The LeFevre HouseBy 1799, merchant and businessman Ezekiel Elting felt it was time to "trade up." The Dutch man had achieved considerable success. His family had weathered the stress of having his father jailed for much of the Revolutionary War on charges of being a loyalist — a charge that very well might not have been true. Those trials were now behind Ezekiel and his family. A short distance down the street from their modest stone house, Ezekiel supervised the construction of a large Georgian-style house. Ezekiel positioned his house right across the street from the ferry landing. His house would loom over the landscape for those coming into the village from the west. His would also be the first store they encountered. Where the 18th-century stone houses of Huguenot Street reflect traditional folk styles, the Elting home reflected Georgian symmetry and the optimism of the young republic. The house and its interiors are suggestive of the development of a more cosmopolitan and consumer-driven society in the early years of the United States. In addition, this house, unlike all others at Historic Huguenot Street, was constructed with a separate, free-standing kitchen behind the main house. The LeFevre Family Association, whose family homestead was torn down in the late 1700s to make way for a new church, have "adopted" Ezekiel's home and help support its upkeep and preservation. VIDEO: Restoration of the LeFevre House Dining Room Jean Hasbrouck • Bevier-Elting • Abraham Hasbrouck Deyo • Freer-Low • DuBois Fort Crispell Memorial French Church Locust Lawn: Where the Story Continues
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