Jan
Martense
Schenck
House

Brooklyn
Museum

The Jan Martense Schneck house is believed to be one of the oldest houses in New York City. The house was built by Dutch settler Jan Martense Schenck on land that he bought in 1675. The house is now installed within the Brooklyn Museum with additional bells and whistles added to the exhibit to reflect the time-period. None of the original furniture has survived and therefore the curators have used furniture that was common for affluent British and Dutch settlers of the time-period to fill up the rooms. The house has a two-room structure with a central chimney and an attic/upper floor that cannot be accessed by the public.

"The house originally stood in the town of Flatlands, one of six rural towns that were to become the borough of Brooklyn. Established under the Dutch colony of New Netherlands, which became the English colony of New York in 1664, Flatlands was first called New Amersfoort, after Amersfoort in the Netherlands. The area was originally inhabited by the Canarsie Indians."

Brooklyn Museum website

Map of the Interior

This map represents the interior of both rooms as it exists in the exhibit, with locations of specific objects within the space denoted by the numbers. The numbered objects are further visualized below through illustrations.

Objects in the space

This is an illustrated catalog of specific objects within the space. They range from furniture, architectural elements and design motifs.

1. Semi-circular desk

2. Vintage book press

3. Exposed original brick wall exterior

4. Doorway and staircase

5. Lion emblem on cabinet door

Representation of objects as Icons

These are icons representing the various objects from the archive. The icons on the top row are logos depicting the object while the bottom row contains objects represented symbolically.

Sensory Diagram 1 - Wood % Diagram

This diagram represents the percentage of wood present in each of the objects, with the items towards the center being almost all wood and those further out being less woody.

Sensory Diagram 2 - Brownscale

This is an arrangement of the objects with respect to the brownness of their appearance

Creakiness mapping

This map denotes the creakiness of the floorboards at the specific steps taken by visitors when walking across the first room. Each visitor is denoted by their corresponding number marked with V. The 4 color scale represents the amount of noise made by the visitor on each particular step taken towards the door.