Manee-Seguine Homestead
509 Seguine Avenue | also 11 Purdy Place | Prince's Bay | built 1825
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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.
- 1670
Paulus Regrenier receives the shore tract where the homestead's oldest room stands
Paulus Regrenier was granted a patent to this shore land in 1670. Grants to Christopher Billopp in 1676 and 1687 named Lemon Creek, the patent's western edge, as "Regreniers Creeke," which suggests Regrenier really lived here. The Landmarks Preservation Commission concluded that the original one-room part of the house may date from the 1670s, with an extension added in the early 1700s under the Manee family.
- 1786
Three Seguine brothers acquire the Manee homestead
Abraham Manee, a descendant of the house's early French Huguenot owner, died in 1780. A deed dated June 5, 1786, passed the land to Henry, James and John Seguine, though it was not recorded with the county until June 23, 1816. The deed described the land as already in their possession, so the Seguines may have lived here from 1780.
- 1867
Joseph Seguine's widow sells the family's "old homestead"
After Joseph H. Seguine built his Greek Revival mansion across the road around 1840, the older house may have kept housing some relatives. In 1867 his widow Ellen and son Henry H. Seguine sold it. Family members were still calling it the "old homestead" at the time of the sale.
“When it was sold in 1867 by Joseph's widow Ellen and his son Henry H. Seguine…”
- 1874
Stephen Purdy turns the homestead into the Homestead Hotel
Stephen Purdy bought the old Seguine homestead in 1874. Photographs taken later in the 19th century show the building wearing a sign that names it the "Homestead Hotel." It was one of several resorts that opened around Prince's Bay late in the century, and Purdy's son ran it for many years.
- 1984
The Manee-Seguine Homestead becomes a city landmark
The Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the Manee-Seguine Homestead on September 11, 1984, after a 1982 hearing where five witnesses spoke in favor and none against. The commission counted it among fewer than twenty Staten Island houses built before 1750 and one of the few likely built before 1700. It singled out the bell-cast spring eave as a sign of French Huguenot building methods.
“Of these, the Manee-Seguine Homestead is one of the few probably constructed before 1700.”
- 2017
A judge orders the homestead's owners to repair it or pay $8.5 million
In January 2017 a judge told the owners of the neglected landmark to repair it or face an $8.5 million fine. The court sided with the city's request for an injunction to end what it called a policy of "demolition by neglect."
“In January 2017, a judge ordered the owners to repair the structure or pay an $8.5 million fine.”
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
- Abraham Manee HouseWikipedia
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