Barons of Broadway #16
Welcome to the 16th installment in the Barons of Broadway series. This edition examines Williamson Manor, one of the oldest farms in Nyack. The Williamson family held over 90 acres in Upper Nyack for six generations, from 1751 to 1905. In 1810, they built a new sandstone manor house using stone from their property’s quarry. The Williamsons likely utilized enslaved people to construct the house. Although the manor has been expanded many times, the original stone house remains visible. Here is the story of Williamson Manor.
The Williamson Family Arrives in Upper Nyack
The saga of the Williamsons dates to 1695 when the family moved from Holland to New York. Initially settling in Gravesend, Brooklyn—an area once populated by the indigenous Nyack tribe—the family settled upriver in Upper Nyack. Around 1750, Jeremiah Williamson sailed up the Hudson River and purchased over 90 acres from the heirs of Cornelius Kuyper, who died in 1739. The property extended from the Hudson River to West Hook Mountain (9W) between Old Mountain Road and a line just south of Lexow Avenue. North Broadway, then a dirt lane known as the Road to the Hook, passed through the farm. Each farm along this road had a gate to keep livestock and horses within.
The Second & Third Generations
Nicholas Williamson (1761-1832) inherited his father’s land and married Elizabeth Meyer (1765-1832). Nicholas served in the Revolutionary War and was one of the five founders of the Old Stone Church in 1814. He operated a sandstone quarry on their property.
Nicholas’s two sons, Garret and Jeremiah apparently inherited the property together. Jeremiah soon transferred his ownership to Garret for unknown reasons. Both brothers continued the quarry business and served in the US Army during the War of 1812. Garret was one of the first students to attend Nyack’s initial school, a log building near the Main Street reservoir.
Jeremiah commissioned the first center-board sloop in the country, a design he saw in Staten Island. In 1815, local boatbuilder Henry Gesner constructed the Advance. Center-board keels allowed sloops to navigate shallow waters along the Hudson River’s western shore. Quarry owners, like the Williamsons, used sloops to transport stone to New York City. The Advance set an early speed record, making six trips to New York City with stone in six days.
The Fourth Generation – Three Women
The next generation saw the farm divided into two strips. Garret Williamson married Rachel Felter (1793-1880) in June 1808. They had three daughters: Sarah, Elizabeth, and Nellie. Sarah, the first wife of Commodore Voorhis, did not inherit from the estate. Rachel passed ownership to Elizabeth and Nellie.
Elizabeth Williamson (1810-1884) inherited the southern half of the property, including the manor house. She married Joseph Hart, an Oxford-educated Englishman who grew grapes on the farm.
Nellie (1823-1905) inherited the northern half of the estate and married Joseph Hart’s brother, Isaac. They built a new mansard-roofed house along North Broadway. Nellie had two sons, Garret and Joseph Johnson Hart. Garret and Joseph rented out the house and moved to Pike County, Pennsylvania, on 8,000 acres intended for coal mining. Joseph Johnson Hart was elected to the US Congress and married Margaret Gedney of Nyack. Nellie’s descendants sold the property to Eleanor Manville Ford, who created the monumental Shadowcliff estate.
The Fifth and Sixth Generations – The Harts
Elizabeth Williamson Hart had one son, Robert Hart (1837-1893), a surveyor who helped found the first YMCA in Nyack in1859. He married Rachel Ann Perry (1840-1911) the same year. They had two daughters, Elizabeth and Minetta (Minnie). Robert lived his entire life in Nyack, owning considerable property, including the D. D. Smith house on Hart Place and property in Brooklyn.
Minetta (1863-1946) married Isaiah Townsend (1856-1922). Minetta and Isaiah inherited the manor house, which Minetta Hart Townsend sold to Joseph Hilton in 1905, ending the six-generation ownership of Williamson Manor. Elizabeth, who married Tunis S. Dutcher, inherited other property unrelated to the family manor house.
Enslaved People at Williamson Manor
The Williamsons held enslaved people until emancipation in 1829. Enslaved people likely occupied Williamson Manor from the beginning. The 1800 census lists Nicholas as owning two enslaved people and Jeremiah four. These individuals may have lived in the original 1751 house by the river.
Peter Williamson was the last known Williamson slave. He worked on the Old Stone Church as a boy and lived with his wife, Emmeline, in the neighborhood. It is unclear if Emmeline was enslaved. Mrs. Townsend, a descendant of the Williamsons, stated in 1932 that she possessed copies of several deeds conveying enslaved people to her forefathers. Whether these deeds still exist is unknown. Apart from Peter Williamson, little is known about the other enslaved people.
A 1932 Journal News article painted a romanticized picture of the manor, likening it to Gone with the Wind. The article described the master’s difficult task of managing enslaved people and the mistress’s numerous household duties, a stark contrast to modern housewives. Mrs. Townsend mentioned that all traces of the slave cabins had disappeared except for “the little half acre, where the colored folk were laid to rest.”
A Lost Black Cemetery on Williamson Manor
Cemeteries, like churches, were segregated. In Nyack, one known black cemetery was located on Michael Cornelison’s property. Little is known about these burials. The graves in the nearby white cemetery were moved to Oak Hill Cemetery.
Historian Frank Green suggested that a second black cemetery was situated just west of the Upper Nyack School, then located on the south side of Old Mountain Road near Midland Avenue. Two houses occupy this space today. This location is not far from the Old Palmer Burial Grounds. Beyond this description, the site has never been found. The 1876 map of Upper Nyack shows a small tract of land owned by P. Williamson, possibly indicating black graves on this parcel.
Another marker for this lost black cemetery appears in the 1932 Journal News article about Williamson Manor. Marion Townsend mentioned a slave cemetery across Broadway from the manor house in Mrs. Bradley’s rose garden. The Bradley estate house, still standing, is located just above Wydendown Street.
Sadly, the stories of Williamson Manor’s enslaved people and their descendants remain largely unknown.
The Manor House
Jeremiah Williamson built a salt-box style house in 1751 near the river, under an old oak tree. This house later accommodated the manor’s enslaved people and, after emancipation, housed servants, and farmhands.
In 1810, Nicholas Williamson constructed the red sandstone part of the manor house using stone from a nearby quarry. A spring-fed brook winds around the manor house, and a spring-fed pond near the Hudson River fills the old quarry.
The northern edge of the property borders Upper Nyack Brook, which features a picturesque set of falls over rock outcroppings just before it enters the Hudson River. Known as Crumbie’s Glen, this spot became a local favorite immortalized on early 20th-century postcards. Numerous arrowheads have been found near this area.
Along the southwest side of the property, the Williamsons maintained a fruit and vegetable garden. Like many estates in Nyack, they grew grapes in the mid-19th century. An old box owned by descendants bears the name “R. Hart” and “Grapes” stenciled on the sides.
Successive generations, and later non-Williamson owners, made changes to the original manor house. Garret added a federal-style wing, and Robert Hart added a new, more modern roof in 1887, changing the house’s appearance. He may have also added a portico. The Rockland County Journal hoped he would demolish “the small buildings between the house and road that had long since outlived their usefulness,” possibly referring to former slave quarters.
Williamson Legacy
Six generations benefited from Jeremiah Williamson’s original purchase of Upper Nyack property. Their tenure is one of the longest, if not the longest, of a single family on a single Nyack property. Despite their contributions to local history, the Williamsons’ legacy remains marred by their use of enslaved people. The estate evolved from a simple stone Dutch-style house to a much larger building. The next owner, Joseph Hilton, a Confederate veteran and lumber baron, made further changes to the house. His story is next.
Barons of Broadway Series
#1 The Magnificent Saga Of Larchdell
#2 Revisiting Underclyffe–A Lost, Gilded Age Mansion
#3 The Adriance Era At Underclyffe Manor
#4 The Flying Dutchman Lands at Underclyffe Manor
#5 The Saga of Rivercliff”s Storied Resdents
#6 The Winding Saga of River Hook
#8 The Legacy of Belle Crest: From Clockmakers to Tennis Champions
#11 The Dynamite Baron- Wilson P. Foss Legacy at Under Elms
#12 Atlas Acres – The Botanist in Under Elms’ Garage
#13 The Baroness of Shadowcliff
#14 The Peace Room at Shadowcliff – The Story of the Fellowship of Reconciliation
Mike Hays lived in the Nyacks for 38-years. He worked for McGraw-Hill Education in New York City for many years. Hays serves as President of the Historical Society of the Nyacks, and Vice-President of the Edward Hopper House Museum & Study Center. Married to Bernie Richey, he enjoys cycling and winters in Florida. You can follow him on Instagram as UpperNyackMike.
Editor’s note: This article is sponsored by Sun River Health. Sun River Health is a network of 43 Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) providing primary, dental, pediatric, OB-GYN, and behavioral health care to over 245,000 patients annually.
