The Brewster House
New Windsor, New York
The Brewster House was built in 1762 and began as a simple fieldstone house that Samuel Brewster built during Revolutionary times. Originally the house consisted of one large room with two smaller rooms in back, each with a single window, while the upstairs was built as a loft.
Although the house was modest, its location made it useful for officer's quarters. In 1781, an order from Washington's New Windsor Headquarters read: "A sergeant, corporal and twelve privates to be sent immediately as a guard to Lord Stirling's quarters at Deacon Brewster's one and a half miles north of General Knox's quarters."
It is also believed that Joel Barlow, army chaplain and poet (and later minister to France) may have been quartered here. One legend tells that Washington was so impressed by the youthful Barlow's sermon at West Point at the treason of Benedict Arnold that he invited him to dinner, placing him at the right hand while Stirling sat on the left.