Van Houten House – Present

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It was an extraordinary blow when on July 4, 2019, a fire was started by vandals in the Van Houten House in Westside Park. After 250 years of existence – and over a century of ownership by the City of Paterson – it is plain to observe that today the building is in precarious condition. Thanks to the quick response by the Paterson Fire Department, the fire was put out before it could consume the structure entirely. Regardless of its rough appearance, the Van Houten House is structurally intact and can be restored.

The Van Houten House in Westside Park is Paterson’s oldest standing building that we are aware of. Garrebrant Van Houten constructed the original building and its addition circa 1741 and upon his death the property passed on to his son Dirick Van Houten II, who lived in the house during the American Revolution. According to maps delineated by George Washington’s Surveyor-General Robert Erskine, General George Washington may have stopped by or spent a night with the Van Houtens between 1778 and 1780. Dirick Van Houten II died in 1810 and left the estate to his son Adrian Van Houten, who rebuilt the house in 1831 due to a fire that burned down most of the original structure, but spared the 1741 wood-framed addition. This original portion of the building exists today, together with the 1831 brownstone reconstruction.

The Van Houten House and its surrounding lands were documented in 1935 by the National Park Service through the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) program. The house and its site are listed on the State and National Registers of Historic Places (SR: 8/7/1972; NR: 3/7/1973; NR Reference: 73001132) and in 2014 it was added to the Paterson Register of Historic Places as part of the designation of Westside Park. Due to these historic designations, an application to demolish the building would be required and reviewed by the New Jersey Historic Sites Council and would likely be denied in preference of preservation.

Luckily, significant steps were taken in the years leading up to the fire to address the building’s much needed restoration. The City applied for and received two grants in 2019, a $75,000 planning grant from Passaic County historic preservation & Open Space Trust, and a $250,000 matching capital grant from the New Jersey Historic Trust for construction. These applications were submitted and awarded just before the July 4^th fire took place. The post-fire condition of the building now complicates the restoration timeline, likely adding the additional steps of securing, and stabilizing the building prior to designing a full rehabilitation plan. The overall cost will also increase dramatically.

Beginning in 2023, the City of Paterson and non-profit partners jointly raised approx. $12 million in funding through grants, donations and bonded City funds to design and carry out a comprehensive restoration of Westside Park. Some of the park’s historic features will be rehabilitated as part of this project, however the Van Houten House itself will NOT be touched and was completely excluded from this project.

Preliminary cost estimates for complete rehabilitation of the building are between $4 – 5 million. Due to the City’s financial situation, a strategy for saving the building from collapse and further degradation and to put it back into public use is to transfer the building to Passaic County ownership. The County will carry out the rehabilitation and ready the site for reuse. The County will add the Van Houten House to its inventory of historic places throughout the County that are staffed and open for public visitation on a daily basis.

In January 2026, the Paterson Municipal Council expressed its support of this strategy by passing a resolution to this effect. A formal survey of the property is underway to form the basis for a subdivision application to formally separate the Van Houten House and the archaeologically sensitive area surrounding it from Westside Park. An agreement between the City of Paterson and Passaic County for the transfer and other conditions will be drafted and when ready, both governing bodies will need to vote to approve the land transfer and conditions of the agreement. Meanwhile a cooperative funding strategy for future grants is under discussion, but the need for immediate intervention to stabilize the building is essential to its survival.

The New Jersey Historic Trust is agreeable to having the County utilize the City’s existing grant for this purpose, although the grant would not be transferred to the County, but rather passed through the City to the County. During 2026, the City will continue to execute the survey and subdivision, work with the County to draft an Agreement and Ordinances for both governing bodies, meanwhile the County can execute the actual stabilization project.

In order to accept the $250,000 grant provided to the City by the NJ Historic Trust, the City must match that amount so the total project funding will be $500,000. In a recent letter to Passaic County, Paterson Mayor Andre Seyegh requested that the County grant the $250,000 from the Historic Preservation and Open Space Trust Fund that is administered by the County. In May, County Commissioners passed a resolution to award the requested funding together with other applications. In June there will be a public hearing on the applications prior to the final second vote. Once approved, the County and City will collaborate on next steps to stabilize the building with the funding provided. Stabilization is a temporary measure to use while planning and funding for the complete rehabilitation project is underway.