Plumbush | |
Location | Cold Spring, NY |
---|---|
Nearest city | Beacon, Peekskill |
Coordinates | 41°25′06″N73°56′35″W / 41.41833°N 73.94306°W |
Area | 9 acres (4 ha) |
Built | 1865 [1] |
Architect | George Edward Harney |
Architectural style | Gothic Revival |
MPS | Hudson Highlands MRA |
NRHP reference No. | 82005386 |
Added to NRHP | 1982 |
Plumbush is the former house and farm of Robert Parker Parrott, inventor of the Parrott gun. [1] [2] It is located at the junction of NY 9D and Peekskill Road south of Cold Spring, New York, United States.
The house was built for Parrott by local architect George Edward Harney in 1865, when he had taken over as superintendent of the nearby West Point Foundry. The property is listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1992, due to its association with Parrott and Harney's interpretation of patterns by Andrew Jackson Downing.
The main Plumbush building is one of four located on a 9-acre (3.6 ha) parcel backed by Cold Spring Cemetery, the remnant of Parrott's original 65 acre (26 ha) farm, across Route 9D from the entrance to Fair Lawn, home of painter Thomas Prichard Rossiter. One of the other buildings, a wood house remodeled by Harney, has been further altered in the 21st century. [3]
Harney's house consists of three rectangular sections, which remain largely intact today. The two-story 23 by 33-foot (7 by 10 m) main block is topped with a hipped roof shingled in patterned slate. A veranda with rounded corner is wrapped around the south and west sides. The other original sections are the 15-foot (5 m) square east wing and a one-story wing with gabled roof. Two other wings, added when the house was converted into a restaurant, are concealed from view and designed so as not to detract from the house's overall character. [1]
Much of the original fenestration and ornamentation remains. Newer additions, such as a wrought-iron spiral staircase between the veranda and the second floor has, as with the additions, been designed to be sympathetic with what already exists. [1]
Three other buildings share Plumbush's lot. One, the former wood house, remains true enough to its original design to be considered a contributing resource. Its roof comes to a cupola that itself has a flat roof. The interior has been substantially renovated so that it serves as a residence. [1]
The former carriage house, which now serves as a garage is probably original to the property but has undergone extensive renovation and no longer retains its original integrity. A larger house near the rear of the property was built in the mid-20th century. [1]
George Edward Harney built the house along Picturesque lines, suggested by patterns in books by the influential Andrew Jackson Downing, who had lived in Newburgh, just up the river, until his death in an 1852 steamboat explosion. Downing's pattern books influenced many mid-19th century Gothic Revival and Carpenter Gothic cottages in the Hudson Valley and elsewhere.
Andrew Jackson Downing [4] advocated rural cottages that were harmonious with the local natural environment, a "local fitness and an intimate relationship with the soil it stands upon" [5] rather than challenging it as the blocky Federal and Greek Revival homes of earlier decades had. Harney carefully adapted the house to the site, in accordance with Downing's philosophies, putting the veranda next to a grove of trees and making sure the nearby Hudson River and the Hudson Highlands beyond could be seen from the upper windows. [1]
The house itself shows Downing's influence in the irregularity and asymmetry of its three main blocks. The varied rooflines, truncated and cross gables, large veranda and chimneys decorated with medieval crosses are also found in many of Downing's patterns.
In 1870 George Edward Harney published a book of his own, Barns, Outbuildings and Fences, with the original plans and sketches for Plumbush. [3] His designs show the clear influence of some of the patterns shown in Downing's The Architecture of Country Houses. [6]
Robert Parker Parrott, was one of the earliest settlers of Cold Spring and a graduate of the nearby United States Military Academy at West Point, served as the foundry's inspector general for the Army during the Civil War. After it ended, foundry owner Gouverneur Kemble persuaded him to resign from the Army and take over as superintendent of the foundry. [1]
In 1839 Parrott married Mary Kemble, niece of Gouverneur Kemble, founder of the ironworks, and moved into Plumbush. He died in 1877. In 1971 Plumbush was converted into a restaurant, and in 2014 the main Plumbush building and one of the outbuildings were extensively renovated and occupied by The Manitou School, a private elementary school. [7] [8]
Manitou Springs is a home rule municipality located at the foot of Pikes Peak in western El Paso County, Colorado, United States. The town was founded for its natural mineral springs. The downtown area continues to be of interest to travelers, particularly in the summer, with many shops and restaurants, as well as a creekside city park. The main road through the center of town was one of the direct paths to the base of Pikes Peak. Barr Trail, which winds its way up Pikes Peak, is accessible from town. The subdivision Crystal Hills was added to the municipality in the 1960s.
Cold Spring is a village in the town of Philipstown in Putnam County, New York, United States. The population was 1,986 at the 2020 census. It borders the smaller village of Nelsonville and the hamlets of Garrison and North Highlands. The central area of the village is on the National Register of Historic Places as the Cold Spring Historic District due to its many well-preserved 19th-century buildings, constructed to accommodate workers at the nearby West Point Foundry. The town is the birthplace of General Gouverneur K. Warren, who was an important figure in the Union Army during the Civil War. The village, located in the Hudson Highlands, sits at the deepest point of the Hudson River, directly across from West Point. Cold Spring serves as a weekend getaway for many residents of New York City.
Gouverneur Kemble Warren was an American civil engineer and United States Army general during the American Civil War. He is best remembered for arranging the last-minute defense of Little Round Top during the Battle of Gettysburg and is often referred to as the "Hero of Little Round Top". His subsequent service as a corps commander and his remaining military career were ruined during the Battle of Five Forks, when he was relieved of command of the V Corps by Philip Sheridan, who claimed that Warren had moved too slowly. A post-war court of inquiry found that Sheridan's relief of Warren was unjustified.
Robert Parker Parrott was an American soldier and inventor of military ordnance.
The West Point Foundry was a major American ironworking and machine shop site in Cold Spring, New York, operating from 1818 to about 1911. Initiated after the War of 1812, it became most famous for its production of Parrott rifle artillery and other munitions during the Civil War, although it also manufactured a variety of iron products for civilian use. The increase of steel making and decreasing demand for cast iron after the Civil War caused it to become bankrupt gradually and cease operations during the early 20th Century.
Gouverneur Kemble was a two-term United States Congressman, diplomat and industrialist. He helped found the West Point Foundry, a major producer of artillery during the American Civil War.
The Clove Furnace Ruin in Arden, New York, United States, was a longtime smelting site for iron ore mined from nearby veins in what is now Harriman State Park. It is located on Arden Station Road just east of the New York State Thruway, and can easily be seen from the highway. It was built in 1854 by Robert & Peter Parrott, who also owned and operated numerous mines in the area, known collectively as the Greenwood Iron Works. Together with the Greenwood Furnace (c.1810), located roughly one half mile east of Clove, these two furnaces produced iron which supplied the Parrott's West Point Foundry at Cold Spring, NY. The foundry produced the famous and highly effective Parrott Rifle (cannon) utilized by the Union army during the Civil War. The furnace shut down permanently, shortly after Robert Parrott's death in 1877.
Montgomery Place, now Bard College: The Montgomery Place Campus, near Barrytown, New York, United States, is an early 19th-century estate that has been designated a National Historic Landmark. It is also a contributing property to the Hudson River Historic District, itself a National Historic Landmark. It is a Federal-style house, with expansion designed by architect Alexander Jackson Davis. It reflects the tastes of a younger, post-Revolutionary generation of wealthy landowners in the Livingston family who were beginning to be influenced by French trends in home design, moving beyond the strictly English models exemplified by Clermont Manor a short distance up the Hudson River. It is the only Hudson Valley estate house from this era that survives intact, and Davis's only surviving neoclassical country house.
Eustatia is a brick house overlooking the Hudson River in Beacon, New York, United States. Located on Monell Place in the northwestern corner of the city, it is a rare survival in Beacon of a cottage in the High Victorian Gothic style.
The Dodge-Greenleaf House is on NY 211 in Otisville, New York, United States. It was built circa 1855 in the Gothic Revival style. The architect is unknown but it exemplifies contemporary trends in home design popularized by the writings and pattern books of Andrew Jackson Downing of nearby Newburgh, as articulated in the Picturesque mode.
George E. Harney was a late 19th-century American architect based in New York City.
Woodlawn Farm, sometimes known as the Wood Homestead, is located on Mount Orange Road, a short distance north of Slate Hill, New York, United States. It is centered by a three-section farmhouse whose materials date to the mid-18th century, making it one of the oldest buildings in the Town of Wawayanda. In 2008 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Birches is a house at the southeast corner of the junction of NY 9D and 403 in the hamlet of Garrison, New York, United States. It was built for William H. Osborn, as part of his nearby Wing & Wing estate, by architect Ralph Adams Cram in the Gothic Revival architectural style. Osborn was a 19th-century railroad tycoon, who became one of the most prominent railroad leaders in the United States. In addition to Wing and Wing and the Birches, Osborn famously constructed Castle Rock, his great summer estate overlooking the Hudson River.
The Dutchess Company Superintendent's House is a home located on Market Street in the western corner of the village of Wappingers Falls, New York, United States. It is a large brick residence that was built as housing for the manager of the Dutchess Company, a large local printing works, shortly after the plant was built in 1848.
Fair Lawn is a house located off NY 9D just south of Cold Spring, New York, United States. It was designed by the painter Thomas Prichard Rossiter, who moved into it for the last decade of his life.
Battery Kemble Park is a park in Northwest Washington D.C., administered by the National Park Service.
Maizefield, often locally called Maizeland, is a historic house on West Market Street in the village of Red Hook, New York, United States. It is a large plain brick building, in the Federal style, with clear English Georgian influences, built around the end of the 18th century. In 1973 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Grove, also known as Loretto Rest, is a historic house located on Grove Court in Cold Spring, New York, United States. It was built as the estate of Frederick Lente, surgeon at the nearby West Point Foundry and later a founder of the American Academy of Medicine, in the mid-19th century. The Italian-villa design, popular at the time, was by the prominent architect Richard Upjohn. In 2008 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Richard Austin House is located on Croton Avenue in the village of Ossining, New York, United States. It is a wood frame structure dating to the 1870s. In 1989 it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
The Joel T. Headley House is a historic mansion in New Windsor, New York, built for historian and writer Joel T. Headley (1813–1897), who later served as a New York State Assemblyman for Orange County and the New York Secretary of State (1856–1857). Headley commissioned the house and grounds from local architectural theorist and landscape designer Andrew Jackson Downing with assistance from his partner, English architect Calvert Vaux. Subsequent owners were unaware of the house's significance until the 1990s. The design, No. 14 "A Cottage in the Rhine style" featured in a later edition of his book Cottage Residences, also inspired the William G. DeLuc House in Minnesota, considered a rare example of Gothic-inspired architecture there.