General William Howe was billeted with his aides-de-camp in this farmhouse and tavern at New Dorp, Staten Island, in 1776, when 30,000 British and Hessian soldiers were encamped on the island awaiting orders to invade New York City (at the time limited to the southern part of Manhattan Island) via Long Island by crossing the Narrows. The general was known to have read the Declaration of Independence to his troops at this tavern. The building is gone but there is a stone marker at its site on the corner of New Dorp Lane and Richmond Road.