Valentine-Varian House
3266 Bainbridge Avenue | Norwood | built 1758
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The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1758
Blacksmith and farmer Isaac Valentine builds a fieldstone farmhouse
Isaac Valentine, a well-off blacksmith and farmer from Yonkers, built this house in 1758 from materials found close by, with pine for the interior floors and stone for the outer walls. It is the Bronx's second-oldest house and its oldest remaining farmhouse. The house first stood across the street from its present address on Bainbridge Avenue, a spot now taken by apartment buildings.
“This structure, the second oldest house in the Bronx, was built by Isaac Valentine, a prosperous blacksmith and farmer from Yonkers in 1758.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1776
British troops seize the Valentine farmhouse during the Revolution
Hessian, British and American soldiers each took over the house at times during the Revolutionary War. The British captured it in 1776, while George Washington was stationed at the nearby Van Cortlandt House, and it became a scene of repeated fighting between the two sides. Isaac Valentine often had unwelcome soldiers in his home, yet the house came through the war despite several battles nearby.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1792
Ruined by inflation and the Hessian fly, Isaac Valentine sells to Isaac Varian
After the war Valentine faced bankruptcy, squeezed by inflation as the new nation tried to build its economy and by the Hessian fly, which blighted wheat in southeastern New York. In 1792 he sold the house to the wealthy Isaac Varian. Varian later passed it to his son, Isaac L. Varian, a Democratic state legislator who served as the 63rd mayor of New York City from 1839 to 1841, and the family kept the house until it was sold in 1905.
“As urbanization outpaced his farming techniques, Isaac Valentine sold his house to the wealthy Isaac Varian and his family in 1792.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1965
The farmhouse is moved across the street and becomes the Museum of Bronx History
In 1965 the house was moved to its present site and then restored between July 1965 and May 1968, surviving serious vandalism during its conversion into a museum. It now houses the Museum of Bronx History and offices of the Bronx County Historical Society, with exhibits on the house itself, on presidents connected to the Bronx and on artifacts from American wars. The upper floor is closed to visitors.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1966
The Landmarks Commission designates the Varian House as a Georgian survivor
After hearings in January and February 1966, where the Bronx County Historical Society spoke in favor and no one opposed, the Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the Varian House. It praised the two-story, center-hall house of rough-dressed fieldstone as a plain but fine example of Georgian domestic building. The report grouped it with the Van Cortlandt Mansion and the Dyckman Farmhouse as a trio that together pictures living conditions in the second half of the 18th century.
“Varian House is a fine but simple example of Georgian domestic architecture solidly constructed or good materials.”
Further reading
- Valentine–Varian HouseWikipedia
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