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Surrounded by antique tools, period-style clothing and centuries-old silverware, visitors learned the ins and outs of life in early America during a candlelight tour hosted by the Yonkers Historical Society.
Built in 1740, the light yellow house tucked into the hillside off Tuckahoe Road is one of the few pre-Revolutionary War farmhouses left in the New York metro area. It is the second oldest house in Yonkers and was once home to John Ingersoll, the first doctor to live and work in the city.
Today, the home at 340 Tuckahoe Road is owned and maintained by the Yonkers Historical Society and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
While the two-story house turned museum is open in the summer and fall months for tours, the historical society has been hosting a candlelight tour in the winter months for over a decade.
Mary Hoar, president of the Yonkers Historical Society, said it is a way to showcase an intriguing piece of history Yonkers has been able to preserve.
“The history of Yonkers is absolutely wonderful,” she said. “There are all kinds of fun and interesting and quirky stories. This is one way to introduce visitors to that history and how wonderful it is.”
As visitors walked through a divided Dutch door, they were greeted by a colonial-style kitchen, decorated with rustic pots and pans and furniture from the era.
Across the hall, Jack Ciotti, dressed as Dr. Ingersoll, gave visitors an introduction to colonial medicine in what was once the doctor’s office.
He showed children the primitive tools Ingersoll would have used to perform procedures and explained how Ingersoll was a doctor, dentist and surgeon, all in one.
During the doctor’s time, rum was used as a painkiller, a twig was used as a poor man’s tooth brush and doctors had no understanding of germs or how they were spread, Ciotti said.
“Almost everything they did was wrong,” he told the visitors. “Many times, doctors actually did more harm than good.”
“It makes you appreciate modern medicine,” he added.
Upstairs, history buffs gathered in bedrooms and living rooms decorated as they would have been when the Sherwoods and Ingersolls lived there. Visitors snapped pictures and were given a brief introduction to how colonial era families ate, played and lived.
For many, it was their first trip inside a house they had seen from afar many times.
“I’ve driven by this house almost my whole life and we always talked about this house,” David DeSimone, 51, said. “It’s great to finally be inside. It’s even better than what I envisioned.”
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