4. The Conference House, 1680

Overlooking the Arthur Kill River and Raritan Bay, the Conference House, also named the Billopp House, is located on the southernmost tip of Staten Island. The house was originally part of a 1,630 acre property owned by British naval captain Christopher Billopp. Legend says that the captain won Staten Island for the state of New York (in competition with New Jersey over the land) by betting that he could sail all around the borough in one day.

The Conference House is named after the historic 1776 Staten Island Peace Conference that took place there: on September 11, 1776, John Adams, Edward Rutledge and Benjamin Franklin met with British admiral Lord Richard Howe at the Billopp house, just two months after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, in order to discuss the possibility of ending the war. America however refused to give up the struggle for independence and no agreement was made, leading to another seven years of war.

The two-story fieldstone manor is notable for its high, gable walls, and to this day it is surrounded by acres of forests, marshland and meadows. Before Europeans settled the land, the Lenape tribe used the area as a seasonal settlement and burial ground. The home is now a museum open to the public and focuses on both the Billopp family and the house’s significance in the Revolutionary War.

The Conference House is located on 7455 Hylan Boulevard