The Conference House

The Conference House is named in honor and commemoration of the famous peace conference of 1776.  On September 11, 1776, Continental Congress representatives John Adams, Edward Rutledge, and Benjamin Franklin met with the King’s representative, Lord Richard Howe, at Colonel Christopher Billopp’s home on Staten Island.  The British would not consider independence a negotiable term and the congressional representatives had been authorized only to negotiate terms that included independence.  No reconciliation was reached.  With the failed peace conference, both the Crown and the colonists faced the inevitability of war.

The Conference House (formerly known at the Billopp House) is a two-story, rubble stone masonry building constructed circa 1680 by Captain Christopher Billopp.   Originally a rectangle in plan, with two rooms and a center hall on each level, the house was extended in the 18th century with the addition of a one-and-a-half story kitchen wing.  The wing was constructed of rubble stone and clapboard.  The steep gable roof is distinguished by brick gable ends and parapets.

Restoration

The House was in a deteriorated state when it came under the ownership of the City of New York in 1926.  Extensive interior and exterior restoration work was needed. 

The minutes of the Conference House Association and related documents provide the sequence of the restoration as it occurred over a period of eleven years.  A 1925 photograph shows that emergency repairs had been undertaken before the restoration began; the roof was patched and temporary windows installed in the first floor south room. 

The restoration of the house began in October 1926 starting with the North Room (parlor) on the first floor and basic infrastructure.  The work in the basement kitchen began in June 1928.  That same year, restoration began on the main entrance and hall, the first floor South Room, and construction of the main staircase.  The South Room restoration was sponsored by the Philemon Literary and Historical Society of Tottenville, the organization also credited with securing funding for the first Carnegie library on Staten Island, the Tottenville Branch Library at 7430 Amboy Rd.

Cornelius Kolff, noted Staten Island real estate magnate, assumed the initiative and responsibility for the restoration of the basement kitchen; the work was to be done at his own expense.  During this process, the remains of an older brick floor were discovered “well below the present surface.”  He described the bricks as “a peculiar kind made in Holland during the middle and latter part of the 17th century.”  Kolff located a Dutch brickmaker who possessed old molds, and the bricks were reproduced and the floor laid in 1930.
Between 1929 and 1933, the Association oversaw the installation of a new roof, exterior painting, the construction of stairs between the basement and first floor, and the restoration of the old well and sweep. 
By 1934, substantial work on the grounds was completed, including the planting of the Colonial rose garden and 13 trees (representing the original 13 colonies).  In 1935 and 1936, the rooms on the second were completed.  A new floor in the attic and restoration of the attic steps were among the final projects completed before the Billopp House was formally dedicated on May 15, 1937.  The House became the first house museum on Staten Island and has been open to the public since then.