VANDERHEYDEN, Dirk, owner of the site of Troy, New York, born in Albany, New York, about 1680; died there in October, 1738. The first of the name in Albany came to this country from Holland about 1590. Dirk was an innkeeper in his native town, and a speculator in lands. In 1720 he obtained a grant of 40 acres of land in fee, at a yearly rent of five schepels of wheat and four fat fowls. This grant, called the "Poesten Bouwery," was afterward known as Vanderheyden's ferry, and in 1789 was named Troy. The Vanderheyden mansion, which was bought by Dirk's descendant, Jacob, in 1778, was built in 1725 by Johannes Beeckman, a burgher of Albany. The bricks were imported from Holland, and it was one of the best specimens of Dutch architecture in the state, its dimensions were fifty feet front by twenty in depth, with a hall and two rooms on a floor, the massive beams and braces projecting into the rooms. It is described by Washington Irving in the story of Dolph Heyliger, in "Bracebridge Hall," as the residence of Heer Anthony Vanderheyden. The weather-vane, a horse going at full speed, was placed by Mr. Irving above the turret of the doorway at Sunnyside, when in 1833 the Vanderheyden house was demolished and a Baptist church was built on its site. The Vanderheyden mansion is shown in the accompanying illustration.