On Sept. 11, 1776, Continental Congress delegates Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and Edward Rutledge met the King's representative, Lord Richard Howe, at Colonel Christopher Billopp's manor house at the southern tip of Staten Island, in a conference meant to end the Revolutionary War. It did not end the war, and the house, which still stands in Conference House Park, has carried the meeting's name ever since. Two hundred fifty years later, a free exhibit in the park tells the story of that day and the people around it, and it anchors a week of free history and a Sunday run at the southernmost point of New York State.

Voices of 1776

The exhibit, titled Voices of 1776: The People and Events Surrounding the Historic Staten Island Peace Conference of the American Revolution, is the Conference House Association's America 250 exhibit, presented with NYC Parks. It fills the Lenape Gallery inside the park's Visitor Center, which sits in the parking lot on Hylan Boulevard off Satterlee Street, at 298 Satterlee Street.

It is open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and runs through Dec. 31. Admission is free.

Inside the house itself

On Saturday, Oct. 24, docents lead tours of the Conference House, also known as the Billopp House for the family that built it, from noon to 4 p.m. Captain Christopher Billopp, an English immigrant, built it around 1680, and for its first century it was the center of a wheat farm overlooking the Arthur Kill and Lower Raritan Bay.

Two more small museums in the same park

The Tottenville Historical Society runs two free exhibits with NYC Parks in the park's other historic houses, open 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the days they are listed:

  • Still Waters: Reflections of a Maritime Community, at the Rutan-Becket House, celebrates the maritime history and heritage of Staten Island's South Shore.
  • New York's Brick and Terra Cotta Industries, at the H.H. Biddle House, shows a collection of terracotta pieces and masonry bricks. Outside the same house, Alice's Terracotta Garden displays terracotta architectural pieces that trace building styles from the turn of the 20th century.

Sunday morning: a free 5K at the water

Every Sunday, New York Road Runners holds a free Open Run 5K in Conference House Park, and this week's is Sunday, Oct. 25, starting at 8:45 a.m. Runners and walkers of every age and pace are welcome. The meeting point is off Hylan Boulevard, next to the parking lot on the path that leads to the water. Registration is free through NYRR's sign-up link on the event page.

How to go

Conference House Park is at the foot of Hylan Boulevard in Tottenville, at the southern end of Staten Island. The Visitor Center is at 298 Satterlee Street. The S59 and S78 buses reach the park, and the Staten Island Railway's Tottenville station is the end of the line. Questions about the exhibit go to the Conference House Association at 718-984-6046 or admin@conferencehouse.org.

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