The John Kane House, also one of several places known as Washington's Headquarters, is located on East Main Street in Pawling, New York, United States. The Historical Society of Quaker Hill and Pawling uses the house to display exhibits related to local history, particularly the life of pioneering radio broadcaster and executive Lowell Thomas, who lived near Pawling for the later years of his life. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
SITE FEATURES
Surviving Structures
On this site...
The property was first settled in the late 1730s by William Prendergast, a tenant farmer who leased 200–300 acres southeast of the nascent settlement of Pawling from the Philipse family, the area's dominant landowners. He built the small house that became the kitchen wing in 1740, adding other buildings later and connecting the two through a 65-foot stone passageway.
HOME
EST. 1740
Kane, an Irish immigrant, bought the house later that year. When the Revolution started, he was initially on the Patriotside, as he had been elected to the Provisional Congress of New York in 1775. After the first year of the war, he switched sides and became a Loyalist, convinced the cause was hopeless. Accordingly, his house and property were confiscated by the New York State Legislature, and the following year, in September 1778, George Washington moved in when the Continental Army wintered in the area, where they could move on either New England or New York City at short notice.
Kane retreated to the safety of British lines for the remainder of the war, while his family went to Nova Scotia. He received a lifelong pension from the British in 1783, when the war ended, and returned to the Pawling area. Since he could not legally live in or repurchase his home, he lived the remainder of his life with his children.
A later owner in the early 19th century demolished all but the original kitchen wing and built the current Federal structure. It went through a variety of later uses, as an inn and a rental property owned by the local bank, but returned to single-family dwelling status late in the century.
HISTORIC PEOPLE
George Washington
Commander-in-Chief