Bevier-Elting House

Among the Huguenot refugees who fled France in the wake of the violent 16th century Wars of Religion were a group of families from northern France, located near Calais; their names were Bevier, Hasbrouck, DuBois, Deyo, LeFevre, and others. They first found safety in die Pfalz, a Protestant region in present-day southwest Germany, later emigrating to New Netherland, a Dutch colony where Protestants were embraced, specifically the Dutch town of Wiltwijck, today's Kingston, on the Hudson River. Wanting to create a community of their own, one where they could exercise more authority over their worship and their way of life, they arranged the purchase of 40,000 acres of land from the local Esopus Indian tribes, and a land patent confirming it was issued by the new English Governor of New York, Sir Edmund Andros, in 1677. By 1678, the families had moved to the banks of the Wallkill River and established the village of New Paltz. The families built their first homes out of wood and, over the next several decades, began to construct more permanent buildings made out of stone in a Dutch style. Those famous buildings form the foundation of the Historic Huguenot Street you see today. 
 
The Bevier-Elting House is believed to be one of the oldest stone houses at Huguenot Street. It is an excellent and unique example of rural colonial Dutch architecture, with its gable end facing the street. The house began as the one-room home of Louis and Marie Bevier. Louis' son, Samuel, inherited the house in 1720 and enlarged it in two phases, also creating a cellar kitchen. This cellar, as with several of the houses at Historic Huguenot Street, is most likely where enslaved Africans slept and where most of the heavier domestic chores and cooking occurred.
In the 1730s, the Eltings, a Dutch family, began renting the house from the Beviers. While the Eltings were not one of the twelve owners of the 40,000 acre New Paltz patent, they were present in the village from its earliest days. In 1760, Josiah Elting purchased the house, and it remained in the Elting family until it was obtained by Huguenot Street in 1963.
Visitors to the house today will learn about what the site might have looked like when occupied by the native Lenape peoples as well as during the earliest phase of the Huguenot settlement prior to the building of the first stone houses.
Visitors will also learn about the practice of slavery in Ulster County and New Paltz while visiting the cellar kitchen.
 
Walk on toward the DuBois Fort, which serves as a Visitor Center and Museum Shop. Here, you can book a tour to visit the interiors of some of the houses and learn more about local history.