: | Federal |
| Added: | December 16, 1996 |
| Refnum: | 96001423 |
The Craver Farmstead was established circa 1790 consisting of 225 acres with a farmhouse and a barn. Today, the Craver Farmstead is both architecturally and historically significant. The farmhouse was built prior to 1790 and stands as one of the oldest and best preserved examples of Federal-style architecture in upstate NewYork. The Federal style evolved as the dominant classicizing architecture in North America between 1780 and 1830 as the new republic of the United States sought to define itself as independent in literature, art, and architecture just as it was politically.
Craver Farmstead is located on Craver Road in southern Rensselaer County, New York at the northeast corner of the town of East Greenbush, NY near the hamlet of West Sand Lake, NY. The one-mile county road bearing the site's name ("Craver Road") stretches across the original historic site to connect two more recently developed roadways. Historians agree that Craver Road was at first simply a horse trail leading to the then-new farmhouse during the mid-to-late 18th century. Soon afterward, Craver Road became a personal carriageway for the Craver Family as one may think of the modern driveway. The barn located at Craver Farmstead originally served as a private draft horse stable and carriage house for the exclusive use of the Craver family far prior to the advent of the horseless carriage.
Historically, the Craver Farmstead represents the agricultural heritage of 18th and 19th century rural New York. It serves as a landmark of the region's agrarian past as well as a tangible link to the hardy folks who settled upstate New York.
The Craver Farmstead is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as certified by the U.S. Department of the Interior.[1]
The Craverfarmhouse is a fine vernacular example of the Federal style ofarchitecture. The Craver farmhouse also providesa rich historical example of the type of home in which generation aftergeneration of upstate New York farmers resided and reared their families and retainsa high degree of integrity of location, feeling, association, materials, andcraftsmanship.
In the spiritof Federal-style architecture, the Craver farmhouse is characterized by balanceand symmetry in design, lightness and elegance in mood, and delicacy andfinesse in execution. It retains a high level of historic integrity with itsoriginal fenestration and fabric largely intact. The house is a five-bay center-entrance building. It is a two-story side-gabled dwelling of post-and-beamconstruction with cedar clapboard siding. The front entrance features a gabledporch with a vaulted ceiling and sidelights composed of three vertical panes. Thedoors and windows of are in strict symmetry. The front windows featuretwelve-over-twelve double-hung sashes, original shutter mounts and simplesurrounds. The farmhouse has flush raking eaves and five frieze windows acrossthe front.
The interior ofthe Craver farmhouse contains graceful decorative ornament, including a hand-carvedwooden fireplace mantel featuring Federal detailing. Board and batten doorswith wrought iron hardware are featured in rooms throughout the home. An open balustrade staircase leads to theupper level, which features the original wide pine plank flooring. The wallsthroughout the house are mostly plaster and contain lath, both sawed andsplit.
The farmhousefaces south, standing over a one-room deep hand-dug earth basement with abedrock floor. The house is supported by a stone-rubble foundation featuringoriginal hand-hewn beams. It stands on the north side of Craver Road, flankedby a quarter-acre pond to the west, a large 19th-century heavy timber-frame,English-style barn to the south and a producing apple orchard to the east. An old stone fence runs in an east–westdirection on the northern boundary of the property.
The remnants of onestone and mortar foundation are located about 100 feet east of the barn. Thereare also remnants of a second stone-and-mortar foundation adjacent to thefarmhouse on its northern side which is believed to have once been the site ofthe kitchen as separated from the main dwelling. The foundations are consideredunevaluated archeological resources.
The barn,with its original slate roof and hand-hewn post and beam construction, is typicalEnglish period design with center wagon doors and horizontal clapboarding. It is a side-gabled form. Its long side, or axis, is parallel to ahill. Its appearance is of massiveness and simplicity, with heavy mortised,tenoned and pegged beams. Resting on a stone foundation, the lower levelcontains remnants of dairy and draft horse stalls, while the upper level appearsto have been used for hay storage.
The Craver Farmstead consists of rolling farmland and woodlands. Flora in evidence todayincluding apple trees, asparagus, rhubarb, and climbing roses are believed toresult of plantings by previous occupants from 100 to 225 years ago.
The apple orchard at the Craver Farmstead currently produces three varieties. New York State censusrecords from 1875 confirm that the Craver family had hundreds of apple and peartrees in addition to other crops. The existing orchard consists ofapproximately 30 producing trees and is the only surviving plot of fruit trees plantedby the Craver family more than 100 years ago.
Earliestrecords of the Craver Farmstead indicate construction of the farmhouse sometimeprior to 1790. The home appears on asurvey map drawn by Evert Van Alen. Whose comments included the farm being"under good improvement" with a "sufficiency oftimber." A lease of same farm, some225 acres, called "This Indenture," was dated February 1, 1790. The owner was patroon "Stephen VanRensselaer, Efquire, Proprietor of theManor of Renffelaerwyck." Thetenants were Johannes and Henrick Miller. On the reverse side of the lease appears a rent release dated December 14,1863, to Peter Reynolds and John W. Craver.
The leaseitself carries historical significance. Alexander Hamilton, who was Stephen VanRensselaer's brother-in-law, designed a lease that bound the new tenantspermanently to the estate, thereby adroitly sidestepping the issue offeudalism, which had been outlawed in New York State in 1782. The 1790 “Indenture” which originally createdthe Craver Farmstead, was such an agreement. Under the terms of the lease, thetenant had to pay all taxes, and was to use the land for agricultural purposesonly. The patroon reserved to himself timber, water and mineral rights, and hadthe right to enter the tenant's property to exploit those resources. The tenantcouldn't sell his property, but only the lease, to another. If he wished to sell the "quarter saleclause" restricted the tenant further, by Van Rensselaer having the optionof collecting one-fourth of the sale price or taking full title to the propertyby paying three-quarters of the market price. In the 1790 lease The Millers agreed to a yearly rent of 24 1/2skipples of winter wheat, four fat fowls, and one day's service with carriage andhorses, due on January first of each year.
By 1797 theoriginal leased property had been transferred to and divided into two 112.5acre parcels by William and Henry Coon,the Craver farmstead standing on theWilliam Coon portion. On November 6, 1841, Elizabeth Craver, having inherited the property from her late husband, William Coon, for consideration of $50, signed over her interest in the farmto her son John W. Craver (she had been remarried to William Craver in 1799), whose familyowned the Craver farmstead longer than any other tenant or owner.
John W.Craver was born in Rensselaer County,New York on March 6, 1801, and resided in the Craver farmhouse his entirelife. By 1830 Craver, had married and togetherwith his wife Catharine, had two daughters, Almira and Emily, who grew up onthe Craver Farmstead. By 1855, New YorkState Census records indicate that Craver was the 54-year-old head of a six-member family. On April 3, 1855, duringthe first annual Clinton (now East Greenbush) Town Meeting, held at the home ofWilliam R. DeFreest, Craver was elected as an "Overseer of the Poor".Overseers of the Poor wereresponsible for assisting people in need, supervising admissions to the Poor House, andcertifying that freed slaves werecapable of caring for themselves.
By 1875,Craver was a widower, 74 years old, and farmed 112 acres, 90 of which wereimproved, 29 plowed, 24 pasture, and 20 meadow. Craver produced hay, oats, rye, corn and potatoes. He cultivated 150 apple and 100 pear trees(the descendants of which are in evidence today) and strawberries. He raisedlivestock, including cattle, horses, poultry and pigs. Craver Farmstead produceincluded butter, eggs, pork, and cider. In 1874, on only 90 acres of improved farmland, Craver had grown 16acres of oats, 4 of Indian corn, 16 of winter rye, and 8 of potatoes, whichyielded 400 bushels of oats, 75 of corn, 190 of rye, and 750 of potatoes. His 24 acres of pasture accounted for 50 tonsof hay. Additionally, 150 apple and 100 pear trees yielded 200 and 30 bushelsof fruit, respectively. Farm production included 500 pounds of butter, 400gallons of milk, 1200 pounds of pork, 8 barrels of cider, and $15 worth of eggssold. Craver valued his farm at $12000, and the farmstead at $1500. Additionalchildren included Albus, Sylvester, Caroline, Catherine, and Elizabeth. UponJohn W. Craver's death on January IS, 1888, intestate, ownership of the Craverfarmstead was assumed by Albus, who, on March 6, 1896, passed the property onto his son, Irwin Craver. On April 15, 1929, Irwin died, and willed the propertyto his surviving wife, Cylvie A. Craver, who sold the Craver farmstead andacreage in 1942.
The Craver Farmstead was accepted for listing on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.
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ChurchRecords
Bloomingrove Reformed Dutch Church, North Greenbush, NY. East Greenbush Dutch Reformed Church, East Greenbush, NY. First Evangelical Lutheran Church, Rensselaerwyck, NY.Greenbush Reformed Church, Greenbush, NY.
Reformed Protestant Dutch Church, Greenbush, NY. WestSand Lake Lutheran Church, West SandLake, NY. Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church, Greenbush, NY.