{{short description|Historic house in New York, United States}} {{Use American English|date=July 2025}} {{Use mdy dates|date=January 2025}} {{Infobox NRHP | name = Edmonston House | nrhp_type = | image = Edmonston House.jpg | caption = In 2007 | location = Vails Gate, NY | nearest_city = Newburgh | coordinates = {{coord|41|27|10|N|74|03|51|W|display=inline,title}} | area = | built = 1755 | architect = | architecture = | added = 1979 | visitation_num = | visitation_year = | refnum = 79001616 | mpsub = }}
The '''Edmonston House''' is a historic stone home located on NY 94 in the Vails Gate section of the Town of New Windsor in Orange County, New York.
==History== James and Margaret Smith Edmonston came from County Tipperary, Ireland in 1720. After staying seven years in Plymouth, Massachusetts they moved to New Windsor and purchased 200 acres just west of Vail's Gate from the widow Ingoldsby. The Ingoldsby land was part of the early patent held by Capt. John Evans. For a time Edmonston's log cabin was the only house between New Windsor and what would later become Washingtonville.<ref name=Eager>[https://archive.org/stream/outlinehistoryof01eage#page/n5/mode/2up Eager, Samuel W., ''An Outline History of Orange County'', S. T. Callahan, Newburgh, 1846]</ref>
The family lived in the log cabin until 1755 when the first 2-story stone house was built, followed soon after with a 2-story stone addition. Built in 1755 by Edmonston, it is said that the house was used as a headquarters during the last years of the Revolutionary War by generals Horatio Gates and Arthur St. Clair and also served as the medical staff headquarters for the nearby encampment of the Continental Army.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=_V1KAAAAYAAJ&dq=edmonston+house+new+windsor+ny&pg=PA175 Barclay, David. ''Old Houses and Historic Places in the Vicinity of Newburgh, N.Y.'', Journal Print., 1909]</ref> However historian Edward Manning Ruttenbur asserts that the medical staff was headquartered at the James Clinton house in New Windsor village,<ref name=Ruttenbur>[https://archive.org/stream/historyoftownofn00rutte#page/n3/mode/2up Ruttenbur, Edward. M., ''History of the Town of New Windsor, Orange County, N.Y.'', Historical Society of Newburgh Bay and the Highlands, Newburgh, 1911, p.73]</ref> while the officers were billeted in a building across the road from the Edmonston house.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=T-opAQAAMAAJ&dq=St.+Thomas+Episcopal+Church+%28New+Windsor%2C+New+York%29&pg=PA229 Ruttenbur, E. M., and Clark, L. H., ''History of Orange County, New York'', Everts & Peck, Philadelphia, 1881, p. 224]</ref><ref name=nrhpdoc>{{cite report|type=none|url=https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75320641 |title=National Register of Historic Places Registration: New York SP Edmonston House|publisher=National Archives and Records Administration |author= Larry E. Gobrecht and Townley Sharp|date= November 1978| access-date=November 17, 2025 }} ({{NationalArchivesNote}})</ref>
In the 1940s the house suffered a serious fire in the east wing.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.hvva.org/hvvanews9-7pt3.htm |title=''Hudson Valley Vernacular Architecture Newsletter'', HVVA, September 2005 |access-date=October 26, 2015 |archive-date=March 4, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304140638/http://www.hvva.org/hvvanews9-7pt3.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref>
Today, the house is managed by the National Temple Hill Association, along with the nearby Last Encampment, a town-owned portion of the Cantonment. It is open as a museum from 2-5 p.m. Sundays July through September.<ref name="pojo">2007; [http://cityguide.pojonews.com/fe/Heritage/stories/he_edmonston_house.asp Edmonston House/Knox's Headquarters] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061119171926/http://cityguide.pojonews.com/fe/Heritage/stories/he_edmonston_house.asp |date=November 19, 2006 }}; ''Poughkeepsie Journal''; retrieved May 10, 2007.</ref> thumb|263x263px|The reconstructed stone outbuilding of freed slave Caesar Mitchell stands behind the house
==References== {{Portal|Hudson Valley}} <references />
==External links== *[https://web.archive.org/web/20070319020040/http://www.nationaltemplehill.org/ National Temple Hill Association]
{{National Register of Historic Places in New York}}
Category:Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in New York (state) Category:Houses in Orange County, New York Category:National Register of Historic Places in Orange County, New York Category:American Revolutionary War sites Category:Houses completed in 1755 Category:New Windsor, New York Category:Museums in Orange County, New York Category:Historic house museums in New York (state) Category:Buildings and structures in New Windsor, New York