Free Saturday Tours Inside New York's Oldest House
Walk three furnished rooms with a museum guide and see how a Brooklyn farm family cooked, ate and worked.
🏡 Three Rooms, Three Eras
New York's oldest house is a Dutch colonial farmhouse in a small park in East Flatbush. It was the home of Pieter Claesen Wyckoff and Grietje Van Ness-Wyckoff, and their descendants bought it back in 1937 to keep it from demolition. In 1965 it became the first building in New York to be named a landmark. After a fire in the late 1970s it was restored, and it has opened as a public museum since 2001.
A museum guide leads each tour through three furnished rooms. Each room is set for its own period, from the 17th century Dutch colonial era to the early 1800s, and the group moves through them in order. Museum photos show plank floors, a long work table and iron pots by the hearth. On Saturdays, guided tours start at 11:30 AM, 12:30 PM and 1:30 PM. Tours are free, with donations welcome at the end. Groups of eight or more need to reserve.
Saturday tours run through mid-December, and the museum can cancel a date. Check the events calendar before heading out. Take the 2 train to Newkirk Avenue, then the B8 bus to Ralph Avenue. The gate is on Clarendon Road at East 59th Street. Official info: wyckoffmuseum.org/visit.
The picks below are spread across Brooklyn, not a walking loop. Lefferts Historic House in Prospect Park is open weekend afternoons until 5 PM through November, about 45 minutes away by bus and Q train.
