在1763年的历史故居院内留影

黄安年文 黄安年的博客/2015年10月13日晚上美东时间; 14日早晨北京时间发布

在Chappaqua, NY迄今保存着完好的三个半世纪前后的一些名人故居,其中Kipp house 就有6家(1735-1778年间有三家):

*Benjamin Kipp house, ca. 1735. 335 Douglas Road.

*Jesse Kipp house,before 1771. 1040 Hardscrabble  Road.

*William Kipp house,before 1778. 325 Douglas Road.

*Kipp-Gill house,ca. 1810. 292 Douglas Road.

*Kipp-Lambert house,ca. 1816 and 1860. 1130  Hardscrabble Road.

*Charles C.Kipp house, ca. 1905. 300 Douglas  Road.

比起中国的曹雪芹的年代还长,而今曹雪芹的故居究竟在那里依然众说纷纭,更不用说完整保存了。我们需要研究的是为何这些历史文化名人故居在美国得以完整保存而在中国则难度不小。这不能不和18世纪中期以来的中国历尽太多的战乱和政治动荡不无关系,相比之下美国在独立革命时期和内战时期这里并非战场，这里处于长期的和平发展时期，并且处于森林保护性开发地区。

今天上午，我们来到位于1040 Hardscrabble Road.参观，按照提示今天是开放时间,但是室内铁将军把门,而院子里却可以随意进出,于是我们进入后院的黄叶遍满地的场地留个影。

照片5张是上午随机拍摄的。

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The KippHeritage in New Castle

July 5,2009

Accordingto familyrecords, Benjamin Kipp (1714-1782)moved in 1732 from Newtown,Long Island, to the newly settled Quakercommunity ofChappaqua. There heacquired a farm of 400 acres, located along whatare nowDouglas and HardscrabbleRoads. About 1735 he married DorothyDavenport, amember of another pioneerQuaker family in Chappaqua, and theyraised a largefamily. Many of theirdescendants remained in the community andbelonged to theChappaqua meeting. Morethan 50 Kipps are buried at the Quakergraveyard, andthe list would be muchlarger if it included the families thatKipp daughtersmarried into.

There areat leastsix former Kipp houses located on ornear the old family farm. Each isworth designationas a New Castlelandmark. Inthe descriptions that follow, youwill notice that the Kipps (likemany families)tended to re-use favored firstnames (such as Benjamin) over andoveragain, whichtends to cause confusion among them. We will try to identifyanddistinguishindividual family members as clearly as possible.

Benjamin Kipphouse,ca. 1735. 335 Douglas Road.

About1778, GeorgeWashington commissioned surveys and aset of maps of roads used byhis troopsin Westchester.One of the mapsincludes partsof what are now King  Street,Quaker Road,Kipp  Street,Douglas  Road,Hardscrabble  Road,andBriarcliff Road.At the corner of Douglasand Hardscrabbleroads is a houselabeled Benj. Kipp. This was the original Kippfarmhouse, avery smallone-and-a-half-story shingled house, with just a doorand a singlefront windowon the first floor, and small eyebrow windows on thesecond. Itwas substantiallyenlarged in 1957, but photographs taken before andduring thealteration,together with the architect’s plans, make it relativelyeasy totrack the historyof the building from its original form. It wasprobablytypical of the modesthomes built by the Chappaqua pioneers, who hadlittletime or inclination tobuild more than basic shelters for their familiesasthey transformed wildernessinto farmland.

The houseremainedin the Kipp family until the early 20thcentury. In the early 1800scentury itwas the home of an unmarried grandson ofBenjamin’s, also namedBenjamin(1764-1849). It then belonged to Charles C. Kipp(1812-1867), and hiswifeAntoynette Washburn Kipp (1818-1870). The last familymember to own andoccupythe house was Charles and Antoynette’s daughterWilhelmina KippSarles(1844-1913), the widow of Samuel Sarles (1833-1908). Allthesedescendants, andprobably Benjamin himself, are buried in the Quakergraveyardin Chappaqua.

Jesse Kipphouse,before 1771. 1040  Hardscrabble  Road.

JesseKipp(1740-1780), named after his LongIslandgrandfather, was the oldest ofBenjamin Kipp’s five surviving sons. HemarriedAnn Haight about 1763, and hemay have built his home about this time. Itwascertainly in existence by 1771,when it is first mentioned in North Castletownrecords.

Jesse andAnn Kipphad seven children beforehis early death at age forty. Two yearslater, hiswidow remarried. Her secondhusband was Robert Reynolds, the52-year-oldbachelor son of John Reynolds, whoowned a large farm on Quaker Road.Robertand Ann Reynoldsremained in her house and had four children of their own.

The housedoesn’tappear on our earliest maps,but town records reveal where it waslocated. In1789, Campfire Roadwas firstformally laid out, and one end of it isidentified as the residenceof RobertReynolds. 1040  Hardscrabble  Road is justsouth of theintersection with Campfire  Road,andthere is little doubt that this is thehouse referred to.

Ann KippReynoldswas widowed for the secondtime in 1809, and she herself died in 1811.Thehouse remained in the Kipp familyuntil the death of Jesse’s son GilbertKippin 1857, It was then sold to anotherQuaker, Silas Tompkins, who owned ituntilhis own death in 1889.

In 1867,the New Castle map in Beers’ atlasof Westchester identifiesthe S. Tompkins Residenceas“Washington’sHeadquarters,” and Scharf’s history ofWestchesterCounty,published in 1886, states that“The residence of Mr. SilasTompkins…is said tohave been for a short time Washington’sheadquarters.” On thebasis of theseassertions, the Daughters of the AmericanRevolution named thehouseWashington’sHeadquarters, and mounted a commemorative plaque there in1966.

Unfortunately,thereis no 18th-centuryevidence to support this attribution. Washingtonand his troops did indeed passthough New  Castle—onMillwood  Road,Quaker  Road,and Armonk Road.Butthere is no evidence thatthey ever set foot on Hardscrabble  Road. Furthermore, itseemsvery dubious that afamily of devout Quakers, whose Peace Testimonyforbadetheir support for eitherside in the Revolutionary War, would haveofferedhospitality to GeneralWashington or allowed their home to be used asamilitary headquarters. (TheQuakers did allow their meetinghouse to be used asamilitary hospital followingthe Battle of White Plains in 1776, but that wasanact of charity to woundedmen, some of whom died and were buried there.)

The houseisnonetheless one of the earliestin New   Castle– one of the few that can be said to havebeenbuilt in colonial times. It hasbeen enlarged and altered over thecenturies,but the earliest parts retain muchof the original hand-hewnpost-and-beamframing of Jesse Kipp’s homestead.

William Kipphouse,before 1778. 325 Douglas  Road.

ThesameRevolutionary map that shows BenjaminKipp’s home identifies a second onejustsouth of his, labeled “Wm Kipp.” WilliamKipp (1749-1800) was anotherofBenjamin’s five sons, a younger brother of JesseKipp. The map providesareliable date for his house, but he was married to MaryMerritt in 1770,andfour of their ten children were born by 1776, so the housemay have beenbuiltin the early 1770s.

A drawingof 1873indicates that it was originally asaltbox cottage, only a little largerthanhis father’s. By the 1870s, it wasattached to a much larger addition. Ithassince become part of a substantial andvery handsome Colonial Revivalhouse.Only a part of the saltbox cottage remainsvisible, at the northwestcorner,but traces of the old post-and-beam framing,and the foundation of theoriginalstone chimney, can still be found within thestructure.

The houseremainedin the Kipp family through most of the1800s. In the latter part of thecenturyit was the home of William Kipp’sgrandson Conklin Kipp (1810-1890).

Kipp-Gill house,ca.1810. 292 Douglas Road.

This iscalled theKipp-Gill house because it wasoriginally built by the Kipps and inthe late1800s became the home of JosephGill (ca. 1836-1909), who married intothe Kippfamily. The original owner mayhave been Benjamin Kipp (1787-1851), whowas theson of William Kipp and was acousin of the Benjamin Kipp who lived inthe oldhomestead (above). He marriedPhebe Conklin in January, 1810, and theirfirstchild, Conklin Kipp (above), wasborn the following December. TheoriginalFederal-style, center-hall house mayhave been built about that time.

At somepointbefore the Civil War, the house wassubstantially enlarged with a pillaredwingin the Greek Revival style. Theresulting ensemble is one of themostarchitecturally distinctive dwellings in New  Castle.

Kipp-Lamberthouse,ca. 1816 and 1860. 1130   Hardscrabble Road.

WilletKipp(1797-1853) was the son of Gilbert and HannahSarles Kipp, the grandsonofJesse and Ann Haight Kipp, and the great-grandson ofBenjamin andMaryDavenportKipp. He married Mary Carpenter in 1816, and may havebuilt theirsmall cottageon Hardscrabble Roadabout that time, half a mile or sonorth ofhis grandfather’s house at 1040Hardscrabble.

WilletKipp’s homewas a simple story-and-a-half cottagetypical of the early Quakerfarmhouses inNew Castle.There he and Mary raisedseven children. She died in1849, he in 1853. In 1860,the property was requiredby New Yorkbanker Edward W.Lambert, who built a much larger Greek Revival houseas hisretirement home, butconnected the original cottage to the house for useas akitchen. Lambert calledhis estate Hemlock Grove, for the large standofhemlocks on the rocky knollbehind the house.

At theend of the1800s, the estate was acquired by anarchitect, Charles Valentine. Heerectedthe curved neoclassical arbor thatextends to the west of the house, andheprobably rebuilt the two-story frontverandah with more substantialpillarsthan it originally had.

In themiddle ofthe 20th century, the house belonged toDonald Macaulay, who renameditBoxwood, after the large English box bushes near Hardscrabble Road.

Charles C.Kipphouse, ca. 1905. 300 Douglas  Road.

CharlesC. Kipp(born 1851) was a son of Conklin Kipp, andwas named after his uncle(above).He married Dolly Howe in 1882. Their house wasbuilt across the streetfrom hisfather’s and next door to his grandfather’s inthe first decade of the1900s.With its generous wraparound porch, double frontdoor, and bow windows,it istransitional in style, combining Victorian andColonial Revival elements,andis typical of the comfortable family homes of theturn of the 20th century.Ithas changed very little over the century since itwas constructed.

Insidethe carriagehouse at their grandfather Conklin’sfarm are preserved thesignatures of twoof Charles and Dolly Kipp’s daughters,Kittie and Edna, whoplayed there aschildren. When Edna grew up, she wanted tomarry HerbertJohnson, but herparents disapproved of the match, possibly becauseHerb Johnsonwasn’t aQuaker. The young couple decided to elope. According tofamilytradition,before Edna climbed out of the window from her bedroom, shethrewdown hersuitcase, which struck Herb on the head. Later, Herb is said tohavecommentedfacetiously that he should have known what was coming when she hithimwith thesuitcase. The Johnsons lived on a farm on South Hardscrabble Road,nearthe Mount Pleasant border,and it continued to be the home of their son,CharlesHerbert Johnson, wellinto the 20th century.

KittieKipp(1884-1905) married John Graff, who in 1890had purchased the old JesseKipphouse and farm from the widow of Isaac Tompkins.The farm still contained114acres, on both sides of Hardscrabble   Road. So, for a periodof her regrettablyshortlife, Kittie Kipp Graff became the possessor of one ofthe last majorremnantsof the land that her great-great-great grandfather,Benjamin Kipp,hadtransformed from wilderness more than a century and a halfearlier.

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