Orange County: The Gomez Mill House

A tour of the Gomez Mill House after breakfast at the Overlook Lodge. Here's the brief story on this

Gomez Mill House of Heritage and History

The Mill House, located just off 9W, five miles north of Newburgh, NY, on the Hudson River, is not only the oldest house on the National Register of Historic Places in Orange County and the earliest surviving Jewish residence in North America, it has been continuously inhabited for more than 280 years.
Site of an ancient Indian ceremonial ground; frontier trading post; earliest extant Jewish residence in North America; center of patriot activity in the American Revolution; home of writers and artists and men of affairs, it symbolizes Orange County’s regional and national history.
In 1714 Luis Moses Gomez, who had fled from the Spanish inquisition, purchased 6,000 acres of land along the Hudson Highlands where several Indian trails converged. Here he built a fieldstone block house into the side of a hill and by a stream that became known as “Jews Creek.”
The great walls of the house, about three feet thick, still stand today. Native Americans came to hold ceremonial rites at their campground at the Duyfil’s Danskammer, aka Devil Dance Chamber, on the shores of the Hudson on Gomez’s property. Luis Gomez and his sons conducted a thriving fur trade from the house for about 30 years and Luis Moses Gomez became the first parnas (president) when the synagogue of New York’s Spanish and Portuguese congregation was built. Among the family connections were poetess Emma Lazarus and Supreme Court Justice Benjamin Cardozo.
Future ownership followed with: Wolfert Acker, a Revolutionary War Patriot, who bought Mill House in 1772 and added the elegant second story, made from bricks baked in kilns on the property; Harry Armstrong, Gentleman Farmer, who came to Mill House in 1862 on his honeymoon, brought his southern bride Maddie and stayed for the next 60 years; Dard Hunter, Artisan and Craftsman, in 1909 built a mill in the style of a Devonshire cottage; Ms. Martha Gruening who tried to establish a Libertarian school at Mill House. Martha encouraged tolerance and the rights of all people; The Starin family purchased Mill House in 1947 and preserved its heritage and tradition.

The Gomez descendants took over and added their collection. Tour the house Wednesday thru Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. www.gomez.org

It seemed that Esther wanted to have lunch!