The Lefferts-Laidlaw House is a historic villa located in the

Wallabout Wallabout Bay is a small body of water in Upper New York Bay along the northwest shore of the New York City borough of Brooklyn, between the present Williamsburg and Manhattan Bridges. It is located opposite Corlear's Hook in Manhattan, acros ...

neighborhood of

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, United States. Built around 1840, the house is a two-story frame building in the temple-fronted

Greek Revival The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but a ...

style.

History

The house site was originally part of a 100 feet wide by 246 feet deep tract of land purchased in 1834 by Henry Ryer, a Manhattan merchant, from George Washington Pine. Ryer divided the property, located on the west side of Clinton Avenue (named in honor of New York Governor DeWitt Clinton.) into four 25 feet wide lots. After a few sales and repurchases, the land was bought by Rem Lefferts, a Brooklyn merchant, and his brother-in-law John Laidlaw. The main portion of the house was built about 1840. A two-room wing that was only one story was likely built between 1836 and 1840 between the main portion of the house and the rear kitchen. The first residents were Leffert Lefferts Jr. (1791-1868), Rem's older brother, and Amelia Ann Cozine Lefferts (1782-1878), daughter of Margaret Roosevelt (granddaughter of Johannes Roosevelt) and John Cozine (d. 1796), a New York attorney and judge of the

New York State Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the State of New York is the trial-level court of general jurisdiction in the New York State Unified Court System. (Its Appellate Division is also the highest intermediate appellate court.) It is vested with unlimited civ ...

. In November 1843, Lefferts sold the property to his sister, Sarah Lefferts Millard (1805-1849), and brother-in-law, A. Orville Millard (b. 1809). Millard was a native of

Ulster County Ulster County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. It is situated along the Hudson River. As of the 2020 census, the population was 181,851. The county seat is Kingston. The county is named after the Irish province of Ulster. History ...

and moved to New York City in 1830 to study law, opening an office on Nassau Street in Manhattan. In 1849, Sarah Millard died following the birth of her sixth child. Millard owned the home until it was purchased by real estate investor Robert Bage in April 1854.

Style

The house is a two-story frame building in the temple-fronted

style. It consists of a two-story central section with a one-story south elevation and two-story rear extension. The front facade features a gabled portico supported by four

Corinthian Corinthian or Corinthians may refer to: *Several Pauline epistles, books of the New Testament of the Bible: **First Epistle to the Corinthians **Second Epistle to the Corinthians **Third Epistle to the Corinthians (Orthodox) *A demonym relating to ...

fluted columns with an iconic entablature and

pediment Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds. A pedim ...

. ''See also:'' Similar to many Greek Revival mansions of the period, the House originally had an elaborate entrance surround featuring an architrave, palmettes, and rosettes. The design was most likely inspired by

Minard Lafever Minard Lafever (1798–1854) was an American architect of churches and houses in the United States in the early nineteenth century. Life and career Lafever began life as a carpenter around 1820. At this period in the United States there were no ...

's ''Modern Builders' Guide'' (published in 1833) and ''The Beauties of Modem Architecture'' (published in 1835). Vintage photographs reveal that the house built by Henry Ryer house next door (since demolished) had a nearly identical entrance and used the same column capitals, which leads historians to suggest that both houses were been erected by the same builder or designed by the same architect. During the 1940s or the 1950s, the period columns were removed and were replaced with square pillars. The building was refaced with asphalt shingles and a synthetic faux-brick siding and the southern end of the lot was transformed into a driveway shared with another home on Clinton Avenue. In the 1970s and 1980s, the home was bought and restored by Allen Handelman and Richard Arnow. It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 1985.

Present day

In September 2016, the house was listed for sale for $4,500,000. The house was unlisted and partially renovated before being privately sold in 2019 to a New York-based fashion designer.

References

{{Authority control Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Brooklyn New York City Designated Landmarks in Brooklyn Lefferts family Greek Revival houses in New York (state) Greek Revival architecture in New York City Houses completed in 1840