It is unpretentious in appearance, yet possessing- a stateliness all its own, which grows upon the visitor. It was erected in 1748 by Frederick Van Cortlandt -- a stone on the southwest corner bears the date -- and possesses within and without many peculiarities of the last century. . . . The style of architecture of the house is essentially Dutch. The old Dutch builders were thorough masters of their trade, and put up a structure which is as strong to-day as when New York was a colony. All the windows on the front are surmounted by curious corbels, with faces grave or gay, satyrs or humans, but each different from the other. Felix Oldboy innocently asked if they were portraits of the Van Cortlandts, and the owner replied, " Yes, and that the particularly solemn one was taken after he had spent a night with the boys." The window sills are wide and solidly built into the thick stone walls, as was the fashion of the time, and vary somewhat in form in the second story. The side hall and the dining-room, with the rooms above, belong to an addition built a year or two later than the main house, and the "lean-to" is an addition of this century.

Frederick Van Cortlandl and his wife, Francina, had six children, of whom Jacobus, (he eldest (born March 3, 1727), became the proprietor of the " Little Yonkers" estate after the father's death, in 1750. This Jacobus (third proprietor) anglicized his name to James; he was the highly respected and prominent Colonel James Van Cortlandl of the Revolution. Though an undoubted patriot, and resident within the British lines, ho was not disturbed by the enemy in his possessions, and, indeed, so great was the respect in which his character was hold, was able frequently to exercise powerful influence with the British authorities in New York in behalf of his distressed countrymen. lie died in 1800 without issue, whereupon the "•Little Yonkers" estate passed to his brother, Augustus; and after the death of flu1 latter the principal portion of it (including the mansion) was held, until its purchase by the City of New York, in the family of his daughter Anna, who married Henry White, the White heirs of Augustus assuming the name of Van Cortlandt agreeably to a requirement of his will.