Mount Gulian

Mount Gulian is a reconstructed 18th century Dutch manor house on the Hudson River in the town of Fishkill, New York, United States of America.

The original house served as the headquarters of Major General Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben during the American Revolutionary War and was the place where the Society of the Cincinnati was founded.

The land on which the house stands was purchased from the Wappinger Native Americans by two fur traders, Francis Rombout and Gulian Verplanck on August 8, 1683.

During this war, Gulian Verplanck's son Samuel stayed at the house, while his wife Judith Crommelin remained at the family mansion at 3 Wall Street, New York City.

[2] In 1803, upon the death of Judith Commerlin Verplanck, the family mansion at 3 Wall Street was closed and much of its furnishings moved to Mount Gulian.

James Brown was born into slavery in Fredericktown, Maryland in 1793, and escaped via the Underground Railroad to New York City, where found work as a waiter at the Verplanck's mansion on Wall St. A story handed down in the Verplanck family relates that a dinner guest recognized Brown as an escaped slave, and notified the owner in Maryland.

After this, the ruin of the house was left unattended until 1966, when Bache Bleecker, a descendant of the Verplanck family, and his wife Connie founded the Mount Gulian Society, as a nonprofit, private organization.

Entrance to Mount Gulian
The Verplanck house replica
The Verplanck house view of the Hudson River and barn.