{"nrhp_refnum":"77000978","name":"Defreest Homestead","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"S of Troy at U.S. 4 and Jordan Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Troy","county":"Rensselaer County","state":"NY","lat":42.67615143850006,"lon":-73.69586009080025,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1977-08-02","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Historic - Non-Aboriginal","Exploration/Settlement","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A pair of 18th-century brick gambrel-roofed farmhouses, the Philip DeFreest and David DeFreest houses, with a Dutch barn and outbuildings, on Jordan Road near State Route 4 in North Greenbush, Rensselaer County, New York.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the houses and Dutch barn represent early Dutch settlement traditions in the Hudson Valley and are rare, relatively intact 18th-century survivals built entirely by hand. The DeFreest family also played a noteworthy local role, including Revolutionary-era militia service and public office. The largely undisturbed land is also considered important for historical archeology.","narrative":"Two brick farmhouses and a Dutch barn on Jordan Road in North Greenbush, Rensselaer County, preserve the look of early Dutch farming life in the Hudson Valley. The Philip DeFreest and David DeFreest houses are one-and-a-half-story gambrel-roofed buildings of small, handmade, unevenly fired brick, with splayed brick lintels, simple wrought iron beam anchors and rooflines flush with the gable ends. The Philip DeFreest property also includes an 18th-century Dutch barn that remains in remarkably good condition. A 1767 map shows Philip's house on its present site, and the David house was likely built by 1774. Members of the DeFreest family farmed here for generations, served in the Revolutionary-era militia and held local offices. The Jordan family later owned both houses and ran a dairy farm. The nomination stresses the rarity of such buildings, the threat of commercial development along Route 4, and the archeological potential of land little disturbed since early settlement.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"One-and-a-half-story brick gambrel-roofed Dutch-derived Hudson Valley farmhouse","criteria":[],"status_note":"Philip DeFreest house is boarded up and its barns are decaying; the David DeFreest house is occupied and well maintained. The condition is marked good to fair.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:50:38.994574-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/77000978.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/77000978/4f32db4bb0-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/77000978/4f32db4bb0-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"UtsukushiHikariNY","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Defreest_House_in_Rensselaer_Technology_Park.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">UtsukushiHikariNY</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Defreest_House_in_Rensselaer_Technology_Park.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75321206","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeFreest_Homestead","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5243894"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/rensselaer-county/defreest-homestead-77000978/"}