STOOTHOFF HOUSE 494 Jamaica Avenue

Often we rode past the house and never realized that we were looking at an ancient dwelling so completely has its exterior been changed. Suddenly one day we noticed the slope of its roof and stopped to examine it. It was the typically New Netherland Dutch overshot roof. At the top near its ridgepole were two old bull's eyes. We rang: the bell of this intriguing house. Its owner did not know when it was built nor to whom it had originally belonged. He said he knew it was an old house because there were huge aged beams in its cellar and garret and great open fireplaces in two of its rooms. Later we discovered that the land on which it stood belonged to Jan BARENTS BLOOM back in the eighteenth century and that early in the nineteenth it was sold to Wilhelmus STOOTHOFF. It extended from the Jamaica Road south to the New Lots Road. But we could not learn who built the house or when. In John Baxter's diary are the notations: Aug. 13, 1800. Raised barn for Bill STOOTHOFF on Jamaica Road in New Lots. April 10, 1814. Hear that Bill STOOTHOFF's house at New Lots was robbed of $140. Bill was the Wilhelmus STOOTHOFF, son of Wilhelmus STOOTHOFF and Heiltie VOORHIES, who was born in Flatlands 20 November 1768. He married Arabelle or Anabelle PETTIT 21 December 1799 and probably acquired the New Lots property about that time. He may have built the house upon it although it appears to be of an earlier date and it would seem that Baxter would have mentioned the fact. Bill and Arabelle had a son Stephen whose child Joseph is buried in the New Lots Cemetery. They had a son William who married Sarah, daughter of John C. STOOTHOFF of Jamaica South. William had a son William who was born 28 April 1849 and who married Emeline E. DURYEA. Bill STOOTHOFF died 10 August 1837. Previous to his death, he had sold his farm to John R. PITKIN of Connecticut who planned the real estate development of East New York for that locality. The panic of 1837 resulted in the farm reverting to the STOOTHOFF. Bill's son William was its next owner. Sometime after the Civil War, William's heirs sold the house and forty acres of land to Edward F. LINTON of Massachusetts. In 1889, LINTON sold the house to Frank HART who remodelled it. Later it became the property of Henry CYR, a Swiss, who lives in half of it and rents the other half. ' Bill STOOTHOFF's parents were married in Flatlands in December, 1762. His father Wilhelmus (b.3 May 1741 - d.21 September1803) was the son of Wilhelmus STOOTHOFF of Flatlands and Altie VOORHIES who were married November 1728. The last named Wilhelmus was the son of Elbert STOOTHOFF (b.1685 - d. 1756) who married Johanna LUPARDUS 28 March 1714. Elbert's parents were Gerret STOOTHOFF (baptized 11 March 1668 - d. 1734) and Johanna NEVIUS. His grandfather, Elbert ELBERTSEN, was a farmer's boy of ten or eleven years when he emigrated from Nieuw Kercken in North Brabant about 1637 in the employ of the patroon Killaen VAN RENSSELLAER. Elbert ELBERTSEN spent some time at Fort Orange (Albany) and then settled in Amersfoort where he married Altie COOL, widow of Gerret Wolphertsen van COUWENHOVEN, 24 August 1645, and assumed the management of Gerret's property on condition that he pay Gerret's debts and educate his four children. In 1648, he was one of the nine men appointed to help the Director General and his Council promote the welfare of the Province. After the surrender of New Netherland to the English, he took the oath of allegiance and added the surname of STOOTHOFF to his Elbert ELBERTSEN. He was made a captain in the local militia. He dealt in real estate, and became one of the largest landowners in Kings County. Also he kept store in his home in Flatlands and his account books are now the property of the Long Island Historical Society. He died about 1681. His children were : Elbert (who died in infancy), Gerret, Heiltie (who married Thomas WILLET) and Achye or Aegge (wife of Jan VAN DUCKHUYS). Next Chapter..DURYEA HOUSE DUTCH Houses..Index Main Return to TOWN Index Main Return to BROOKLYN Index Main