![\"Van](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/25540_image.jpg\" "\\"NYC")
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Designated as a New York City historical landmark, the Van Cortlandt House Museum is the oldest building in the Bronx.<\/p>\n
File photo<\/p>\n
The New York City Parks Department agreed to make the oldest standing building in the Bronx Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant in a settlement the federal government announced Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jay Clayton, launched a lawsuit last year alleging that the Van Cortlandt House Museum, a historic 1748 Bronx residence that hosted George Washington and was turned into a public museum, was not readily accessible to individuals with disabilities.<\/p>\n
The settlement requires the city-run museum to undertake a long-term capital project providing physical alterations to the basement and the first floor of the house in order to accommodate those with disabilities and to provide audio-visual depictions of the areas of the property that cannot be made accessible.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ADA applies to all places of public accommodation, even those that predate our Declaration of Independence,\u201d said Jay Clayton in a statement. \u201cThe settlement approved today will expand access at the Van Cortlandt House Museum so more visitors, including people with disabilities, can experience this important piece of New York City history.\u201d<\/p>\n
The city has operated the property as a museum since 1897, in coordination with the Historic House Trust, and added a cottage to the property in 1910 that serves as a welcome center and gift shop.<\/p>\n
The settlement highlighted accessibility issues across the property like uneven ground surfaces, steps and changes in level, narrow doorways and inaccessible restroom facilities. It also highlighted a lack of braille in parts of the museum.<\/p>\n
The city Parks Department has already responded to some short-term fixes since the federal government first issued the complaint. Paks, for instance, installed a wooden ramp to wheelchair-access to the cottage, and agreed to maintain it as they continue with the long-term fixes.<\/p>\n
The settlement that the U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken entered on Tuesday requires Parks to submit a design plan for the modifications by May 1, 2027. All work must be finished within five years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Designated as a New York City historical landmark, the Van Cortlandt House Museum is the oldest building in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":145331,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9,56,63,65,64],"class_list":{"0":"post-145330","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-ny","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-nyc-headlines","12":"tag-nyc-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145330\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}