In the summer of 1776, with the Revolutionary War underway, British warships sailed into New York Harbor. Soon, Gotham was a city under siege.
A string of bruising defeats by British forces from late August to early November forced George Washington and his Continental Army to flee Fort Washington, in Upper Manhattan, to New Jersey.
The departure of the Americans allowed the British to take over the northern tip of the island. They set up an encampment in today’s Inwood neighborhood and used it as a base of operations as they occupied the city for the next seven years.
In an effort to shelter themselves from the elements in the encampment, members of the British Army built hundreds of short rudimentary huts made out of wood and stone. Each hut housed eight men, according to New York City Parks.
Almost 250 years after the Revolutionary War years came to an end, one of these huts still exists in Upper Manhattan.
This “Hessian Hut”—so named because the huts were occupied by some of the 30,000 German soldiers who (reluctantly) fought alongside the British—sits in the backyard of a colonial-era farmhouse museum on Broadway and 204th Street.
The story of how the hut became part of the Dyckman Farmhouse Museum, built in the early 1780s by descendants of 17th century Dutch immigrant Jan Dyckman, starts in the early 20th century. That’s when an engineer, historian, and amateur archeologist named Reginald Pelham Bolton developed a passion for exploring Manhattan’s early traditions and culture.
“During Bolton’s time, the fascination of the excavations in Egypt and the soon-to-be subway line extending into the Inwood area sparked the excitement of digging through Inwood to preserve its history,” states the Dyckman Farmhouse Museum website.
Bolton uncovered all kinds of relics from the lands surrounding the Dyckman Farmhouse, which had been sold off by the family in the 1850s and was now threatened with demolition. (Fifth photo: The farmhouse in disrepair in 1897)
While excavating the area adjacent to 204th Street and Prescott (now Payson) Avenue, Bolton came across the remains of a “hut camp” that contained about 60 Hessian huts.
Realizing its historical value, Bolton “dismantled this hut and rebuilt its foundation here in 1915,” according to the Dyckman Farmhouse Museum website. He transferred the wood and stone pieces to recreate the barracks and explore the lives of the men who occupied them—men who were compelled to fight in a war in a country far from their homeland.
“Most of the soldiers camped in Northern Manhattan were Hessians, from the German principality Hesse-Cassel,” states NYC Parks. “They had been forced into the army by their prince, Frederick II, who had sold their services to the British without their consent. Many were weak and old, and few had any desire to come to America to fight another country’s war.”
The rebuilt hut became part of the Dyckman Farmhouse Museum after two Dyckman descendants bought the farmhouse and then gave it to the city in 1916 to serve as a historic museum. The rest of the huts Bolton unearthed “were demolished to make way for apartment houses,” per NYC Parks, which now runs the museum.
This crude shelter brings into focus Upper Manhattan’s crucial role in the Revolutionary War. Viewing the dirt floor and low ceiling, it’s not hard to imagine how difficult it would be to reside here through all seasons. It’s something the Dyckman Farmhouse Museum invites visitors to do.
“As you look around, try to imagine what it would be like to live here: huddling close to the small fireplace in the dead of winter, swatting away flies on sweltering summer days, or even sharing this room with multiple people,” states a sign outside this remnant of the 18th century city.
In 1783, the British and Hessians abandoned their huts and departed by ship for good. George Washington and his Continental Army triumphantly returned to a grateful New York City—where a Union Jack flag was taken down and the Stars and Stripes raised over the Battery.
[Third image: “The Hut Camp on the Dyckman Farm,” 1915, by John Ward Dunsmore; fifth photo: New-York Historical Society]
Ephemeral New York 