Richard Austin House
Richard Austin House | |
Gothic Revival | |
NRHP reference No. | 88001527[1] |
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Added to NRHP | September 20, 1988 |
The Richard Austin House is located on Croton Avenue (
At the time the house was built, Ossining was beginning its transition from a country town to a commuter suburb of New York City. The Austin House is one of the few from that period of the community's history to remain completely intact, both outside and in,[2] although two extensions were added in the 20th century. It is currently the home of the Ossining Historical Society, which operates a museum in the building.
Building and grounds
The house is located on a half-acre (2,000 m2)
A group of mature shade trees buffer the lot along Croton. From the corner a driveway leads to a small parking lot south of the house. A flagpole is on the front lawn. A display case on the property holds an old farm wagon and an original mile marker from the
Exterior
The main block of the house is a two-and-a-half-story, rectangular, three-
All faces are sided in
On both stories, windows are set with double-hung two-over-two sash, with decorative drip-mold wooden lintels and flanking louvered wooden shutters. The attic windows are smaller and round-arched, but otherwise have the same treatment. On the rear extension's west face, the windows of a small flat-roofed projecting bay are one-over-one double-hung sash, and are matched by recessed panels in the basement beneath. The south (rear) facade of the main block has the same window treatment but a simpler, square, single-light, single-hung attic window.[2]
Below the roofline is a simple wooden
The garage addition has a gabled roof. Its foundation is purely brick. It has three-light casement windows in the basement and large double doors with six-light windows.[2]
Interior
An extensively molded surround frames the segmental arched main entrance. It has panelled reveals and a transom with a single light. The double doors have decorated panels below double-light hinged windows.[2] They open onto the original floor plan. A central hall with a stairway to the upper floors. On the east is a living room, with a dining room opposite, and the kitchen to the rear of that. Double doors at the south end lead to the rear veranda.[2]
The main feature of the living room is its original fireplace. It has a stone
Both the living and dining rooms share molded
A staircase with a
With the exception of an east room set off by vertical boards, the attic is unfinished. Brick nogging is in between the gable studs and the rafters, where they meet the floor. Below the first floor, double bulkhead doors of paneled wood sheathed in metal under a segmental arched brick lintel lead to the basement. Inside, the basement has a concrete floor, round wooden supports and a wooden staircase to the kitchen.[2]
The garage addition's first floor has been extensively renovated for residential purposes and does not have much of its original finish. Some traces remain, such as the stuccoed walls, tin ceilings and ceiling radiators.[2]
History
Originally known as Sing Sing, Ossining was for its earliest years primarily a port along the
Development began to benefit Ossining in the next several decades. First the Post Road was relocated to the west, creating the crossroads that now centers the village's
Ossining was now an hour from the city by train, making it possible to work there and live in what was still the country. Within the railroad's first year it was already offering three extra trains during morning
During this era Richard Austin, a local lawyer whose family had been living in the area since 1820, was one of many to recognize the potential for growth. Along with his family, he bought vacant local parcels and sold them to people who would build houses on them. Throughout the seven decades of peak
In 1878, he was living on Main Street downtown, near where he worked. He decided to build a new family home on two acres (8,100 m2) then just outside the village limit, in an area where farmland was slowly giving way to middle-class housing. There were over 20 houses within a half-mile (1 km) of the site.[2]
Austin chose to build in the
While it is a rather late application of the style, the Austin House nevertheless has the features Downing advocated. It has a single, symmetrical form with cross-
The Austins lived in the house for 15 years after its construction, by which time the suburbanization of Ossining was complete. After they sold the house in 1893, it passed through other private owners. One of them built the two-and-a-half-story rear addition in 1911. In 1920, a barn that had originally been on the rear of the property was removed to a short distance away and converted into a residence. By 1930, the garage addition had been built.[2][4]
There have been no other significant changes to the house. In 1970, it was sold to the Ossining Historical Society,[2] which moved there from its former quarters in Washington School, another National Register-listed property a mile to the west along Croton. It uses the house as its offices and a museum, open by appointment only.[5]
See also
References
- ^ a b "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Robert D. Kuhn (July 1988). "National Register of Historic Places Registration:Richard Austin House". New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. Retrieved 2010-12-24. See also: "Accompanying five photos".
- ^ Village of Ossining; "Village of Ossining Significant Sites and Structures Guide" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-08-13. (20.9 MB), April 2010; p. 34; retrieved February 10, 2013.
- ^ a b Significant Sites and Structures, 171.
- ^ "Hours & Directions". Ossining Historical Society. Archived from the original on September 12, 2014. Retrieved February 10, 2013.