Nuits, also known as the Cottenet–Brown House, is an Italian

villa A villa is a type of house that was originally an ancient Roman upper class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became s ...

-style house located in the Ardsley-on-Hudson section of the village of Irvington,

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 The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. It is a stone Italian villa-style house built in the mid-19th century. In 1977 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 v ...

. It is the only surviving example of the early residential architecture of Detlef Lienau. Built for Francis Cottenet, a wealthy New York merchant, it was later owned and renovated by

Cyrus West Field Cyrus West Field (November 30, 1819July 12, 1892) was an American businessman and financier who, along with other entrepreneurs, created the Atlantic Telegraph Company and laid the first telegraph cable across the Atlantic Ocean in 1858. Early ...

John Jacob Astor III John Jacob Astor III (June 10, 1822 – February 22, 1890) was an American financier, philanthropist and a soldier during the American Civil War. He was a prominent member of the Astor family, becoming the wealthiest member in his generation and ...

and

Manhattan College Manhattan College is a private, Catholic, liberal arts university in the Bronx, New York City. Originally established in 1853 by the Brothers of the Christian Schools (De La Salle Christian Brothers) as an academy for day students, it was la ...

. It remains a private residence.

History

Francis Cottenet, the first resident and owner of the property, came to the U.S. from France in 1822 and started an import-export business, Cottenet & Co., in New York. After 30 years, he contracted Detlef Lienau, one of a number of European-born architects working in America, to design a riverside villa for him. It was originally located on , the sole house between the Albany Post Road (now

US 9 U.S. Route 9 (US 9) is a north–south United States highway in the states of Delaware, New Jersey, and New York in the Northeastern United States. It is one of only two U.S. Highways with a ferry connection (the Cape May–Lewes Ferry, betwe ...

) and the river in what has since become the Ardsley-on-Hudson section of Irvington. Lienau insisted on French

Caen limestone Caen stone (french: Pierre de Caen) is a light creamy-yellow Jurassic limestone quarried in north-western France near the city of Caen. The limestone is a fine grained oolitic limestone formed in shallow water lagoons in the Bathonian Age about 1 ...

Woyton, Michael (March 17, 2021
"Historic Estate Overlooking Hudson River For Sale"
'' Rivertowns Patch'' to be true to the appearance of its Continental models. Cottenet called on him again to remodel and expand the house in the late 1850s, just a few years after moving in. The locally based

Lord and Burnham Lord & Burnham was a noted American boiler and greenhouse manufacturer, and builders of major public conservatories in the United States. History The company began in 1849 when Frederick A. Lord, a carpenter, started building wood and glass gree ...

Company built the conservatory. The resulting structure was often pointed out to passengers on

steamship A steamship, often referred to as a steamer, is a type of steam-powered vessel, typically ocean-faring and seaworthy, that is propelled by one or more steam engines that typically move (turn) propellers or paddlewheels. The first steamships ...

s going up the Hudson, with the implication that it was the ideally tasteful home of a man of wealth. After Cottenet's death in 1884, it passed to another wealthy local,

, who had to sell a year later due to some unexpected financial setbacks. During his brief ownership, he placed in the

deed In common law, a deed is any legal instrument in writing which passes, affirms or confirms an interest, right, or property and that is signed, attested, delivered, and in some jurisdictions, sealed. It is commonly associated with transferring ...

restrictions on the property's future use, banning it from being used for certain purposes, such as industry, education, or sale to "disreputable" individuals. These remain in place, and ensure that it has been used only as a residence ever since. His buyer was

, who lived out the few years remaining in his life on the property. During that time, he managed to spend $100,000 on improvements, and built the stone gateway that still stands at Route 9 (now known as Broadway). His heirs sold the house to

, which spent the next few years trying to clear Field's restrictions from the deed and convert the home to

institution Institutions are humanly devised structures of rules and norms that shape and constrain individual behavior. All definitions of institutions generally entail that there is a level of persistence and continuity. Laws, rules, social conventions a ...

al use. Failing, the college sold to

Amzi Lorenzo Barber Amzi Lorenzo Barber (June 22, 1843 – April 17, 1909) was a pioneer of the asphalt industry in the United States, and an early participant in the automobile industry as well. He laid many of the roads in Westchester County, New York and was ...

, the "

Asphalt Asphalt, also known as bitumen (, ), is a sticky, black, highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum. It may be found in natural deposits or may be a refined product, and is classed as a pitch. Before the 20th century, the term a ...

King", a pioneer in paving as well as other businesses that would become prominent in the coming century. He sold off most of the surrounding acreage, clearing the way for the development of Ardsley-on-Hudson. Since then, Nuits has been the home of Robert Hewitt, Jr., engineer John Wiley, Gillies Coffee Company owner James Henry Schmelzel, and investment banker Martin W. Dolan. A restoration which took almost 20 years was completed in 2000, and it was extensively renovated from 2000 to 2015. As of June 2009 the property – which was bought in 2000 for $4.3 million – was being offered for sale for the price of $12.285 million, and in May 2015 was listed for $14.75 million,Mancuso, Anne. (May 1, 2015
"A Mansion Where an Astor Lived"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' but by December 2017, the asking price had dropped to $11.5 million.Woynton, Michael (December 2, 2017
"John Jacob Astor's Former Home For Sale In Irvington"
'' Rivertowns Patch'' In March 2021, it was again on the market for $6.5 million. Irvington Nuits crop

Building

Nuits is built in a sophisticated interlocking arrangement of cubes built of smooth-faced

Caen Caen (, ; nrf, Kaem) is a commune in northwestern France. It is the prefecture of the department of Calvados. The city proper has 105,512 inhabitants (), while its functional urban area has 470,000,penknife Penknife, or pen knife, is a British English term for a small folding knife. Today the word ''penknife'' is the common British English term for both a pocketknife, which can have single or multiple blades, and for multi-tools, with additional too ...

between them. The roofs are low-pitched with overhanging bracketed

eave The eaves are the edges of the roof which overhang the face of a wall and, normally, project beyond the side of a building. The eaves form an overhang to throw water clear of the walls and may be highly decorated as part of an architectural styl ...

s. The arched main entrance is located in the middle of the south elevation, a three-

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a Gulf (geography), gulf, sea, sound (geography), sound, or bight (geogra ...

facade with central

tower A tower is a tall Nonbuilding structure, structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from guyed mast, masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting ...

and

balustrade A baluster is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its con ...

balcony A balcony (from it, balcone, "scaffold") is a platform projecting from the wall of a building, supported by columns or console brackets, and enclosed with a balustrade, usually above the ground floor. Types The traditional Maltese balcony is ...

with hooded window above. It has been compared to the entrance

John Notman John Notman (22 July 18103 March 1865) was a Scottish-born American architect, who settled in Philadelphia. He is remembered for his churches, and for popularizing the Italianate style and the use of brownstone. Career Notman was born on 22 Jul ...

designed for

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

's Nassau Hall after that structure was damaged by an 1855 fire.

Veranda A veranda or verandah is a roofed, open-air gallery or porch, attached to the outside of a building. A veranda is often partly enclosed by a railing and frequently extends across the front and sides of the structure. Although the form ''veran ...

s run the length of the south side. On the east the most notable feature is an

octagon In geometry, an octagon (from the Greek ὀκτάγωνον ''oktágōnon'', "eight angles") is an eight-sided polygon or 8-gon. A '' regular octagon'' has Schläfli symbol and can also be constructed as a quasiregular truncated square, t, whi ...

al,

conical A cone is a three-dimensional geometric shape that tapers smoothly from a flat base (frequently, though not necessarily, circular) to a point called the apex or vertex. A cone is formed by a set of line segments, half-lines, or lines conn ...

-roofed conservatory that was added a few years later, and likewise the north elevation has had a

billiards room A billiard room (also billiards room, or more specifically pool room, snooker room) is a recreation room, such as in a house or recreation center, with a billiards, pool or snooker table. (The term "billiard room" or "pool room" may also be us ...

, now used as a

family room A family room is an informal, all-purpose room in a house. The family room is designed to be a place where family and guests gather for group recreation like talking, reading, watching TV, and other family activities. Often, the family room is lo ...

, added to it. The west, which overlooks the nearby

Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between N ...

, is unchanged. Inside, the entrance leads to a central hall that runs the length of the house. To its east is a

library A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...

with

French doors A door is a hinged or otherwise movable barrier that allows ingress (entry) into and egress (exit) from an enclosure. The created opening in the wall is a ''doorway'' or ''portal''. A door's essential and primary purpose is to provide security by ...

; opposite is the main living room. According to the NRHP listing, there is only one outbuilding, a caretaker's cottage that was added later, which is considered a

contributing resource In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distric ...

to the property's historic character. However, a rest estate listing in 2021 included in the property a

carriage house A carriage house, also called a remise or coach house, is an outbuilding which was originally built to house horse-drawn carriages and the related tack. In Great Britain the farm building was called a cart shed. These typically were open f ...

with three bedrooms. According to the real estate listing when the house was put on the market in March 2021, the mansion has of space, and features ten bedrooms – seven of which are master bedroom suites – nine full- and two half-baths, and 12 fireplaces. Some ceilings were high. The house was listed as being situated on of property.

References

;Notes

External links

Nuits
at Irvington Historical Society {{National Register of Historic Places in New York, state=collapsed Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in New York (state) National Register of Historic Places in Westchester County, New York Italianate architecture in New York (state) Houses completed in 1852 Hudson River Houses in Westchester County, New York Irvington, New York 1852 establishments in New York (state)

History

Building

See also

References

External links