Abraham A.A. Haring House
c. 1758

         Erected on a 200-acre farm by Abraham A. Haring, a captain in the Bergen County Militia. During the Revolutionary War, Haring was captured by the British and imprisoned in New York City where he died. In 1805, his grandson Abraham David Haring sold the house to Moses Taylor, Jr., who built the frame kitchen wing about 1812. Taylor descendants owned the house until 1902.

BCHS Marker

Haring Family

         The dwelling is a rectangular 1 ½ story wide-gable roof sandstone structure (44' 10" x 34" 0") is set facing easterly on a gentle knoll  on the west side of Closter Publick Road ( south Piermont Road) where it turned easterly as Snedens Landing Road. The Dutch were fond of placing their homes with a sloping lawn and a large garden to the south. 

          Typical of the early Dutch houses of the region, the walls were raised of finely-cut sandstone. The varying hues of the stones add life to the carefully cut and joined stonework. The wide gable roof overhung the walls. The roof peak was built in the old style without a ridge pole. The rafters and beams were secured with wooden pegs.  The roof extends in a curving Dutch sweep over the front porch addition and is supported by wooden posts. The upper portions are clapboard. This is one of the few extent examples of a gable roof covering a deep house. Its lines and proportions are good. 

"Two Haring Houses at Rockleigh", Reginald McMahon, 1973, 
(mms Bergen County Historical Society, River Edge, NJ):
 "Bergen County Historic Sites Survey, Borough of Rockleigh, 1981-1982", 
(Bergen County Office of Cultural and Historic Affairs, Hackensack, NJ).

          A Dutch door, hung on Dutch-style iron hinges, opens into a large center hall that leads through the heart of the house to the rear entrance. There is one room on each side of the center hall, although there are indications that originally there were two small back rooms. There are great fireplaces in the sitting room and the parlor; the dining  room has a smaller fireplace. The house has some of its original floorboards and some original Dutch-style hardware. The interior walls are coated with animal-hair plaster. The half-story garret above originally provided storage space and a small second-floor living space.   The basement is smaller than the dimensions of the house with stone arches supporting the fireplace. Access for storage of crop vegetables was provided by two hatchways built into the eastern foundation wall, but were removed when the wide porch was added.   

"Two Haring Houses at Rockleigh", Reginald McMahon, 1973 
(mms, Bergen County Historical Society, River Edge, NJ);
"Bergen County Historic Sites Survey, Borough of Rockleigh, 1981-1982", 
Bergen County Office of Cultural and Historic Affairs, Hackensack, NJ.

          After the death of Captain Abraham, his house would be occupied by his son David A.  Haring who died in his prime. One of his sons, Abraham D. Haring, inherited the homestead portion of the property which he sold in 1805 to Moses Taylor, Jr. of New York City. The Abraham A. Haring House would remain in the Moses Taylor family for about 100 years. Later additions include dormers and a side kitchen wing (20' 8" x ~20') built about 1812 for Moses Taylor.* Moses Taylor's young wife died in childbirth in 1813 . He remarried within a year.

* Rosalie F.  Bailey: "Pre-Revolutionary Dutch Houses and Families", p. 297, , (New York 1936).

         The separate "old stone kitchen", circa 1750's, is surmised to have been demolished by Moses Taylor when this new attached frame kitchen wing was added. However, local tradition contends that the "old stone kitchen" had been dismantled in 1803 at the time of the subdivision and moved piece by piece to the south about 700 yards to be rebuilt as the start of the John A, Haring homestead. 

"Two Haring Houses at Rockleigh", Reginald McMahon, 1973 (mms, Bergen County Historical Society, River Edge , NJ)

Bergen County Historic Sites Survey, Borough of Rockleigh, 1981-1982  
(Bergen County Office of Cultural and Historic Affairs, Hackensack, NJ)