[Frederic Shonnard & W.W. Spooner (1900)] It was erected in 1748 by Frederick Van Cortlandt — a stone on the southwest corner bears the date — and possesses within and without many peculiarities of the last century.... The style of architecture of the house is essentially Dutch. The old Dutch builders were thorough masters of their trade, and put up a structure which is as strong to-day as when New York was a colony. All the windows on the front are surmounted by curious corbels, with faces grave or gay, satyrs or humans, but each different from the other. Felix Oldboy innocently asked if they were portraits of the Van Cortlandts, and the owner replied, " Yes, and that the particularly solemn one was taken after he had spent a night with the boys." The window sills are wide and solidly built into the thick stone walls, as was the fashion of the time, and vary somewhat in form in the second story. The side hall and the dining-room, with the rooms above, belong to an addition built a year or two later than the main house, and the "lean-to" is an addition of this century.