This 1791 upstate home may have inspired the White House — and helped deliver slaves to freedom

It is older than the White House, built by a British loyalist who fought against the very country that would eventually claim it as a symbol, and buried beneath its floors are brick passageways that may have sheltered both redcoats and runaway slaves.

The circa 1791 Greek Revival estate at 1569 Hoosick Road in Brunswick, NY — known locally as “The White House” — just hit the market at $595,000 through listing agents Anthony D’Argenzio and Brittany Craig of Houlihan Lawrence, The Post has learned.

Set on 18.8 pastoral acres outside Troy, near Albany, it is one of the earliest known examples of Greek Revival architecture in the Northeast.

“It does predate the original White House in DC by about a year,” Craig said. “Obviously, the influence at that time was the Roman Empire, democracy, and the Greek architecture that was coming into play in major cities.”

The man behind it was John Melchoir File, a German immigrant and Rensselaerwyck landowner who commanded more than 200 acres and fought at the Battle of Saratoga — on the British side.

When the war ended, most loyalists fled to Canada or sailed back to Europe. File stayed, and then built one of the most architecturally ambitious homes the region had ever seen.

“He was one of a kind. He was incredibly progressive. He was a visionary,” Craig said. “And we can see that through and through with this kind of standalone property where we don’t see anything near that, especially that early 1791.”

The home bears all the hallmarks of its Federal-era ambitions — grand columns, a sweeping curved central staircase, original moldings, exposed beams and neoclassical woodwork so well-preserved that Craig noted, “a lot of social media historians have been posting content around how much of the original woodwork is still intact.” 

Then there is the basement.

Beneath the home’s wide-plank floors lies a herringbone brick road — an unlikely material for a residential foundation in any era — flanked by what appear to be sealed tunnel structures. 

Family lore, passed down through generations of owners, holds that File used the passageways first to funnel British soldiers northward toward Canada after the Revolution, and later, in the 1830s, turned them over to an altogether different cause.

“Because that was already there, we were told he was part of the Underground Railroad, used that space in the 1830 era to give passageway and safety to those coming from the South that needed protection or getting to Canada, since it was already there,” Craig said.

Craig acknowledged the paper trail is thin. 

“I really was trying hard in the archives to back that up,” she said, adding that the property sits along what was once a major marching corridor into Vermont and toward Saratoga. “It’s very likely that George Washington’s cavalry did come through that spot, perhaps even stayed there or influenced the White House as we know it. I didn’t find anything in actual archives to support that other than many, many years of family rumors that went down the line.”

A plaque inside the house reads simply “The White House.”

The property was most recently purchased in 2017 by a Munich-based interior designer with a specialty in historic restoration. Her son was then a college student in Connecticut, making transatlantic trips manageable — until they weren’t. COVID-19 grounded her in Germany for the better part of two years, and when travel restrictions finally lifted, the contractor backlog that had paralyzed the American construction industry made finishing the job nearly impossible from abroad.

“She never was able to live in the home,” Craig said. “Her family — she ended up having grandchildren and life turned for all of us quite a bit between 2020 and 2025.”

What she did manage to complete from afar is substantial. The interior received central air conditioning, refinished hardwood floors, updated plumbing and marble bathrooms. The kitchen was extended to add a breakfast room. French doors replaced the original living room windows, opening onto a stone terrace with views across the land. A separately zoned unfinished apartment with electrical already roughed in sits ready for conversion.

The kitchen’s original brick wall — floor-to-ceiling, clearly load-bearing against the threat of fire from the massive hearths that once heated the space — was left intact. A preservationist who toured the home told Craig it represented the most original section of the structure. She estimates at least half the house remains as-built.

“The trim work is insane,” Craig said. “A lot of the spiral staircases, super special.”

What remains undone is largely exterior — the roof chief among them. Craig pegs total renovation completion at roughly 60 to 65 percent, enough that a buyer could move in comfortably while tackling the final phase on their own timeline.

Pricing landed in something of a no-man’s land, Craig and D’Argenzio said. Downtown Troy’s historic brownstone district — where HBO’s “The Gilded Age” films on location — sits just five miles away, but those are city homes packed tight along the riverfront. Out in Brunswick’s countryside, the comparable square footage belongs mostly to subdivisions and newer construction. The File Farm is neither.

“This was a unicorn property,” Craig said. “We don’t run into them too often where the comps get you scratching your head a little bit.”

The open house drew roughly 50 visitors on a cold, rainy day. An offer has come in from out of the country, though D’Argenzio confirmed the property remains fully available. Inquiries have arrived from California, Florida and New York City, drawn by what D’Argenzio described as the appeal of “properties of historical significance or provenance within a few hour drive to Manhattan.”

The zoning adds another dimension. The property carries a gentle commercial designation, opening the door to a bed and breakfast, an event venue, a restaurant or a live-work compound. The U-shaped driveway, hillside gardens, and roughly 10 usable acres of the 18.8-acre spread give the vision room to breathe.

“It would be beautiful for a wedding venue,” Craig said. “I was thinking somebody could do an amazing restaurant. We have a lot of chefs that come up from New York City of a bed and breakfast.”

For D’Argenzio, the broader significance is architectural. The Greek Revival movement did not fully crest in America until the 1840s, making the File Farm a full half-century ahead of the mainstream.

“This is a very early example of that,” D’Argenzio said. “If you think about trends and how slowly even trends moved back then, that has a lot of historical significance.”

The home spans 3,444 square feet across three bedrooms and two and a half baths. 

“She worked carefully from that way,” Craig said of the departing owner’s stewardship. “On the Hudson Valley in this pocket, this corridor is really appreciated by preservationists, historian lovers, our old architecture lovers. I grew up in a Queen Anne Victorian that my parents restored. It’s kind of in our blood and in our nature here to appreciate these.”