Van Cortlandt House Museum

Frederick Van Cortlandt began developing the house on the property in 1748. He died before it was finished; his will, signed on October 2, 1749, indicated that the house was almost complete, and he bequeathed the estate to his son Jacobus (James) Van Cortlandt.

The house was used by both Patriot and British forces during the Revolution. It served as Washington's headquarters after his troops were defeated in the 1776 Battle of Long Island; the British general William Howe made it his headquarters on November 13, 1776; Washington stayed there again before the Battle of White Plains and returned in 1781 and 1783. In 1781 he came back to strategize with Rochambeau while their troops waited on what is now the Parade Ground and Vault Hill.

New York City acquired the house in 1888 and it served as police and military barracks before opening to the public as a museum on May 28, 1897, under the Society of Colonial Dames of the State of New York — the same body, under its later name, that operates it now: as of 2023 the National Society of Colonial Dames in the State of New York.

Its exterior was designated a New York City Landmark on March 15, 1966 and its interior on July 22, 1975. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 24, 1967 and designated a National Historic Landmark on December 24, 1976.