Brooklyn Daily Eagle
10 August 1919 


	A house nearly two centuries old, which has been lived in continuously
since its completion in 1725 and is as livable and beautiful as ever, even 
judged by modern standards, has just been sold in the East Midwood 
section of Flatbush and is now being moved to a new site.  It is the house 
known for the last century as the MAGAW homestead, on East Twenty-
first street just north of Avenue J, but built by Jerome VAn NUYSE, one 
of the Dutch burghers of the Flatbush district.

	On the ancient site and the nearby land which were formerly the yard and 
kitchen garden of the old house seven one-family houses, whose modernity
contrasts oddly with the antiquity of the house, are being erected.

	Tradition is that it required three years to complete the older home.  
It was built for Johannes VAN NUYSE, its timbers being cut in the adjacent
forest.  To it VAN NUYSE took his bride, who had been Nelly LOTT, a
daughter of Col. Jermus LOTT, of the Flatlands.

	The barn raising was a great event celebrate by the old-fashioned Ducth
feast -- a very different affair from a Dutch Treat -- to which the whole 
countryside flocked.  Eventually the property passed to the VAN BRUNT 
family.

	Col. Robert MAGAW, whose parents were from the north of Ireland, was
an attorney at Carlisle, Pa., at the outbreak of the Revolution.  In command
of a Pennsylvania Regiment he helped cover Washington's retreat at the
Battle of Long Island.  Through the treachery of a comrade he and the
remnant of his command were forced to surrender at Fort Tryon, on the
heights overlooking the Hudson where now the C. K. G. BILLINGS estate
is located, after a brave fight.  Billeted on parole in Gravesend, he married
Maritte VAN BRUNT, and the VAN NUYSE-VAN BRUNT house passed to
the MAGAW family.  The gallant colonel survived the Revolution by only
seven years.

	Fifteen years ago the house was purchased by George M. HENDERSON 
from Mrs. MAGAW and equipped with modern conveniences, with proper
respect for its original atmosphere.  The new owner is J. Earl CLAUSON.
He bought the old homestead through O. H. HOLT, of 849 Flatbush avenue.
It is being moved to a site on the east side of East Twenty-second street,
only a block from its original foundation.


Transcribed for the Brooklyn Page by Carol Granville
RETURN to PEOPLE MAIN
RETURN to BROOKLYN MAIN