The oldest house on
Staten Island needs your help!

The American History House Restoration Project

The American History House Restoration Project aims to fully restore the Perine house for the use of public education. Currently, this building is not open to the public. When the building is restored, the important histories detailed below will be shared with hundreds of school children and adults.

For thousands of years, Staten Island was a beacon of sustainable land stewardship by the Lenape people. Around 1620, the Dutch docked on its sandy shores, claiming ownership. This resulted in three major attempts by the Lenape to maintain their use of the island, but by 1655 the Indigenous leadership had signed a treaty with the Dutch, and were documented to have mostly left by 1670. In an effort to stake a claim and produce profit from the land, the Dutch provided land grants to non-Native people. The Billiou family of French Flanders received one of those land grants in 1661. They immigrated to what was then New Netherlands and in 1663 built a stone and wood house in a French medieval tradition. It included a fireplace so large you could walk right into it. This house, known today as the Billiou-Stillwell-Perine House, and its jamless fireplace still stand at 1476 Richmond Road, Staten Island, New York.

Thought to be the only example of French medieval architecture in the North America, the Perine House is the fifth oldest house in New York State, the second oldest in New York City, and the oldest on Staten Island. It was designated a New York City Landmark in 1967. It is one of the 38 historic structures maintained by Historic Richmond Town (HRT), a non-profit that owns the largest collection of New York State's oldest houses.  Over 10,000 years of history can be told through the lens of this structure and its property.

A historic structure report was conducted on the building in 2018. The results are detailed in hundreds of pages, covering in great depth the history of the land, the owners, the architecture, the structural integrity, and all that is critically important to the survival of the house. The preservation architects and structural engineers created lists of dozens of items, laid out in three phases, that must be undertaken to keep this structure sound and open to the public. A preservation and restoration contractor assigned rough financial estimates to the phases. The expected total cost of the project is $1,000,000. 

The American History House Restoration Project has received matching funding for the project up to 1.5M through the federal Save America’s Treasures (SAT) grant program. We are grateful to Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis for making this funding possible. We are now seeking support to meet the matching funding requirement of the SAT grant.

We hope you are able to help us accomplish the American History House Restoration Project.