Knapp, Timothy, House and Milton Cemetery

Standing at the corner of Milton Road and Rye Beach Avenue, the Timothy Knapp House is a two-and-a-half-story frame dwelling that was already present by 1670. It is the oldest surviving residence in Rye and in Westchester County. The house grew in stages, with additions before 1700 and before 1750, plus twentieth-century wings, yet it keeps early beams, posts, wide floorboards and wrought-iron hardware. It sits on land once held by Thomas Studwell, one of Rye's three original proprietors, and was acquired by Timothy Knapp, who served as a deputy to the General Court at Hartford. Across the road lies Milton Cemetery, laid out in 1750 on land given by Joseph Lyon and regarded as Rye's first public burying ground. Ezekiel Halsted, an eighteenth-century owner of the house, is buried there. Together the two properties preserve tangible evidence of Rye's early settlement.