Conference House

7455 Hylan Boulevard | Tottenville | built 1680

Open on the map8 entries

The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

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.

  1. 1674

    Royal Navy captain Christopher Billopp arrives and receives the patent for Staten Island's southern tip

    Christopher Billopp came to America in 1674 after years in the Royal Navy and was granted 932 acres at the southernmost point of Staten Island. A later patent under Governor Thomas Dongan enlarged his holdings to 1,600 acres. A legend credits his seamanship with winning Staten Island for New York rather than New Jersey, by sailing around it within a single day.

    “Captain Christopher Billopp, after years of distinguished service in the Royal Navy, came to America in 1674. He was granted a land patent on 932 acres…”

    Source: Wikipedia

  2. 1680

    Billopp builds a fieldstone manor house as the seat of the Manor of Bentley

    The Landmarks Preservation Commission dates the two-and-a-half-story fieldstone house to between 1680 and 1688, built by Captain Christopher Billopp as the seat of the Manor of Bentley, a title Governor Dongan granted in 1676. It has a central hall, a very large attic and a cellar kitchen with an arched brick wine vault. The Commission called it the oldest two-story stone house on Staten Island and a key example of the Medieval Survival style.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  3. 1776

    September 11

    Franklin, Adams and Rutledge meet Lord Howe here and decline his peace offer

    Loyalist Colonel Christopher Billop, grandson of the builder, hosted the Staten Island Peace Conference, an informal attempt to end the Revolution early. Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and Edward Rutledge crossed by boat from patriot-held Perth Amboy to meet Lord Howe, the British commander in chief. The talks ran three hours, and the Americans turned down Howe's offer; the war went on for seven more years.

    Source: Wikipedia

  4. 1779

    October 25

    John Graves Simcoe's Queen's Rangers launch a raid on New Jersey from Billop's Point

    The house stands on what was then called Billop's Point, where the Arthur Kill meets Raritan Bay. From here John Graves Simcoe, commander of the Loyalist Queen's Rangers and later founder of Toronto, staged a raid on patriot-held New Jersey. In his postwar history of the unit, Simcoe complained that the boats meant to carry his men across by midnight did not show up until 3 a.m.

    “It was from this site, where the mouth of Arthur Kill juts out into Raritan Bay, that a raid on October 25, 1779, known as "Simcoe's Raid…”

    Source: Wikipedia

  5. 1876

    A century after the peace talks, the old manor serves as a hotel and a rat poison factory

    After the Revolution the state of New York confiscated the house without paying the Billop family, and most of the Billops moved to Canada. By the conference's centennial the building had been put to work as a hotel and also as a factory making rat poison. It was later left empty and vandalized.

    “One hundred years after the conference the house was used as a hotel, and a rat poison factory, before subsequently being abandoned and vandalized.”

    Source: Wikipedia

  6. 1901

    Assemblyman Van Name proposes a bill to buy and preserve the house

    Richmond County Assemblyman Van Name introduced legislation in 1901 for the state to acquire the abandoned manor and set it aside as a historic site. The effort did not succeed right away, and the city did not take over the house until 1926.

    Source: Wikipedia

  7. 1926

    New York City acquires the threatened house and creates Conference House Park

    With the house at risk of demolition, the city bought it in 1926 and established Conference House Park around it the same year. A nonprofit, the Conference House Association, was organized, and in 1929 the Municipal Assembly put the house in its care. The group restored it piece by piece: a new roof, a stair down to the basement, a painted facade and the old well.

    “The city finally acquired the house in 1926, at which point it was in danger of being razed. Conference House Park was created the same year.”

    Source: Wikipedia

  8. 1937

    The restored Conference House opens as Staten Island's first house museum

    After eleven years of room-by-room repairs by the Conference House Association, including a kitchen floor of new brick made in vintage molds, the house opened to the public in 1937. It was the first house museum on Staten Island. The name Conference House, adopted in the 20th century, recalls the 1776 meeting, and the museum is now managed by the Historic House Trust.

    Source: atlasobscura.com

Further reading

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All 9 buildings with stories in Tottenville