The Halsey Stevens House is a historic house located at 182 Grand Street in

Newburgh, New York Newburgh is a city in the U.S. state of New York, within Orange County. With a population of 28,856 as of the 2020 census, it is a principal city of the Poughkeepsie–Newburgh–Middletown metropolitan area. Located north of New York City, a ...

. It is one of the first residences designed by the architects

Calvert Vaux Calvert Vaux (; December 20, 1824 – November 19, 1895) was an English-American architect and landscape designer, best known as the co-designer, along with his protégé and junior partner Frederick Law Olmsted, of what would become New York Ci ...

and

Frederick Clarke Withers Frederick Clarke Withers (4 February 1828 – 7 January 1901) was an English architect in America, especially renowned for his Gothic Revival ecclesiastical designs. For portions of his professional career, he partnered with fellow immigrant Cal ...

after the death of their mentor

Andrew Jackson Downing Andrew Jackson Downing (October 31, 1815 – July 28, 1852) was an American landscape designer, horticulturist, and writer, a prominent advocate of the Gothic Revival in the United States, and editor of ''The Horticulturist'' magazine (1846–5 ...

the previous year. Listed as part of the Montgomery—Grand—Liberty Streets Historic District in Newburgh, the house has been well-preserved and demonstrates how both worked with Gothic Revival and

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian ...

styles. Halsey R. Stevens, their client, was a lumber dealer and Biblical scholar.

Significance

Halsey R. Stevens was born in

Enfield, New Hampshire Enfield is a town in Grafton County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 4,465 at the 2020 census. The town includes the villages of Enfield, Enfield Center, Upper Shaker Village, Lower Shaker Village, Lockehaven, and Montcalm. Enf ...

and as a teenager worked as a local schoolteacher. He relocated to the vicinity of

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native ...

and as a

philomath A philomath () is a lover of learning and studying. The term is from Greek (; "beloved", "loving", as in philosophy or philanthropy) and , (, ; "to learn", as in polymath). Philomathy is similar to, but distinguished from, philosophy in that ...

became interested in its literary societies and academic culture. In 1851, after serving as a community-oriented leader in

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to Lebanon–Syria border, the north and east and Israel to Blue ...

, he arrived in Newburgh to join in the lumber trade.Nutt, 198 He did business with David Moore, who had commissioned Downing & Vaux to design him a house in 1851 on Broad Street. Through this connection, Stevens approached Vaux & Withers to design his own residence near Moore's. Vaux included the design in his book ''Villas and Cottages'' (1857) as Design No. 10, "Suburban House with Attics," and specified it had been a collaboration with Withers. Most unique about the house is its "recessed porch," which Vaux believed "materially helps to relieve what would otherwise be a monotonous front." He meant for the upper balcony to be enclosed by glazing in the winter. Mainly for the development of the porch, which carries a semi-

Palladian Palladian architecture is a European architectural style derived from the work of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580). What is today recognised as Palladian architecture evolved from his concepts of symmetry, perspective and ...

air in its oculus window, the house has been regarded as noteworthy in antebellum Italian-inspired architecture.Lancaster, 143 Withers went on to use the house's street-facing elevation in his Eugene Brewster House (1865) further down the street and his President's House for Gallaudet University later in the 1860s.

References

* {{cite book, last=Kowsky, first=Francis R., url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J6zmCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA75, title=Country, Park & City: The Architecture and Life of Calvert Vaux, publisher=Oxford University Press, year=2003, isbn=978-0-19-517113-6, ref=Kowsky *Lancaster, C. (1952). "Italianism in American Architecture Before 1860." ''American Quarterly,'' ''4''(2), 127-148. doi:10.2307/3031385. *Nutt, John J. (1891). ''Newburgh: Her Institutions, Industries and Leading Citizens''. Newburgh, New York: Ritchie & Hull, Newburgh Journal. *Vaux, Calvert. (1857). ''Villas and Cottages.'' New York: Harper & Bros. Calvert Vaux designs Buildings and structures in Newburgh, New York Gothic Revival architecture in New York (state) Houses completed in 1855 Historic district contributing properties in New York (state) Houses in Orange County, New York