Photograph of Madam Brett Homestead — Photograph by Rolf Müller, CC BY-SA 3.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Madam Catharyna Brett Homestead

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. 14 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1893.

From the record

“The Madam Brett Homestead is an early-18th-century home located in the city of Beacon, New York, United States. It is the oldest standing building in southern Dutchess County and has been listed in the National Register of Historic Places since 1976.”
Wikipedia article Madam Brett Homestead, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 266 National Register listings published here for Dutchess County · listed in 1976 · category: Building.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
Listed as. Brett, Madam Catharyna, Homestead - the National Register files a house under its owner's surname.
Address. 50 Van Nydeck Ave., Beacon, 12508
When was it listed? December 1976
Category. building
Town. Fishkill town
National Register reference number. 76001212 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Then and now

1893 to 1993

The ground this property stands on, surveyed 100 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet covering Madam Catharyna Brett Homestead, surveyed 1993

Topographic sheet covering Madam Catharyna Brett Homestead, surveyed 1893

Fires near this property

628 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 628 fires within 5 miles of Madam Catharyna Brett Homestead between 1992 and 2020, burning about 1,133 acres in total. 49 started naturally. 73 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	360
Arson/incendiarism	73
Smoking	50
Natural	49
Recreation and ceremony	27
Equipment and vehicle use	27
Debris and open burning	24
Power generation/transmission/distribution	8
Misuse of fire by a minor	6
Railroad operations and maintenance	2
Other causes	2

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
7 September 2009	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
6 September 2016	Smoking	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	N/A
6 September 2015	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	N/A
6 September 2005	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
5 September 2018	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	N/A
5 September 2016	Smoking	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	N/A
5 September 2015	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	N/A
5 September 2008	Misuse of fire by a minor	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named

Every fire recorded in Dutchess County

Mines and quarries near this property

10 of 46 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 46 workings within 5 miles of Madam Catharyna Brett Homestead: 37 past producers, 8 producers, 1 occurrence. 8 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Clay, Iron, Stone. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
Hustis Quarry	Titanium	Occurrence
Probably Serpentine Marble Rock Quarry No. Hk-022	Stone, Dimension	Past Producer	Marble
Graphite Mine No. Hk-019	Graphite	Past Producer	Graphite
Graphite Mine No. Hk-019	Graphite	Past Producer
Limestone Rock Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer
Limestone Rock Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer
Serpentine Marble Quarry	Marble, Dimension	Past Producer
Serpentine Marble Quarry	Marble, Dimension	Past Producer
Serpentine Marble Quarry	Marble, Dimension	Past Producer
Granitic Gneiss Rock Quarry	Stone	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Dutchess County

Storms near this property

6 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Beacon, the town this property stands in, in 6 storm reports between 1994 and 2021: 3 thunderstorm wind, 3 hail. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
July 2001	Hail	Beacon	$10,000	no account filed
July 1994	Thunderstorm Wind	Beacon	$5,000	no account filed
December 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	Beacon	$2,000	A large tree was downed on wires near the corner of High Street and Beekman Street in the City of Beacon, causing road closures.
August 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Beacon	-	Law enforcement personnel reported that trees were down throughout Beacon.
May 2002	Hail	Beacon	-	no account filed
May 1998	Hail	Beacon	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Dutchess County

Maps showing this location

14 surveys

United States Geological Survey topographic sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by taking the coordinate the National Park Service records for this property, then testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.

1893 USGS Poughkeepsie quadrangle1:62500
1894 USGS Poughkeepsie quadrangle1:62500 - 3 printings
1903 USGS Poughkeepsie quadrangle1:62500 - 11 printings
1936 USGS Poughkeepsie quadrangle1:48000
1943 USGS Poughkeepsie quadrangle1:62500 - 3 printings
1947 USGS Hartford quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1947 USGS Wappinger Falls quadrangle1:24000 - 2 printings
1948 USGS Hartford quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1956 USGS Wappingers Falls quadrangle1:24000 - 3 printings
1961 USGS Hartford quadrangle1:250000
1962 USGS Hartford quadrangle1:250000 - 3 printings
1965 USGS Hartford quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1985 USGS Waterbury quadrangle1:100000
1993 USGS Waterbury quadrangle1:100000

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Property	Distance	Listed
Howland Library	0.1 miles	1973
St. Luke's Episcopal Church Complex	0.3 miles	2008
Beacon Engine Company No. 1 Firehouse	0.3 miles	2004
Lower Main Street Historic District	0.5 miles	1988
Trinity Methodist Church	0.6 miles	2010
US Post Office-Beacon	0.7 miles	1988

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 76001212 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Dutchess County	All 266 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.