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The Old Stone House

The Old Stone House is a modern reconstruction of a Dutch farmhouse built in 1699 by Claes Arentsen Vechte or his son Hendrick Claessen Vechte. The Vechtes purchased the land from the heirs of Cornelis Lambertsen Cool between 1660 and 1689. The house was at an important position during the Battle of Brooklyn (8/27/1776) - a strategic retreat that saved George Washington's army. The house was sold to the Cortelyou family in 1797 and the house is also known as the Vechte-Cortelyou House.

As development surrounded the house in the 19th Century, the house was used as a changing room for skaters on the adjacent Washington Pond. In the 1880s it became the clubhouse for the Brooklyn Baseball Club, which later became the Brooklyn Dodgers. In the 1890s, the house was buried but was rebuilt with original stones in the 1930s as a recreation center in the new J.J. Byrne Park, which is named after a former Brooklyn Commissioner of Public Works and Borough President. The house was renovated in the 1970s and 1990s to serve as a historic education center. (reference)

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