Madam Brett Homestead

The Madam Brett Homestead is an early eighteenth century house in the city of Beacon, New York, at 50 Van Nydeck Avenue near Fishkill Creek. It is the oldest standing building in southern Dutchess County and has been listed in the National Register of Historic Places since 1976. The house is named for Catheryna Rombout Brett, who inherited land from the Rombout Patent and was the first to develop it by selling property. It was built around 1709 or shortly after, and her descendants lived in it until 1954, across seven generations. Its notable features include hand-hewn scalloped cedar shingles, sloped dormers, Dutch doors and a native stone foundation. In 1954 it was bought by the Melzingah Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, which turned it into a museum of seventeen rooms.