JOHANNES Lott built a small house on his Flatlands property about 1720 on land first settled by Dutchman Hugh Aerens as far back as 1636. In the 1700s, Gerritsen Creek still flowed nearby. Johannes bequeathed the house to his son, also named Johannes, who became a colonel in the Kings County militia and fought in the French and Indian War. His son, Hendrick I. Lott, inherited the small house and farm and built a much larger addition in 1800 for his bride Mary. The house remained in the Lott and Suydam families until 1989, when Ella Suydam, great-great-great-great-granddaughter of Johannes Lott, passed away. The farm was sold off when the city began to lay out streets in Flatlands and subdivide property in the mid-1920s. Today the property can be found at 1940 E. 36th Street between Fillmore Avenue and Avenue S.Â
The Lott name continues to appear all over the Brooklyn map, in present streets and vestigial ones, from Lott Avenue in Brownsville to Lott Place in Flatlands to Lott Street in Flatbush to Lotts Lane, a former colonial highway connecting New Utrecht and Flatbush that today is marked only by a slanted driveway at Dahill Road and 41st Street.
In 2000, a small trap door was discovered in the house in the ceiling of a closet. The trap door led to three worn steps leading to a boarded-up door, and in the two cramped, dusty rooms behind the door, there was an amazing discovery beneath the floorboards: corncobs, a cloth pouch tied with hemp, an animal’s pelvic bone, and an oyster shell. The corncobs were arranged in a specific pattern. It was evidence of African rituals among the Lotts’ slaves. Though records show the Lotts were among Flatlands’ largest slave-owning family, they also show that the Lotts freed their slaves two decades before slavery was outlawed in New York State in 1827. The Lott House may even have been a way station in the Underground Railroad in 1844, though many buildings have made such a claim.
Currently, Friends of the Lott House are embarking on a restoration project that will take a few years to complete. Ultimately the house will serve as a museum encompassing Eastern Brooklyn and its people.
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3/22/23
1 comment
We used to live near the Lotts house 1983-1999. E. 49th St. bet L & M. About 1989/1990 when our children we small, we attended the Old Fashioned Christmas. St Nick was in white and came in by horse. The children played with toys of the time. I have photos.