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Welcome to The Conference House

The Conference House, built in the 17th Century and located at the southern most tip of New York State in Staten Island, is famous for the Peace Conference held there on September 11, 1776.

In the early 1920's this beautiful manor house was about to be razed. Through the efforts of a group of concerned citizens, a non-profit organization, The Conference House Association, was formed, and the House was saved. In 1929 the Municipal Assembly of the City of New York placed the House under the Association's aegis.

The House, a National and New York City Landmark, is the only pre-Revolutionary manor house still surviving in New York City. It stands majestically in Conference House Park (the Park celebrated it's 75th anniversary in Spring 2001) overlooking Raritan Bay.

We invite you to learn some of the history of this famous House as given below. Visit the House, walk the same floorboards that Ben Franklin, John Adams and Edward Rutledge walked in 1776! Join us at one of our special events! Be a supporter of this National Historic Landmark by joining the Conference House Association.

Before the American Revolution

Captain Christopher Billopp, after years of distinguished service in the Royal Navy, came to America in 1674, leading a landlubbing infantry company. The following year, he settled on the best part of Staten Island where he was granted a patent for 932 acres of land. As archaeological evidence suggests, there was an Indian village on the site.

As the legend goes, Capt. Billopp's seamanship secured Staten Island to New York, rather than to New Jersey: the Island would belong to New York if the good captain could circumnavigate it in one day - which he proceeded to do.

In 1677, the fortunes of colonial service took Capt. Billopp to New Castle on the Delaware River, where he commanded the local garrison. Upon appointment of Thomas Dongan as governor of the colony of New York, the good captain returned to Staten Island and became active in the local government. He was further rewarded by another patent, expanding his Staten Island property to 1,600 acres.

It's difficult to ascertain exactly when his manor house was built, butone surviving map shows that, before 1680, a building existed on the site of the Conference House. What is known for sure is that Captain Billopp's descendants lived in the house until the American Revolution.

The Staten Island Peace Conference

In 1776, war was in the air! A descendant of Captain Christopher Billopp, who bore the same name - Colonel Christopher Billopp, lived with his family in the lovely manor house on Staten Island.

The citizenry of America were weary of the onerous government of Great Britain, and the struggle for freedom began. In July of that year, the Declaration of Independence was written and war was declared against Great Britain.

Col. Billopp, a Loyalist, defended England's government of America. English troops were resident on Staten Island, even tented on the property surrounding the manor house. Across Raritan Bay in New Jersey, American troops were camped. Billopp watched them through his spy glass from the windows of the upper story of his house.

The American Revolution had begun. By order of the King, Admiral Lord Howe was made Acting Peace Commissioner, with the edict to try to stop this Revolution. Howe invited American delegates to a Peace Conference to be held at the Billopp Manor House on Staten Island on September 11, 1776. The invitation was accepted and Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and Edward Rutledge became the American delegates.

Admiral Lord Howe, in command of His Majesty's Atlantic Squadron, looked forward to the Staten Island Peace Conference he had organized over the clamoring for war; he wanted peace.

The Howes had close, if tragic, ties with the colonies: 18 years before, the Admiral's elder brother had been killed defending Massachusetts against the French. The colonies were as British as Kent and Devon; so what was this nonsense about independence? Clearly, one had to protect the colonists against their own foolhardiness. Fortunately, His Majesty was merciful. He was prepared to forego reprisals and even grant the colonists more of the rights enjoyed by other Englishmen.

Lord Howe's younger brother, General Sir William had just given Americans a sound flogging in the Battle of Long Island. Now he, Lord Howe, acting as Peace Commissioner, would bring those wayward subjects back to the fold - without further chastisement, one hoped. Be that as it may, propriety needed to be observed. To fetch the American delegates from Amboy, Lord Howe dispatched his personal barge, in which the Colonists were rowed to Staten Island. And he personally greeted them at the water's edge of the grounds. Escorting the American delegates between the lines of grenadier guards up to the Billopp Manor House, His Lordship spoke from the heart: "I feel for America as a brother, and if American should fall, I should feel and lament it like the loss of a brother."

"My Lord," replied Benjamin Franklin, "we will use our utmost endeavor to save your lordship that mortification."

For Benjamin Franklin this wasn't the first diplomatic mission, or the last. A sage and prescient man, he had known that the journey from Philadelphia to Staten Island, tiresome for a man of 70, would be in vain. But he was curious to find out what the British were up to.

Arguable the most venerated member of the Continental Congress, and surely its most astute diplomat, he had been elected to the mission unanimously. As had John Adams, the radical. Representing the South was Edward Rutledge, at 27 the youngest but, unexpectedly, the most conservative member of the delegation. Dr. Franklin was expected to steer a middle course between the two younger men.

For the conference, as John Adams would later recall, Lord Howe "had prepared a large handsome room ... till he made it not only wholesome, but romantically elegant ..." This room in the Billopp House would become the site of the last conference between His Majesty's government and his American Colonies. From then on, for any discourse to take place, Britain would have to recognize American independence.

It was something Lord Howe wouldn't, and couldn't, do that day. And something upon which the Americans insisted. "I avow my determination never to depart from the idea of independency" — this from Adams, the firebrand."They (Americans) would not ... return to the King's government" — this from Rutledge, the Tory, "America cannot return to the domination of Great Britain" — this from Franklin, the conciliator. The conference was over in three hours.

Lord Howe thought it had been a disaster. The hardliners in the Parliament would now prevail, and serious punishment would have to be meted out. But the Continental Congress felt that, by reasserting America's dignity and commitment to "independency," the delegates to the Conference had served the cause well. The rest was now up to General Washington. And the American people.

After the American Revolution

When the colonies declared their independence, the insurgent State of new York confiscated the property of pro-British colonists. Colonel Billopp, the hereditary owner of the House and ardently pro-British, felt pressed to emigrate to Nova Scotia, where he and his family were given property by the King of England to recognize his loyalty to the Crown.

For the next 150 years, the House would pass from one private owner to the next and remain in obscurity. One of the owners turned it into an inn, others made structural alterations.

Since the 1920's, the building that witnessed the fiery rhetoric of Ben Franklin, John Adams and Edward Rutledge, along with the dismay of Lord Howe, has been receiving the devoted care it deserves through the efforts of the Conference House Association Board of Directions, its members and friends.

What a majestic sight this National and New York City Landmark is! The Landmarks Preservation Commission described the building as "the most imposing surviving Seventeenth Century manor house on Staten Island ... A magnificent two and one-half story fieldstone residence ... the house is rectangular in plan with a centrally designed hall and an attic of immense dimensions. The stone masonry, impressively bold in appearance, is characteristic of the medieval influence on some of our early Colonial architecture." The masonry was made of local, unusually small, stones, and mortar mixed with ground sea shells gathered at the Staten Island shore.

This glowing description echoes the 1846 impression of Gabriel P. Disosway: "In approaching New York from Philadelphia by the Amboy route, few objects are more striking to the traveler's eye than a high, ancient-looking stone edifice situated near the water on the extreme west end of Staten Island. This is the old Billopp House at Bentley ..." Then Disosway expressed the hope that the House would be preserved.

The Future of this National Landmark

The Conference House Association has been able to comply with Mr. Disosway's wish. The House has been restored to its former glory, affluence, and elegance, so admired by John Adams.

It's difficult to think of any effort more important than the preservation of New York's cultural history; and The Conference House is, after all, the only surviving monument to the manor life of America's Seventeenth Century.

The Conference House Association is grateful to the Department of Cultural Affair, The New York City Parks Department, Historic House Trust, The Staten Island Borough President, and COHASI for support and funding. We are grateful to the members of our Conference House Auxiliary as well as to the Friends and Junior Friends of Conference House for their untiring efforts.

The support of our Conference House Association members is important to the future of the Association. Our Board members volunteer their time and are dedicated to the ongoing care and maintenance of the House - a piece of American History.

Participation involving people like you, who are interested and concerned in the preservation and restoration of our Country's cultural heritage and history, is essential to our organization. Please consider becoming a member of The Conference House Association, or making a tax-deductible contribution.

Please see our Membership Link for details.

Thank you.

 

The Conference House is owned by the City of New York, operated by The Conference House Association, and is a member of the Historic House Trust.