History

The Lefferts family was among the earliest European settlers in Brooklyn. They trace their roots to Dutch colonist Pieter Janse Hagewout (1621-1661), a farmer and cobbler who emigrated from Holland with his family aboard De Bonte Koe (The Spotted Cow) in 1660, and settled in the farming village of Vlacke Bos (meaning "wooded plain"), or Flatbush as it came to be known. In 1687, Hagewout’s son Leffert Pietersen bought 58 acres of land in the area now known as Prospect Lefferts Gardens. He built the original Lefferts Homestead.

In 1776, 31,000 British and Hessian soldiers invaded Brooklyn. Several days before the Battle of Brooklyn (August 26-31, 1776), the Lefferts Homestead in Flatbush was destroyed, not by the British, but by American troops who burned the Lefferts home and fields so they could not be used byt he British.

                                                                         Lefferts Historic House being moved to Prospect Park, 1918

Peter Lefferts (1753-1791), the great-great-grandson of Pieter Hagewout, rebuilt Lefferts Homestead prior to 1783. Lefferts was one of the wealthiest men in Kings County, with more than 240 acres of land and a large household that included eight family members and twelve slaves. He also enjoyed a wide sphere of influence, working in various public offices throughout New York. Lefferts served as a First Lieutenant in the Colonial Army and became a judge on the County Court of Sessions and Common Pleas. In 1778 he became a delegate to the state convention in Poughkeepsie, when New York ratified the United States Constitution. When Lefferts died on October 7, 1791, he was buried in the cemetery of the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church, where he had been a trustee.

Members of the Lefferts family continued to live in the house until 1918, when they donated it to the City. At that time Lefferts Homestead was moved several blocks from its location near Flatbush Avenue and Maple Street to its present location in Prospect Park. Many of the exhibits and activities developed for the museum were based on the diary of ancestor Gertrude Lefferts, whose records provide fascinating insight into the African and Native heritage of the Museum. It is administered by the Prospect Park Alliance in conjunction with the Historic House Trust of New York City, who together preserve this important piece of New York City’s past.

Restoration
Lefferts Historic House received a $185,000 new roof in 1991, and an $85,000 replacement of its windows in 1998. In 2002, the existing foundation was stabilized and cracks in the foundation were repaired. More exterior renovations were completed in 2003, with a grant from the New York City Landmarks Conservancy.

Five years of research and planning have culminated in a major upgrading of the exhibits and educational strategy at Lefferts. An Interpretive and Exhibition Master Plan was designed by James Czajka, Architect, and Christopher Clark, PhD, Exhibition Developer and Consulting Historian. The Lefferts Historic House has now been thoroughly re-imagined as a family-oriented environmental history museum, interpreting Brooklyn’s changing environment through the eyes of its Dutch-, African-, and Native-American inhabitants.