The Amelia Barr House, also known as Cherry Croft, is located on Mountain Road in

Cornwall on Hudson Cornwall-on-Hudson is a riverfront Administrative divisions of New York#Village, village in the town of Cornwall, New York, Cornwall, Orange County, New York, Orange County, New York, United States. It lies on the west bank of the Hudson River, ...

,New York Times 1911 a village in Orange County,

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, United States. It is on the slopes of Storm King Mountain, near

Storm King School The Storm King School (SKS) is an independent coeducational boarding and day school in the U.S. state of New York. Established in 1867, it is one of New York's oldest boarding schools. It is a college preparatory school for students in ...

. Barr, the most published American female writer born in the 19th century, lived here during the most prolific and successful period of her career. Barr, an

Englishwoman The English people are an ethnic group and nation native to England, who speak the English language, a West Germanic language, and share a common history and culture. The English identity is of Anglo-Saxon origin, when they were known in ...

who came to the United States from Lancashire at the age of 19, moved to New York City in the early 1870s with her daughters from Galveston, Texas, after her husband and six of her nine children died of yellow fever. There she began to write fiction. In 1885, she and her daughters began spending summers at a boardinghouse in Cornwall. Her

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

s eventually became successful enough that, in 1891, she could afford to buy the cottage, previously rented by artist

Abbot Handerson Thayer Abbott Handerson Thayer (August 12, 1849May 29, 1921) was an American artist, naturalist and teacher. As a painter of portraits, figures, animals and landscapes, he enjoyed a certain prominence during his lifetime, and his paintings are represe ...

. After highly regarded local builders Mead and Taft renovated it extensively, she renamed it Cherry Croft, and accordingly most of her work from that time period came to be known as the Cherry Croft novels. She summered there until selling it in 1915, when she moved to White Plains to be cared for by her daughter Lilly. Mead and White's renovations resulted in a 3,500-square foot (315 m²) three-

storey A storey (British English) or story (American English) is any level part of a building with a floor that could be used by people (for living, work, storage, recreation, etc.). Plurals for the word are ''storeys'' (UK) and ''stories'' (US). T ...

home with six bedrooms, four

bathrooms A bathroom or washroom is a room, typically in a home or other residential building, that contains either a bathtub or a shower (or both). The inclusion of a wash basin is common. In some parts of the world e.g. India, a toilet is typically i ...

, library, living room and

dining room A dining room is a room (architecture), room for eating, consuming food. In modern times it is usually adjacent to the kitchen for convenience in serving, although in medieval times it was often on an entirely different floor level. Historically ...

. It has a 1,000-square foot (90 m²) wraparound porch. Barr had a turreted writing room added on upstairs for her use. The original fixtures and trim, including the window screens, are still in place. In 1982, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places. It has been repainted in white and black from the brown with red trim Barr favored. After continuous occupation since Barr's day, in April 2006 it became vacant, and remains so, although work is actively being done on the house .

References

;Notes ;Bibliography * {{DEFAULTSORT:Barr, Amelia, House English-American history Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in New York (state) Houses in Orange County, New York National Register of Historic Places in Orange County, New York Houses completed in 1891 Cornwall, New York