Brown's+Gate

Brown’s Gate is named after Nicholas T. Brown. Nicholas T. Brown was born in New York City on March 5, 1849. He was a councilman in New York City. He also owned apartment buildings in New York City. This is how he was able to build a mansion for himself and his family which was Brown Estate.

Nicholas Brown’s parents, Edward Brown and Ann Carney, came from Cappamore, Ireland which is why they named the land behind Brown’s Gate Cappamore Farm. Nicholas Brown had 12 children. Three died soon after they were born but the other nine children lived a very exciting life. All the children had to work on the farm. Some of the jobs they did were cutting wood for their coal furnace, herding the cows from the woods, and milking the cows. They had to clean the animal’s stalls and cut hay. Some of the other animals that lived on the farm were horses, cats, dogs, chickens, and turkeys. Another important chore was to cut the ice from the Sloatsburg Pond and carry it by horse and wagon back up to the ice house. They did this chore because there weren’t any refrigerators back then. The Brown Estate was built around 1900 and sat on more than eighty acres. It had fifteen bedrooms, three bathrooms, and a big porch. There was a private dirt road which was thirteen feet wide to fit a horse and wagon. It began east of what is now Sloatsburg’s train station. There were two stone pillars at the entrance of the road which was known as Brown’s Gate. There were stone walls connected to each pillar that went all the way back to the Ramapo River. There were two windmills sixty five feet high on the property on Waldron Terrace. The two windmills pumped gallons of water to two containers on a hill east of the Estate House from there the water flowed to the mansion. There was a wooden bridge that crossed from the farm over to the Sloat’s Mill. There was also a steel bridge that crossed over the Ramapo River. The Brown Estate was torn down in 1956. This happened to make way for the New York State Thruway. The only things left from Brown Estate (which is still there today) are two stone pillars. In Sloatsburg today these stone pillars are behind what is now Character’s restaurant and on the corner of Municipal Plaza and Mill Street. I think it was a good idea to replace Brown Estate with the Thruway. Without the Thruway, there would have been lots of traffic going through Sloatsburg. I think I would have liked to live in Brown Estate. Brown Estate would have had a great view of Sloatsburg. I would have loved to live in a nice mansion with lots of land around it. It would also have been cool to have a bunch of different animals on the farm. Also, with more than 80 acres of land I would have a huge amount of land to play on with my friends. It would be nice to walk across a steel bridge over the Ramapo River and to walk across a wooden bridge and end up at Sloat’s Mill.