Closter home built 180 years ago by cabinet maker listed for $1.2M
Built by one of Bergen County’s most prominent 19th-century woodworkers, Closter’s historic David D. Doremus House has survived for 180 years.
The craftsmanship of 269 Piermont Road is still evident, said Miriam Lambert, the listing agent with Christie’s International Real Estate Group-Closter. The Greek revival-style home was partially rebuilt in 2007 under the current owners, who recently listed the property for $1.2 million.
The renovation retained much of the old character of the home, Lambert said. It also remedied a layout complicated by an addition in the early 20th century and modernized one of the area’s most historic homes, she added.
“When they did the renovation, they really wanted to marry the old with the new and bring in the modern amenities,” Lambert said.
Partially rebuilt to look close to the original from the front, the home had a new foundation added during the project. A new basement was added. Upstairs, exposed wood beams from the original framing, wide pine flooring and brick fireplaces were retained.
Doremus, a cabinet maker and carpenter, built the home himself on property he bought in 1840. He built the home between 1843 and 1846, according to Historic American Buildings Survey records kept by the Library of Congress.
A native of the Old Tappan area, Doremus was a cabinet maker’s young apprentice in August 1821 when he discovered what would later become a faux family heirloom and an odd piece of local lore: British Maj. John Andre’s “toe.”
Executed as a spy by the Americans amid the American Revolution, Andre was involved in the plot to negotiate the surrender of West Point to the British along with notorious traitor Gen. Benedict Arnold. Andre was hanged in October 1780 and initially buried beneath the gallows in Tappan, New York. Forty years later, however, the British wanted the body back.
Beset with local opposition to the move, the British consul in New York, James Buchanan, went under the cover of night to have the remains exhumed into a custom-built sarcophagus, according to a history compiled by Palisades, New York, historian Alice Gerard. The remains were then stashed in a local minister’s house before their trip by carriage to a British ship moored at Snedens Landing on the Hudson River.
Though Andre was meant to be taken in full to his current resting place, Doremus thought he found a piece of his toe that got lost in the shuffle. He built it a small coffin and retained it as a keepsake. It turned into a family heirloom that his descendants showcased as a Revolutionary War relic before it was discovered in 1980 to be a piece of wood, Gerard said.
Doremus, who moved to Closter in his 20s, was well known throughout the region, according to an 1892 article in the Rockland County Journal. Whether it was because of the “toe” is unclear, but his popularity earned him a position as an elected official for Harrington Township in the 1850s. The former municipality contained Closter and many of its neighbors.
His former house today has four bedrooms on its second floor. All have attached bathrooms. The primary suite has a fireplace and two walk-in closets. Outside, the home looks nearly original, down to the eyebrow windows lining the second floor. Sitting on more than a third of an acre in Closter’s East Hill section, the home has a detached two-car garage with a finished loft and half-bathroom.
Doremus died in January 1892 at 92, the oldest man in Closter. His wife, Deborah Doremus, died within days at the age of 88. The double funeral made nationwide news.
Their former home is one of several adaptations of the Greek revival style that were built in Bergen County’s Northern Valley between 1820 and 1860, county records show.