Van Alen House

Luycas Van Alen House
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark
East profile and south elevation, 2008
Location	Kinderhook, NY
Nearest city	Hudson
Coordinates
Built	c.1737
Architectural style	Colonial, Dutch
NRHP Reference #	67000011
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	December 24, 1967
Designated NHL	December 24, 1967

The Van Alen House or Luykas Van Alen House is a historic Dutch brick farmhouse built in approximately 1737 in the Hudson River valley. Located on NY 9H, about 1 mile (1.6 km) south of Kinderhook village in Columbia County, New York and 2 miles (3.2 km) south of US 9, the house is a National Historic Landmark.

The "Van Alen House" and its farm are believed to have served as the inspiration for homestead of the Van Tassel family in Washington Irving's short story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Irving was a close friend of Kinderhook native (and U.S. President) Martin Van Buren, a neighbor of the "Van Alen House" and a frequent guest in the town. The house is currently operated by the Columbia County Historical Society as a historic house museum showing 18th century Colonial life.

File:VanAlenHouse HABS cropped.jpg

HABS image of Van Alen House showing west profile

It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1967.

This property (interior and exterior) was a location scene in the 1993 Martin Scorsese film, "The Age of Innocence" starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Daniel Day-Lewis.

Further reading

• Great Houses of the Hudson River, Michael Middleton Dwyer, editor, with preface by Mark Rockefeller, Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Company, published in association with Historic Hudson Valley, 2001. ISBN 0-8212-2767-X.

External links

• Columbia County Historical Society
• HVNET.com info, pic
• Van Alen House, 4 photos and 10 measured drawings, at Historic American Buildings Survey