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September 25, 1958 |
1929 |
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Fonthill, or Fonthill Castle as some call it, is on the National Register of Historic places as well as a NYC Landmark building. The building consists of six octagonal towers of varying dimensions and heights, joined together. It was built for Edwin Forrest, a famous 19th century Shakespearean actor. The architect is claimed by some to have been Thomas C. Smith of NYC. Barbaralee Diamondstein, in her book - Landmarks of New York - states that "the design has been attributed to Alexander Jackson Davis."
Construction started in 1848 and completed in 1852. Forrest never occupied the house. He and his wife were divorced and the large property was sold to the Sisters of Charity who founded Mt. St. Vincent College at the site. Fonthill was used variously as a library and offices by the college.
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1853 |
1901 |
1918 |
1898 |
Glen Aubrey History according to 1996 article.
The home was built between 1835 and 1850 by tanner George W Smith. The huge porch and pillars stood until 1938. They were costly to repair and Route 26 was also enlarged at that time. The porch measured 132 feet around. He used the grout wall construction on his 3-story house including an above-ground basement. Oftimes Smith would occupy the cupola to keep watch on his workers below. It was said his rooms were decorated with silk wallhangings. He died at 44 yrs. in 1859. The Widow Smith then sold the uncompleted house to Lorenzo & Josephine Tanner for $10,000. The third floor was partitioned to have 8 rooms. TheTanners hired paper hangers from NY city for the parlors which were on the 2nd floor. They had floor to ceiling windows and rolled into the walls. The 2 doors between the 2 large parlors also rolled back.(Pocket doors??) The home had 3 inside staircases and 2 outside. Tanner also ran a grocery store on the property to provide supplies for his workers.
Tanner (as was customary at the time) paid another man to serve his place in the Civil War. When that man was killed, Tanner provided for his wife and family. 50 yrs later, his daughter Ida May Tanner sold the home. A later owner (circa 1930) Arthur Ames remove several of the porch columns. The basement was converted to a tavern in 1930s. In 1963 it was operated by a man named James Greene. In 1996, the house had become a tavern and Inn when it burned to the ground.
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1938 |
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1920 |
Burned - 1996. |
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An octagon house was built here in Broome County around 1900. It is a single story home, now cedar-sided at 856 North Sanford Road. The Greek revival styling is evident in the small rectangular windows at the attic level.
Harriet Rumola and Lawrence have lived in the house for 49 years. When they bought it, the kitchen had been built on and then they built even more on in back of the kitchen. The octagonal section was the original part built 18-- something Harriet thought.
It had been four rooms. The stairway is where it was originally but they had added the bannister.(The knotty pine is a much later addition.) Upstairs were three bedrooms when they bought it but they had made it into two big bedrooms. Currently the octagonal section is one big room with two posts in the middle that sort of separate the living area and the dining room. The house was reportedly built by a man who had a blacksmith shop across the road in 1840.The family who owned it before them was named Arthur Lynn and before that Snedecker.
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2012 |
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2012 |
2012 |
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1937 |
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1973 |
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Erected before 1860 by the Hon. Joseph E. Weeden a lawyer, this one story house with a high basement stood on Ames (later Weeden) Rd.
In 1911 the Albert Burkharts resided here, managing the farm for the owner : their son Oliver was born there (source: Oct 20. 1971 Randolph Register.) In 1927, owner Fred Smith removed the cupola and declared the room arrangement were unfit for modern requirements. The workmanship of the wood work was highly detailed and of the best quality. It had a high basement, one story , with a room in the cupola and considered one of the showplaces of the area. The timbers and woodwork were salvaged.
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Jos Weeder, house builder. |
1927 |
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1875 |
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1904 |
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Two story octagon home with cupola & carriage house both extant stands at 99 Chestnut St. According to tax and census records, it was built ca. 1865 by Levi L. Pratt and his wife Sarah Selma "Selina" Buckingham Pratt, Pratt left town alone in 1871 for a new position with Brockway's Times in Watertown NY. Selena and the children remained in Fredonia with her parents, and the octagon was foreclosed upon the next year. Following the foreclosure upon the octagon, a Sheriff's Deed conveyed it to Isaac A. Saxton, Jr. and wife Louisa Pier. After Isaac died of heart disease in 1884 Louisa may have lived on this suburban farm for the rest of the decade. Even when she left the Fredonia area, Louisa's son Henry and daughter-in-law retained ownership of the octagon and its farm. However, since Henry lived in Chicago, the home seems to have been occupied by a series of renters, or perhaps persons who had briefly optioned it. By the mid 1890's, Widow Mrs Earl Douglas Bacon lived in the home, probably with her adult daughter Ellen and adult son Henry. Some 19th century directories showed the home as 51 Chestnut Street, but it had been renumbered as 99 Chestnut Street by 1899. The censuses of 1905 and 1910 showed the octagon inhabited by a Swedish couple named John and Clara Brown, both in late middle age. The 1915 census showed Louis and Bernice Silman in the home, both in their early thirties. Bernice's brother Chase Bagley (age 26) and nephew Franklin Bagley (age 3) were also in the home. Henry Saxton and his wife conveyed the home to Ernest H. Seeley in 1917 & his wife Alice ; they maintained their residence in the octagon for the next three decades. In 1950, four years after Ernest died of heart disease, Alice conveyed the home to John D. Boyd and Ralph D. Boyd who kept it only four years before conveying to the Brandts. According to the Censor of 29 November 1951, there was a small fire in the home, but it caused only minimal smoke and water damage to the area under and behind the kitchen sink. Like the Seeleys and the Boyds, subsequent owners have lovingly continued the home's Victorian traditions. This story prepared by Wendy Straight and Doug Shepard, July 2016. Present owner is architect William McGraw, a circumstance which bodes well for the preservation of this unique dwelling. The property now encompasses 9.2 acres, having dwindled slightly from the original purchase.
This story prepared by Wendy Straight and Doug Shepard, July 2016.
Present owner is architect William McGraw, a circumstance which bodes well for the preservation of this unique dwelling. The property now encompasses 9.2 acres, having dwindled slightly from the original purchase.
2009 |
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1960s |
1960s |
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1881 |
1951 |
September 9, 1954 |
1951 |
L. L. Pratt |
Lily Dale Octagon
By Historian Ron Nagy.
Number 10 Library Street was leased by Mrs. Hanna Stearns-1890. Hanna and her husband Mr. J. Stearns were currently leasing and residing at number 12 North Street. Many questions concern the only Octagon Building in Lily Dale and one of the few in the entire Western New York area. My assumption is: Dr. Erastus Hyde and his wife Julia before residing in Lily Dale had an Octagon style house [1871] built in the area of Friendship, N.Y. The Hydes moved to Lily Dale in the early 1880¿s and soon after became permanent residents. The Hydes did not sell their Octagon House in Friendship, N.Y. The Hydes and Stearns most likely became friends-during one of many conversations the idea of the Octagon style building surfaced.
The Octagon House 10 Library Street was never used as a residence. Its purpose was defined as: for private meetings and lectures and also a permanent place for the children¿s Lyceum [the latter stated purpose never materialized]. Music and dance instruction was conducted by Mrs. Julia Hyde. Mrs. Hyde previously taught music at the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music while Mr. Hyde was completing his medical degree [Homeopathy] at Hahnemann Hospital.
The Political Equality club along with the Summer School of Psychic Science each called the Octagon Building home. The School of Psychic Science was an all around series of class preparation for the Religion of Spiritualism. This school 1893-1902 was the forerunner to the Morris Pratt Institute, Whitewater, Wisconsin.
Mrs. Stearns either sold or gifted the Octagon House to Lily Dale in 1898. The Junior League-a [precursor to the Mediums League] and the Mediums League have used the Octagon Building for as long as anyone can remember.
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1890's |
2021 |
The photo on the left, above, dates from the 1930s or 1940s, when the structure began to be used by the Junior League.
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Side view. |
Twain in the window. |
1940's |
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Moving to Elmira College. |
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1869 |
1904 |
Late 1880s |
1907 |
1910 |
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Likely a 1950s photo. |
1952 |
A 1985 photo. |
An October, 2011, photo. |
An October, 2011, photo. |
1875 |
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January 30, 1946 |
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November 14, 1928 |
January 30, 1946 |
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Backyard. |
Side view. |
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1917 |
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1875 |
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1875 |
1930 |
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1926 |
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November, 2012. |
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November, 2012. |
November, 2012. |
November, 2012. |
September 14, 1974 |
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1905 |
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Myron and Aletta Hamblens owned it in 1893-1895 as newlyweds. |
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Photo from 1939. |
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Photo from the 1950s. |
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1961. |
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June 14, 1959. |
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2012 - 42.328555, -73.752884 |
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2012 - 42.328973, -73.753782 |
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October 30, 1947 |
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1980s, before restoration. |
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March 8, 2005 - part 1 |
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March 8, 2005 - part 2 |
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1952 |
1963 or before |
2013 |
1873 |
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1894 |
1926 |
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c1960 |
Sig Sautelle's Circus winter quarters, built in 1905 in Homer N.Y. It is a three story 55' octagon building, built to look like a circus tent. It has ten bedrooms each with a closet on the second floor. The first floor has five large rooms and three smaller rooms 80% of the original tin walls and ceilings are intact on both the first and second floors. It has a full 55' octagon basement and a 45' octagon third floor attic. On top of it all is a 10' octagon cupola and seven dormers.
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April 12, 1991 |
June 19, 1918 |
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September 9, 1909 |
September 2, 1972 |
July 16 & 18, 1894 |
1952 |
April 2, 1908 |
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1915 |
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The round house is at 80 Cortland Street. It is dated from pre-1865. Information below from 1982 Building-Structure Inventory. "It's a clapboard structure with vinyl siding, and a metal roof. The Vinyl siding was added in 1978. Other additions and alterations include a new porch base, one-over-one double hung sash windows, and an ell to the east, which was originally used as a residence, and is now a kitchen.
The first name associated with the Round House is Joseph Conger, a cooper and one of the founding members of the Baptist Church. He was the son of Ino Conger of Freetown. It is speculated that the building was erected in its round form as a type of advertising for Conger's trade.
Deed research performed in the late 1940s produced the following list of owners: April 1, 1865 Joseph Conger and wife to Alanson Benjamin Jan 7, 1878 Alanson Benjamin to Charles H. Bouton Jan. 7, 1878 Charles H. Bouton and wife to Harriet Benjamin July 8, 1889 Harriet W. Benjamin to Charles H. Bouton Feb. 8, 1890 Charles H. Bouton and wife to Reuben P. Fish March 29, 1899 Reuben P. Fish and wife to Mary Mack December 11, 1909 Randolph Mack to Harry Mack (his son) March 3, 1919 Harry Mack to Lewis and Ella Albro
Mrs. Ella Albro died and Mr. Albro remarried. He passed away in 1947 and his widow continued to live in the residence. Ellis and Wanda Hopkins have occupied the residence since 1957. They rented the home from Mrs. Frank Albro until she passed away. They bought the home in 1968.
Alanson Benjamin's daughter Harriet was married to Charles Bouton in this house on October 15, 1867. Charles Bouton was in the pork and produce business and later built the three buildings at 4 Broome Street. Reuben P. Fish was a farmer and superintendent of the Marathon cemetary (sic). Randolph Mack was also a farmer and for a time owned a hardware business.
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1939 |
c1950 |
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Note the railroad track. |
Rail depot |
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2015 |
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Fowler obiturary. |
Satellite view of location of Fowler's home |
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Millbrook rountable, 1967 |
1876 |
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1870 |
1895 |
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Our Red Hook Public Library, New York, is a 10 room octagonal house, begun October, 1864, and finished December, 1865, built by Allan Barringer Hendricks. The foundation is poured concrete made with Rosendale Cement. It is virtually unchanged from the page 171 photo in The Octagon Fad by Carl F. Schmidt, 1958 and in remarkably intact condition.
Hendricks lived in the house for over 60 years. After his death, at age 93 , it stood empty for several years. In 1935, it was purchased by the Red Hook Public Library (chartered June 27, 1898) for $3,850. It cost $900 to renovate and $1,289.40 for furniture. Most of this was donated as memorials.
The original roof was slate. Round iron pillars were used on the porch and replaced by wooden pillars when the library was renovated. The outside walls are covered in stucco.
The original kitchen and dining room were in the basement, open to the garden. The furnace room and storage room are located against the hill. There were four bedrooms and a bath on the top floor which is now used as an apartment by the caretaker. Only one room over the stairs is v-shaped. The corners are used for the closets.
The first two photographs below show the house as it appeared in 1939:
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April 17, 1974 |
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1867 |
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Image from perhaps the 1950's. |
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1934 |
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Rhinebeck NY b. 1860 by attorney Ambrose Wager -- 6484 Montgomery Street (Route 9), Rhinebeck. It appears on the Rhinebeck map of 1876. Aka The Reed House.
(Wager later built an 2nd empire mansion also still standing). . Its owner's mother in law, Mrs. Harry H. Hill , had an ugly addition put on the back c 1935, however the front of the house is fairly original with the octagon.
The the same family has owned it since about 1900. Maybe the plans are in the house, however nobody ever gets in there. The owner does not allow the public in the house because she was warned by the BCI NEVER to open her house for a nonprofit event as it's too hard to secure. It is on a huge village lot, about 12 acres, with barn, outbuilding, etc. that backs right up to the fairgrounds property, which the family inherited through Edward Livingston as their g-g-g grandfather Garret Van Keuren was Livingston's financial secretary. The house is listed in the National Landmark District for Rhinebeck which at the time (c 1980) was the largest district of its kind in New York State.
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September 15, 1967 |
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1930 |
January 26, 1939. |
March 19, 1954 |
February 26, 1933 |
1880 |
July 14, 1946 |
August 3, 1963 |
1884 |
1889 |
1894 |
1967 |
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1876 |
'The house is located on the Factoryville Road in Crown Point, NY see photo below taken today. I can recall that 20 years ago some of the gingerbread decoration along the edge of the roof still existed. Grey's 1876 Atlas of Essex County,NY, plate 18, map of "Factoryville" indicates the house occupied by one "C.P. Fobes" '
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1876 |
1870's |
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2013 |
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2013 |
Interior views.
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Bedroom |
Livingroom |
Music room |
Stairway |
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1868 |
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1890 |
May 4, 1871 |
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c1975 |
c1891 |
c1897 |
1972 |
LittleFallsarticle2011 Octagon houses were popular between 1850 and 1860 By Nan Ressue
Little Falls, N.Y. ¿
One of Little Falls architectural treasures is about to begin a new chapter in its history as new owners for our only octagon house are being sought. Located at 102 W. Gansevoort St., this single family residence is an excellent example of the octagon style popular in the United States between 1850 and 1860, and was considered to be excitingly forward thinking for its time period.
The octagon style is the only completely American contribution to classical architecture which became popular in main stream housing designs. The approximately 3,000 extant examples, largely clustered in the Midwest, New York and Massachusetts, make them well known in our locality but, on a national basis, they are considered rare. Historic examples of octagon structures include a garden schoolhouse at Mount Vernon, Thomas Jefferson's summer home Poplar Forest, octagonal wings and projections on the John Adams' houses and our own historic 18th century Octagon Church once located on Church Street. Other octagon structures in our area include the well-known limestone Yale house in Newport, a private residence on Third Street in Ilion and a small octagon brick structure on St. Johnsville's Kingsbury Avenue.
The ten year period of popularity enjoyed by the octagon house was largely the result of vigorous promotion by Orson Squire Fowler through his 1848 volume, "A Home for All; Gravel Wall and Octagon Mode of Building," a revolutionary attempt to reach beyond traditional building designs and techniques. Mr. Fowler, an amateur architect and phrenologist, extolled the virtues of a better ventilated and lighted and therefore healthier home which was resistant to mold and one which provided more interior space than the traditional home of right angles. Most examples have central spiral staircases and triangular corner spaces which were perfect for closets. A cupola would bring light and air into the building interior and the gravel (concrete) foundation and/or walls composed of gravel, shale, lime and sand would be cheaper construction. Mr. Fowler stressed that octagon designs enclosed more floor space per linear foot of exterior wall than the traditional right angled designs. He also advocated indoor plumbing, central heating and board walls.
A wooden octagon, such as the Little Falls example, would be a cheaper version than those of stone or brick. Orson Fowler¿s personal rendition of his octagon style was a 100 room mansion in Fishkill.
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1855 |
1881 |
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1868 |
c1975 |
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1906 |
1866 |
1994 |
Images 3 and 14 show the house in perhaps 1920, based on the vintage of the cars. of Image 8 is a photo of the house in about 1902.
Image 9 shows the house and the Yale lock shop. Also shown is what was called Perry Park. This was never a public park, but belongs to the owners of an Italian villa designed by Alexander jackson Davis for Stuart Perry, some time in 1847 or 1848, of the same limestone as the octagon house. In the 1920s and 1930s the house was a successful restaurant called Three Islands. The houses is located at 7551 Main Street.
Images 10, 11, and 12, show the Yale Lock shop at different times. Image 10 is undated, but plausibly from around 1900. Image 11 is thought to be from about 1940. The deterioraton is probably as much a result of vandalism as the weather.
Images 15 shows the house in year 2010.
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March 13, 1884 |
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1900 |
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2018 |
1868 |
1884 |
1898 |
1951 |
Postcard - c1950 |
1890 |
1890 |
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According to the Brooklyn Eagle in 1914, this house, at 300 8th Street, near 5th Avenue, was the oldest standing house in Park Slope. In 1913, when this photograph was taken, it was the home of the late Asa B. Richardson, who was, among many things in his long life, a hops merchant and a man ¿engaged in the commission business,¿ according to the paper. I think that means he was a salesman. Whatever he did, he did it well. At any rate, in 1850, he purchased this house, in a neighborhood the paper said residents called Gowanus, but the paper called ¿the Park Slope¿. The large, octagonal house with the prominent tower was called, appropriately, the Tower House, and had been built a few years before that by a German who modeled the house after his ancestral castle on the Rhine, also according to the paper. Seems unlikely, but it¿s a good story.
The house was octagonal, 25 feet wide, and the round front tower contained a stairway. The paper said the original entrance in the front led to a ground floor dining room and kitchen, and the circular stairway led upstairs to the main parlors on the second level, which took up the entire floor. In 1876, Mr. Richardson remodeled the house completely. He added an entire brownstone house to the side, moved the entrance to this building, with a stoop and parlor stairs, and put a mansard roof on the whole thing. He also added an addition to the back. Inside, Richardson had the circular staircase removed from the tower, and the interior stairs were moved to the entrance side of the building. He lived here with his wife and daughter. His daughter tragically died first, then his wife, and in 1908, he too, passed away, at the ripe old age of 87. He had been active in the Board of Education, and had been one of the guiding hands behind the building of PS 39 on 8th Street and 6th Avenue, an event he considered his legacy.
The Eagle went on to mention that when Asa Richardson bought this house, the land around him was still farmland, with the vast estate of Edwin Litchfield stretching all around. Houses were just being developed above 6th Avenue, and a large estate took up the entirety of 8th Street, presumably between 6th and 5th Avenue. In 1910, Richardson¿s nephew sold the house to a developer who planned on razing it and building an apartment building, but the project never came to fruition. The property was sold again, this time to a fish merchant named, most appropriately, J.G. Hook, who lived in it only long enough to sell it to a developer who also bought Temple Bnai Sholaum, which backed this property, and faced 6th Avenue. He planned to tear down both buildings and put up a vaudeville theater.
A theater called the Paradise RKO Prospect Theater was built at this location in 1914, with its face on 9th Street, and rear elevated section on 8th, where the Tower House once stood. The building is now condos, with retail on 9th Street. Sadly, this unique confection of a building, with its Rhine Valley tower and Mansard roof, is long gone. The Brooklyn Eagle, in the days well before preservation, simply ended its piece on the house noting that demolition of ¿the old landmark¿ would begin in three weeks
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1874 |
1910 |
1910 |
1910 |
1913 |
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1885 |
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c1950 |
2005 |
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October 4, 1952 |
1875 |
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August 13, 1984 |
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1956 |
1981 |
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August 8, 1890 |
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August 17, 1950 |
c1975 |
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c1970 |
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c1930 |
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1875 |
1947 |
1879 |
1875 |
2016 |
2016 |
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Undated. |
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1875 |
1880 |
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1888 |
1910 |
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Ownership timeline. |
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1882 |
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1966 |
November 18, 1943 |
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May 13, 1979 |
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1903 |
1886 |
1897 |
1972 |
1970's |
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1905 |
1896 |