Stopping by the Joost Van Nuyse House
The next time you’re at the Junction HomeGoods googling the difference between synthetic and natural rugs and quietly going insane, take a calming walk over to the adorable Joost Van Nuyse house, which can be found about four blocks away on E. 34th street. I thought it was tucked in rather inconspicuously across from a mechanic's shop, but its historic designation report rather rudely states that “this late eighteenth century Dutch Colonial farmhouse stands out from the mundane vernacular twentieth century houses which now surround it.”
Joost Van Nuyse, the guy who probably built it, was the great-grandson of Auke Jansen, who was “from Nuis” or “van Nuyse” in the Netherlands. He came over to New Amsterdam in 1651, where he owned a HUGE chunk of northern Flatlands on the west side of Flatbush Ave (85 acres, to be exact). In addition to being a landowner he was also a carpenter, and helped build the original Dutch Reformed Church on Flatbush and Church Aves.
Back to Joost and his house, the circumstances surrounding its building are somewhat murky. From what I’ve been able to find, he gave or sold the house to his son, Jacobus, and then that same Christmas, Jacobus fell down a well and died!!! So then he sold it, and it went through many owners, including a guy named Ditmas Coe, which gives this house the other name its known by, the Ditmas Coe House.
According the strange yet wonderful site Brooklyn Genealogy Information Page, one of its bills of sale was in 1796, when it was in “middling condition” and sold for 350 bucks.
The last photo here shows it in 1923 in its original location, a couple of blocks away near Flatbush and 35th. It was moved that same year for what was, I’m sure, a very good reason.
Also for those invested in my HomeGoods quandary I went with a synthetic rug even though an impassioned post I read said they’re terrible, a $40 rug is a $40 rug.
The Joost Van Nuyse House, aka the Ditmas Coe House, 2019.
The Joost Van Nuyse House in 1923 in its original location.