Contact: Sarah Wassberg Johnson | Sarah.Johnson@parks.ny.gov | (914) 965-4027
Philipse Manor Hall Hosts Area Educators for Open House
YONKERS, N.Y.(01/11/23) — On Saturday, January 21, 2023, Philipse Manor Hall State Historic Site will host area educators for a special Open House from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Area teachers and educators are invited to visit the brand-new exhibits at Philipse Manor Hall, part of the “Our Whole History” initiative by the NYS Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation. Educators receive free admission with school ID. Reservation not required.
Education and programs staff from Philipse Manor Hall State Historic Site will be on hand to discuss school field trip and other educational programs as well as the State Parks Connect Kids field trip grant program. Staff from other area sites like the Old Croton Aqueduct State Historic Park, the Center for the Urban River at Beczak, Untermyer Gardens, and others will also be present to discuss their educational offerings. Dr. Matthew Gonzales from Yonkers Public Schools will be on hand to discuss Yonkers History Day and assist Yonkers Public Schools educators with field trip planning and grants.
In addition to tours of the interactive exhibits, teachers can try out two of Philipse Manor Hall’s new field trip or in-class activities – an interactive fur trade game, and a primary source document analysis workshop using runaway slave notices.
Coffee and cookies will be provided by the Friends of Philipse Manor Hall. For directions, parking information, and access to the Philipse Manor Hall virtual wing, visit philipsemanorhall.com.
Dating back to the 1680s, Philipse Manor Hall State Historic Site sits near the confluence of the Nepperhan (Saw Mill) and Hudson Rivers, the site of a Munsee Lunaape village. Used by four generations of the Philipse family and worked by the people they enslaved and European tenant farmers, the Philipse Manor was once over 200,000 acres and helped make the Philipse family the richest in New York. Loyalists during the American Revolution, they fled to England and the Hall was owned by several individuals before becoming the Yonkers Village Hall and later Yonkers City Hall. When a new City Hall was built in the early 20th century, the house was preserved through the generosity of Eva Smith Cochran and donated to New York State to serve as a historic site. Today, Philipse Manor Hall State Historic Site provides visitors with a balanced approach to interpreting the lives of Indigenous, European, and African people to understand the complex relationships that took place at the Manor from the earliest days of the Dutch Colony of New Netherland to the American Revolution and beyond.
New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation oversees more than 250 individual parks, historic sites, recreational trails, and boat launches, which were visited by a record 78.4 million people in 2021. A recent university study found that spending by State Parks and its visitors supports $5 billion in output and sales, 54,000 private-sector jobs and more than $2.8 billion in additional state GDP. For more information on any of these recreation areas, visit parks.ny.gov, connect on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.
