Rehoboth (Chappaqua, New York)
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Rehoboth is a historic former barn located on Aldridge Road in
Chappaqua Chappaqua ( ) is a hamlet and census-designated place in the town of New Castle, in northern Westchester County, New York, United States. It is approximately north of New York City. The hamlet is served by the Chappaqua station of the Metro- ...
, New York, United States. It is a concrete structure that has been renovated into a house with some
Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...
decorative elements. In 1979 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 was designed and built in the mid-19th century by newspaper editor and activist
Horace Greeley Horace Greeley (February 3, 1811 – November 29, 1872) was an American newspaper editor and publisher who was the founder and newspaper editor, editor of the ''New-York Tribune''. Long active in politics, he served briefly as a congressm ...
as one of the agricultural experiments he dabbled in, testing whether concrete would make a good building material for farms. It was one of the first concrete structures in the country, and the first concrete barn. Greeley was so satisfied with the result he predicted that he would be remembered for it if nothing else. ''See also:'' Two decades after Greeley's death, his daughter Gabrielle and her husband, the Rev. Frank Clendenin, pastor of a New York City
Episcopal Episcopal may refer to: *Of or relating to a bishop, an overseer in the Christian church *Episcopate, the see of a bishop – a diocese *Episcopal Church (disambiguation), any church with "Episcopal" in its name ** Episcopal Church (United State ...
church, commissioned architect
Ralph Adams Cram Ralph Adams Cram (December 16, 1863 – September 22, 1942) was a prolific and influential American architect of collegiate and ecclesiastical buildings, often in the Gothic Revival style. Cram & Ferguson and Cram, Goodhue & Ferguson are partner ...
to remodel it into their house, which he named Rehoboth. They lived there for the rest of their lives, the remodeled house becoming one of the centers of Chappaqua's social life as the community completed its metamorphosis from country town to
suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area, which may include commercial and mixed-use, that is primarily a residential area. A suburb can exist either as part of a larger city/urban area or as a separate ...
. It has remained a private home since then.


Building

The house's
lot Lot or LOT or The Lot or ''similar'' may refer to: Common meanings Areas * Land lot, an area of land * Parking lot, for automobiles *Backlot, in movie production Sets of items *Lot number, in batch production *Lot, a set of goods for sale togethe ...
is on the east side of Aldridge, a dead-end street, south of its intersection with Prospect Drive and Highland Avenue, both of which lead to King Street (
New York State Route 120 New York State Route 120 (NY 120) is a state highway in southern Westchester County, New York, in the United States. It begins in the city of Rye at an intersection with U.S. Route 1 (US 1) and runs for about north to the h ...
), the main road through Chappaqua. All the neighboring lots are of similar size, with more modern houses. Tall mature trees buffer them from neighboring properties. Aldridge traverses a hill that rises steeply from the west, where downtown Chappaqua is located on one of the few level areas amid this generally hilly portion of
Westchester County Westchester County is located in the U.S. state of New York. It is the seventh most populous county in the State of New York and the most populous north of New York City. According to the 2020 United States Census, the county had a population o ...
. To the east are similar residential lots on South
Bedford Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population of the Bedford built-up area (including Biddenham and Kempston) was 106,940, making it the second-largest settlement in Bedfordshire, behind Luton, whilst ...
Road (
New York State Route 117 New York State Route 117 (NY 117) is a state highway in Westchester County, New York, in the United States. The southern terminus of the route is at an intersection with U.S. Route 9 (US 9) north of the village of Sleepy ...
). West, at the base of the hill, are Robert E. Bell
Middle School A middle school (also known as intermediate school, junior high school, junior secondary school, or lower secondary school) is an educational stage which exists in some countries, providing education between primary school and secondary school. ...
and the Church of Saint Mary the Virgin, another Register-listed property that was built by the Greeleys in memory of a daughter who died in childhood. The driveway begins south of the house, goes east then turns north towards a carport, then east again. The house itself is set further back than its neighbors, at an angle slightly offset to the east. It is a three-story structure of two-foot-thick ()
load-bearing A load-bearing wall or bearing wall is a wall that is an active structural element of a building, which holds the weight of the elements above it, by conducting its weight to a foundation structure below it. Load-bearing walls are one of the ea ...
concrete walls topped with a steep
gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...
d roof covered in shingles. Two chimneys pierce the roof. A small modern two-
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 ...
garage is attached to the north end. A two-story enclosed porch projects from the north end of the east (rear) facade.
Fenestration Fenestration may refer to: * Fenestration (architecture), the design, construction, or presence of openings in a building * Used in relation to fenestra in anatomy, medicine and biology * Fenestration, holes in the rudder of a ship to reduce the w ...
on the west (front) facade consists of three six-over-six double-hung
sash window A sash window or hung sash window is made of one or more movable panels, or "sashes". The individual sashes are traditionally paned window (architecture), paned windows, but can now contain an individual sheet (or sheets, in the case of double gla ...
s on both stories, one near the north end and the other two closer to the south. They have plain sills and lintels. In the bay above the main entrance, on the second story, is an eight-over-eight double-hung sash window half the height of the others. On the north and south facades there are two similar windows on the first and second stories, spaced closer on the lower floor. In the gable apex are three smaller pointed-arch windows. A metal ladder descends from the easternmost on the north facade. The south facade is similar but has a double window on the west side and a projecting two-story
bay window A bay window is a window space projecting outward from the main walls of a building and forming a bay in a room. Types Bay window is a generic term for all protruding window constructions, regardless of whether they are curved or angular, or r ...
on the east. Just south of a single exposed basement window, wooden steps climb up to enter a projecting gabled vestibule from the north. It has four-over-four double-hung sash on all three sides, and glass in the west side of the gable. The entrance doors are in pointed arches. They open into a large reception hall with tiled floor, and curving staircase. The pointed-arch motif is repeated in the door panels,
banister A handrail is a rail that is designed to be grasped by the hand so as to provide safety or support. In Britain, handrails are referred to as banisters. Handrails are usually used to provide support for body or to hold clothings in a bathroom or ...
spindles and on the
chimney breast A chimney breast is a portion of a chimney which projects forward from a wall to accommodate a fireplace. Typically on the ground floor of a structure, the masonry extends upwards, containing a flue which carries smoke out of the building through ...
s of the fireplaces. The living room is the size of a ballroom, with exposed beams on its ceilings and an exposed chimney.


History

In the early 1850s,
Horace Greeley Horace Greeley (February 3, 1811 – November 29, 1872) was an American newspaper editor and publisher who was the founder and newspaper editor, editor of the ''New-York Tribune''. Long active in politics, he served briefly as a congressm ...
, editor of the ''
New York Tribune The ''New-York Tribune'' was an American newspaper founded in 1841 by editor Horace Greeley. It bore the moniker ''New-York Daily Tribune'' from 1842 to 1866 before returning to its original name. From the 1840s through the 1860s it was the domi ...
'' and a former congressman, bought a house in Chappaqua near the
New York and Harlem Railroad The New York and Harlem Railroad (now the Metro-North Railroad's Harlem Line) was one of the first railroads in the United States, and was the world's first street railway. Designed by John Stephenson, it was opened in stages between 1832 and ...
station. In addition to giving his family a quiet and cool place to escape the city during hot summers, he also bought some land in the vicinity to use as a small farm, where he tested experimental agricultural techniques he had become aware of. His weekly column in the paper on the results of these tests made the ''Tribune'' one of the most widely read papers in rural America at that time. One of the things he also wanted to test was whether concrete would be a good material for ancillary farm buildings, such as barns. At the time it was not known whether it would be able to withstand colder winters common in places like Chappaqua. Despite his lack of architectural experience, Greeley designed a dairy barn for his property to be built of concrete. He took advantage of the slope of the land to construct a building with entrances at all three of its levels—the top for hay, the second for cattle, and the ground floor for storage and waste removal. The model saved labor and money, and would be widely copied by others. The barn became an attraction, drawing people to visit Chappaqua from far away. Greeley was proud of it, and considered it his finest accomplishment. "I calculate that this barn will be abidingly useful," he wrote in his autobiography, "long after I shall have been utterly forgotten." It remained standing and sound after his death in 1872, following his unsuccessful run for president. Twenty years later, Greeley's daughter Gabrielle and her husband, the Rev. Frank Clendenin, who had (when in Chappaqua) been living in the family's old farmhouse in what is now downtown, decided to move. They commissioned architect
Ralph Adams Cram Ralph Adams Cram (December 16, 1863 – September 22, 1942) was a prolific and influential American architect of collegiate and ecclesiastical buildings, often in the Gothic Revival style. Cram & Ferguson and Cram, Goodhue & Ferguson are partner ...
, who at that time had just completed the Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Manhattan, to remodel the barn into a house. On the exterior, his changes followed the
neo-Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...
style Style is a manner of doing or presenting things and may refer to: * Architectural style, the features that make a building or structure historically identifiable * Design, the process of creating something * Fashion, a prevailing mode of clothing ...
of the church. He added a stepped gable and put shed
dormer window A dormer is a roofed structure, often containing a window, that projects vertically beyond the plane of a pitched roof. A dormer window (also called ''dormer'') is a form of roof window. Dormers are commonly used to increase the usable space ...
s in the roof. He also added the pointed-arched attic windows, and put the same motif on the interior decor. Clendenin, pastor of another Manhattan Episcopal Church, St. Peter's, suggested the Biblical name "Rehoboth", meaning "wide open place" in Hebrew. The Clendenins' move into the completed house mirrored the changes that were taking place in Chappaqua as a whole. The country town she had moved into with her family as a child was becoming a suburb, its farms being subdivided into homes for prosperous individuals who commuted by train to their jobs in the city, much as Gabrielle Greeley finally sold the remnant of her family farm to developers in the late 1920s who turned it into what is now downtown. Rehoboth, and especially its large ballroom, became the site of a number of important social events in the changing community, from dances and parties to political lectures and community meetings. The Clendenins lived there until their deaths in the 1930s. In 1954, a later owner had the stepped gable and shed dormers removed, restoring to some extent the building's appearance when it had been a barn. At some point since its listing on the Register, the rear porch was added.


See also

*
Highland Cottage Highland Cottage, also known as Squire House, is located on South Highland Avenue ( U.S. Route 9) in Ossining, New York, United States. It was the first concrete house in Westchester County, built in the 1870s in the Gothic Revival architectura ...
, first concrete house in Westchester County, built 1873 *
National Register of Historic Places listings in northern Westchester County, New York __NOTOC__ This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in northern Westchester County, New York, excluding the city of Peekskill, which has its own list. This is intended to be a complete list of the properties and distric ...
*
William E. Ward House The William E. Ward House, known locally as Ward's Castle, is located on Magnolia Drive, on the state line between Rye Brook, New York and Greenwich, Connecticut, United States. It is a reinforced concrete structure built in the 1870s. Ward, a me ...
, first
reinforced concrete Reinforced concrete (RC), also called reinforced cement concrete (RCC) and ferroconcrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion of reinforcement having hig ...
structure built in the U.S., also in Westchester County


References


External links

* * {{Authority control Barns on the National Register of Historic Places in New York (state) Historic American Buildings Survey in New York (state) Infrastructure completed in 1856 Buildings and structures in Westchester County, New York New Castle, New York National Register of Historic Places in Westchester County, New York