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2009 Heritage Award Properties
The Clark-Berrian House (late 1700s)
1120 North Avenue
Just before the Revolutionary War, when New Rochelle was a farming community of roughly 700 inhabitants, Moses Clark built a home in the northern part of New Rochelle on a tract of land owned by the Seacords, whose patriarch, Ambroise Sicard, was one of the first settlers. Clark’s simple dwelling grew as it became home to his descendants and their spouses - Clarks, Seacords and Berrians, well into the 20th century. Each owner tailored the house to the family’s needs. Although the current structure is considerably larger and altered from its original two-over-two simple structure, each era has been well preserved. Retaining its farmhouse character, the private residence continues to be a daily reminder of New Rochelle’s centuries as an agrarian community.
Mahlstedt House - Huguenot Library Branch (Huguenot Children’s Library) (1869)
794 North Avenue
Possibly the first brick residence in New Rochelle, the Mahlstedt family lived here while managing a thriving ice-making business on the large lake the house overlooked. Once ice could be made in home freezers, the business became obsolete. The 40 acres of property were sold to the City of New Rochelle in 1922 for a new high school and park. The lake became Twin Lakes by a causeway leading to the school; the land along North Avenue was groomed into Huguenot Park; and the charming brick house was transformed into a branch of the New Rochelle Public Library, which is remained for 70 years. The City’s financial crisis forced its closing in 1992. The Partnership for the Huguenot Children’s Library raised more than $350,000 to gut the building, rebuild the interior and rehabilitate the exterior. Through “sweat equity” and donations from local contractors and suppliers, the French Second Empire-style building was beautifully restored and the Huguenot Children’s Library was created.
The Arcade Building (The Curtain Shop) (1897)
541 Main Street
Huguenot Yacht Club (c. 1910)
Harbor Lane West
Overlooking Glen Island, the house that is now home
to the Huguenot Yacht Club was built around 1910 on a tract owned by the
esteemed Judge Martin Keogh. The (unknown) architect/builder employed a type of
design that was popular in the rapidly growing community of New Rochelle in the
early 1900s. The 2 ½ story Mediterranean Revival-style house was constructed on
structural tile finished in white stucco, with a hipped roof of red barrel
tiles. Actresses Lillian and Dorothy Gish rented the house in 1919 - 1920 while
working for D. W. Griffith, whose studios were on Orienta Point in
Mamaroneck. While living here the
sisters filmed “Orphans of the Storm” and Lillian starred in “Way Down East”.
She also directed a movie for Griffith and filmed it in New Rochelle. The Huguenot Yacht Club was the third yacht
club to be established on the western part of the Sound. Founded in 1894 as the
Neptune Yacht Club on Neptune Island, the organization soon changed its name to
the Huguenot Yacht Club. When the
original boathouse on the Lower Harbor burned in 1965, the club’s members
purchased the Harbor Lane West property that included Lion’s Boat Yard, two
lots and the Spanish Mediterranean house. The members made a conscious decision
to retain the original integrity of the exemplary residence as they transformed
it into their clubhouse.
“Blue Anchor” - Former home of Cartoonist Clare Briggs (1917)
1 Byworth Road
This Tudor-style house was built for famed cartoonist Clare Briggs in 1917. It was designed by architect Henry G. Morse and constructed of 100 tons of timbers salvaged from an 18th century schooner and purchased by Mr. Briggs from a New Jersey shipyard. “The old English style of architecture so lends itself to the rugged old timbers that many authorities have pronounced the house the best example of English architecture in this country,” Briggs wrote of the house in 1918. He called his home “Blue Anchor” after the artifact that still hangs in the basement. Briggs was one of America’s earliest “strip” artists, earning his fame with one called “When a feller needs a friend.” At the height of his career his cartoons appeared in 180 newspapers, read by 2 million people each day. Many of Briggs’ comics involved his beloved game of golf. He joined the Wykagyl Country Club in 1914 and located his house across from the course.
Former Women’s Club of New Rochelle - Zion Baptist Church (1924)
50 Lockwood Avenue
The New Rochelle Women’s Club was established in 1912, when Mrs. Lawrence E. Van Etten gathered together and a group of 45 well-to-do women, and formed the organization “to work for any and every sort of improvement in New Rochelle.” By the 1920s the club had grown in membership and endowment to allow for the construction of a dedicated clubhouse on Lockwood Avenue. The Tudor Revival-style building, constructed at a cost of $133,000, using stone and slate donated by a member’s family, was ready for occupancy in March, 1924. By the early 1960s, when the club could no longer afford its upkeep, the building was put it up for sale. At the same time, the home of the Zion Baptist Church (established in 1931) at 57 Anderson Street was claimed by an Urban Renewal project.
Fire Stations
Fire Station No. 4 (1910)
155 Drake Avenue
Fire Station No. 4 was built on
Drake Avenue for the Neptune Hose Company, (later named Neptune Engine
Company), in 1910. At the time, the company was entirely volunteer firefighters
and the apparatus was pulled by horses, also housed in the building. The station has since been updated in pace
with the times and New Rochelle’s ever-improving fire service–beginning with
motorized equipment and professional, rather than volunteer, fire fighters. A
renovation in the late 1980s brought the structure up to code and modern times,
while maintaining the design of the original exterior. Arched windows, keystone
over the bay door, concrete lintels and cornices, and the “Flemish Bond”
styling of brick work mimic the details of the 1910 building. Today, the
structure stands as a unique example of Dutch Revival style of architecture,
patterned after the earliest buildings of the original Dutch settlements on the
Hudson River.
Fire Station No. 3 (1912)
756 North Avenue
Fire Station No. 2 (1923)
170 Webster Avenue
A critical need for more public
services and buildings to house them was created by another surge in New
Rochelle’s population, World War I. Fire Station Number Two, was designed by
top architects and built with quality materials, replacing a building at Union
and Second Street that housed Union Engine Company, founded in 1901. Local
master builders M. Bartnett & Sons completed the building in 1923, with
designs by architect Fredrick Winter. Like the earlier New Rochelle fire
stations, it is a rectangular masonry structure – but with interesting and
complementary architectural details. The arched openings on the equipment doors
are trimmed with limestone surrounds and capped with keystones. A beltcourse of
smooth limestone runs between the first and second floors. The roof is of
barrel tile that overhangs the façade. These design elements, intended to give
notice to a public building, but complement a residential neighborhood,
continue to serve their purpose.