Maple Lawn
Encyclopedia
Maple Lawn is a house in Balmville
, New York
, United States
built in the Gothic Revival architectural style
's Picturesque
mode. It was designed by Frederick Clarke Withers
, following principles of his late mentor, Andrew Jackson Downing
, and built for a wealthy local family in 1859.
Since then it has undergone very few revisions, making it a well-preserved exemplar of the style, Withers' houses and Downing's aesthetics. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places
in 1984.
on Downing Avenue in Balmville, an affluent unincorporated residential enclave in the Town of Newburgh
just north of the city of Newburgh
. The Hudson River
is a short distance to the east down a steady slope. It is surrounded by mature trees of species including beech
, black walnut
and catalpa
.
It is a two-and-a-half-story red brick
building on a sandstone
foundation
with steeply-pitched
gable
d roof pierced by three brick chimney
s. The south-facing front facade
features a projecting central pavilion
with white quatrefoil
-pireced vergeboards at the overhanging eave. Dormer windows on either side are similarly appointed, as is the curving balustrade on an upper balcony
. To the west of the doubled-doored entrance is a porch
supported by chamfer
ed posts and curved braces; to the east is a bay window
.
The east side has a similar porch but with a latticework
frieze
and arrows pointing to the entrance. Another vergeboard decorates the rear (north) gable and a two-story kitchen wing on the north. A garage
wing has also been added there. Two more of the signature vergeboards decorate the rooflines of projecting gables on the west face.
Inside, the floor plan is asymmetrical. Many of the original moldings
and other wood trim remain, especially the Gothic fluted
surrounds on the bay windows, which emerge from nearby pilaster
s. The fireplace
s have their original marble
mantel
s.
A mansard roof
ed privy
of brick and brownstone is located behind the house. It is included in the listing as a contributing resource
. A carriage house
to the northwest originally built with the main house has been extensively modified and converted into a residence. It is non-contributing.
views for themselves either in the northeastern portion of the city
or in relatively undeveloped Balmville just to the north. The house took its name from the abundant maple
s planted around it, which were later destroyed in a hurricane.
It has seen almost no alterations since. The growth of Balmville in the later 19th century led to the carriage house being split off onto its own lot and separately developed as a residence in 1903. In the 1950s, the corbel
ling on the chimneys was removed and the garage wing added. At the time of its listing on the Register, the front balcony was described as having also been removed around the same time, but it has been restored since then.
as the ideal mode for his favored type of house, which integrated more seamlessly with its natural surroundings than houses built in the Greek Revival
and Federal styles popular earlier in the century. After his death, Withers, who had worked for him following his emigration from his native England
, was seen along with occasional collaborator Calvert Vaux
as Downing's heir and successor.
Maple Lawn, designed in the "villa
" form Downing thought best as a country home for a man of "means", expresses his theories with its careful placement amidst the trees and view of the river. The bay window
s and porches on the house further connect the house to the landscape. Most notably, the dining room
faces east so that the evening meal could be taken in the shade, while the parlor is across the house for diners to take advantage of the light afterwards, as per Downing's guidelines.
The house also demonstrative of Withers' early, pre-Civil War
work, when he was more conservative than Vaux. It uses more severe massing than he would later on, uses monochromatic
materials and keeps its ornamentation
to the minimum of the quatrefoiled vergeboard motif. He balances regular fenestration
with the asymmetry of the house plan and the steep pitch of the gables to provide the overall Picturesque effect.
Balmville, New York
Balmville is an affluent hamlet in Orange County, New York, United States. It is part of the Poughkeepsie–Newburgh–Middletown, NY Metropolitan Statistical Area as well as the larger New York–Newark–Bridgeport, NY-NJ-CT-PA Combined Statistical Area. The population was 3,339...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
built in the Gothic Revival architectural style
Architectural style
Architectural styles classify architecture in terms of the use of form, techniques, materials, time period, region and other stylistic influences. It overlaps with, and emerges from the study of the evolution and history of architecture...
's Picturesque
Picturesque
Picturesque is an aesthetic ideal introduced into English cultural debate in 1782 by William Gilpin in Observations on the River Wye, and Several Parts of South Wales, etc. Relative Chiefly to Picturesque Beauty; made in the Summer of the Year 1770, a practical book which instructed England's...
mode. It was designed by Frederick Clarke Withers
Frederick Clarke Withers
Frederick Clarke Withers was an successful English architect in America, especially renowned for his Gothic Revival church designs.-Biography:...
, following principles of his late mentor, Andrew Jackson Downing
Andrew Jackson Downing
Andrew Jackson Downing was an American landscape designer, horticulturalist, and writer, a prominent advocate of the Gothic Revival style in the United States, and editor of The Horticulturist magazine...
, and built for a wealthy local family in 1859.
Since then it has undergone very few revisions, making it a well-preserved exemplar of the style, Withers' houses and Downing's aesthetics. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
in 1984.
Description
The house sits on a 1 acres (4,046.9 m²) lotLot (real estate)
In real estate, a lot or plot is a tract or parcel of land owned or meant to be owned by some owner. A lot is essentially considered a parcel of real property in some countries or immovable property in other countries...
on Downing Avenue in Balmville, an affluent unincorporated residential enclave in the Town of Newburgh
Newburgh (town), New York
Newburgh is a town in Orange County, New York, United States. The 2010 census determined the population is 29,801. This is the first time ever that the population of the Town of Newburgh officially exceeded that of the adjacent but totally separate municipality known as the city of Newburgh...
just north of the city of Newburgh
Newburgh (city), New York
Newburgh is a city located in Orange County, New York, United States, north of New York City, and south of Albany, on the Hudson River. Newburgh is a principal city of the Poughkeepsie-Newburgh-Middletown metropolitan area, which includes all of Dutchess and Orange counties. The Newburgh area was...
. The Hudson River
Hudson River
The Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...
is a short distance to the east down a steady slope. It is surrounded by mature trees of species including beech
Beech
Beech is a genus of ten species of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to temperate Europe, Asia and North America.-Habit:...
, black walnut
Black Walnut
Juglans nigra, the Eastern Black walnut, is a species of flowering tree in the hickory family, Juglandaceae, that is native to eastern North America. It grows mostly in riparian zones, from southern Ontario, west to southeast South Dakota, south to Georgia, northern Florida and southwest to central...
and catalpa
Catalpa
Catalpa, commonly called catalpa or catawba, is a genus of flowering plants in the trumpet vine family, Bignoniaceae, native to warm temperate regions of North America, the Caribbean, and East Asia....
.
It is a two-and-a-half-story red brick
Brick
A brick is a block of ceramic material used in masonry construction, usually laid using various kinds of mortar. It has been regarded as one of the longest lasting and strongest building materials used throughout history.-History:...
building on a sandstone
Sandstone
Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...
foundation
Foundation (architecture)
A foundation is the lowest and supporting layer of a structure. Foundations are generally divided into two categories: shallow foundations and deep foundations.-Shallow foundations:...
with steeply-pitched
Roof pitch
In building construction, roof pitch is a numerical measure of the steepness of a roof, and a pitched roof is a roof that is steep.The roof's pitch is the measured vertical rise divided by the measured horizontal span, the same thing as what is called "slope" in geometry. Roof pitch is typically...
gable
Gable
A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of a sloping roof. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system being used and aesthetic concerns. Thus the type of roof enclosing the volume dictates the shape of the gable...
d roof pierced by three brick chimney
Chimney
A chimney is a structure for venting hot flue gases or smoke from a boiler, stove, furnace or fireplace to the outside atmosphere. Chimneys are typically vertical, or as near as possible to vertical, to ensure that the gases flow smoothly, drawing air into the combustion in what is known as the...
s. The south-facing front facade
Facade
A facade or façade is generally one exterior side of a building, usually, but not always, the front. The word comes from the French language, literally meaning "frontage" or "face"....
features a projecting central pavilion
Pavilion (structure)
In architecture a pavilion has two main meanings.-Free-standing structure:Pavilion may refer to a free-standing structure sited a short distance from a main residence, whose architecture makes it an object of pleasure. Large or small, there is usually a connection with relaxation and pleasure in...
with white quatrefoil
Quatrefoil
The word quatrefoil etymologically means "four leaves", and applies to general four-lobed shapes in various contexts.-In heraldry:In heraldic terminology, a quatrefoil is a representation of a flower with four petals, or a leaf with four leaflets . It is sometimes shown "slipped", i.e. with an...
-pireced vergeboards at the overhanging eave. Dormer windows on either side are similarly appointed, as is the curving balustrade on an upper balcony
Balcony
Balcony , a platform projecting from the wall of a building, supported by columns or console brackets, and enclosed with a balustrade.-Types:The traditional Maltese balcony is a wooden closed balcony projecting from a...
. To the west of the doubled-doored entrance is a porch
Porch
A porch is external to the walls of the main building proper, but may be enclosed by screen, latticework, broad windows, or other light frame walls extending from the main structure.There are various styles of porches, all of which depend on the architectural tradition of its location...
supported by chamfer
Chamfer
A chamfer is a beveled edge connecting two surfaces. If the surfaces are at right angles, the chamfer will typically be symmetrical at 45 degrees. A fillet is the rounding off of an interior corner. A rounding of an exterior corner is called a "round" or a "radius"."Chamfer" is a term commonly...
ed posts and curved braces; to the east is a bay window
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, either square or polygonal in plan. The angles most commonly used on the inside corners of the bay are 90, 135 and 150 degrees. Bay windows are often associated with Victorian architecture...
.
The east side has a similar porch but with a latticework
Latticework
Latticework is a framework consisting of a criss-crossed pattern of strips of building material, typically wood or metal. The design is created by crossing the strips to form a network...
frieze
Frieze
thumb|267px|Frieze of the [[Tower of the Winds]], AthensIn architecture the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Even when neither columns nor pilasters are expressed, on an astylar wall it lies upon...
and arrows pointing to the entrance. Another vergeboard decorates the rear (north) gable and a two-story kitchen wing on the north. A garage
Garage (house)
A residential garage is part of a home, or an associated building, designed or used for storing a vehicle or vehicles. In some places the term is used synonymously with "carport", though that term normally describes a structure that is not completely enclosed.- British residential garages:Those...
wing has also been added there. Two more of the signature vergeboards decorate the rooflines of projecting gables on the west face.
Inside, the floor plan is asymmetrical. Many of the original moldings
Molding (decorative)
Molding or moulding is a strip of material with various profiles used to cover transitions between surfaces or for decoration. It is traditionally made from solid milled wood or plaster but may be made from plastic or reformed wood...
and other wood trim remain, especially the Gothic fluted
Fluting (architecture)
Fluting in architecture refers to the shallow grooves running vertically along a surface.It typically refers to the grooves running on a column shaft or a pilaster, but need not necessarily be restricted to those two applications...
surrounds on the bay windows, which emerge from nearby pilaster
Pilaster
A pilaster is a slightly-projecting column built into or applied to the face of a wall. Most commonly flattened or rectangular in form, pilasters can also take a half-round form or the shape of any type of column, including tortile....
s. The fireplace
Fireplace
A fireplace is an architectural structure to contain a fire for heating and, especially historically, for cooking. A fire is contained in a firebox or firepit; a chimney or other flue allows gas and particulate exhaust to escape...
s have their original marble
Marble
Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite.Geologists use the term "marble" to refer to metamorphosed limestone; however stonemasons use the term more broadly to encompass unmetamorphosed limestone.Marble is commonly used for...
mantel
Mantel
Mantel is a municipality in the district of Neustadt in Bavaria in Germany....
s.
A mansard roof
Mansard roof
A mansard or mansard roof is a four-sided gambrel-style hip roof characterized by two slopes on each of its sides with the lower slope at a steeper angle than the upper that is punctured by dormer windows. The roof creates an additional floor of habitable space, such as a garret...
ed privy
Outhouse
An outhouse is a small structure separate from a main building which often contained a simple toilet and may possibly also be used for housing animals and storage.- Terminology :...
of brick and brownstone is located behind the house. It is included in the listing as a contributing resource
Contributing property
In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing resource or contributing property is any building, structure, or object which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic district, listed locally or federally, significant...
. A carriage house
Carriage house
A carriage house, also called 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...
to the northwest originally built with the main house has been extensively modified and converted into a residence. It is non-contributing.
History
Maple Lawn was commissioned by a resident named Walter Vail in the late 1850s. Little is known about him, but it was a time when those who had become wealthy from river trade and growing industrialization in Newburgh were building grand houses with Hudson RiverHudson River
The Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...
views for themselves either in the northeastern portion of the city
Montgomery-Grand-Liberty Streets Historic District
The Montgomery-Grand-Liberty Streets Historic District was the first of two to be designated in the city of Newburgh, New York, USA. It runs along the three named north-south streets in the northeast quadrant of the city and includes 250 buildings in its ....
or in relatively undeveloped Balmville just to the north. The house took its name from the abundant maple
Maple
Acer is a genus of trees or shrubs commonly known as maple.Maples are variously classified in a family of their own, the Aceraceae, or together with the Hippocastanaceae included in the family Sapindaceae. Modern classifications, including the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group system, favour inclusion in...
s planted around it, which were later destroyed in a hurricane.
It has seen almost no alterations since. The growth of Balmville in the later 19th century led to the carriage house being split off onto its own lot and separately developed as a residence in 1903. In the 1950s, the corbel
Corbel
In architecture a corbel is a piece of stone jutting out of a wall to carry any superincumbent weight. A piece of timber projecting in the same way was called a "tassel" or a "bragger". The technique of corbelling, where rows of corbels deeply keyed inside a wall support a projecting wall or...
ling on the chimneys was removed and the garage wing added. At the time of its listing on the Register, the front balcony was described as having also been removed around the same time, but it has been restored since then.
Aesthetics
Downing had advocated the PicturesquePicturesque
Picturesque is an aesthetic ideal introduced into English cultural debate in 1782 by William Gilpin in Observations on the River Wye, and Several Parts of South Wales, etc. Relative Chiefly to Picturesque Beauty; made in the Summer of the Year 1770, a practical book which instructed England's...
as the ideal mode for his favored type of house, which integrated more seamlessly with its natural surroundings than houses built in the Greek Revival
Greek Revival architecture
The Greek Revival was an architectural movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in Northern Europe and the United States. A product of Hellenism, it may be looked upon as the last phase in the development of Neoclassical architecture...
and Federal styles popular earlier in the century. After his death, Withers, who had worked for him following his emigration from his native England
English American
English Americans are citizens or residents of the United States whose ancestry originates wholly or partly in England....
, was seen along with occasional collaborator Calvert Vaux
Calvert Vaux
Calvert Vaux , was an architect and landscape designer. He is best remembered as the co-designer , of New York's Central Park....
as Downing's heir and successor.
Maple Lawn, designed in the "villa
Villa
A villa 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 small farming compounds, which were increasingly fortified in Late Antiquity,...
" form Downing thought best as a country home for a man of "means", expresses his theories with its careful placement amidst the trees and view of the river. The bay window
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, either square or polygonal in plan. The angles most commonly used on the inside corners of the bay are 90, 135 and 150 degrees. Bay windows are often associated with Victorian architecture...
s and porches on the house further connect the house to the landscape. Most notably, the dining room
Dining room
A dining room is a room for consuming food. In modern times it is usually adjacent to the kitchen for convenience in serving, although in medieval times it was often on an entirely different floor level...
faces east so that the evening meal could be taken in the shade, while the parlor is across the house for diners to take advantage of the light afterwards, as per Downing's guidelines.
The house also demonstrative of Withers' early, pre-Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
work, when he was more conservative than Vaux. It uses more severe massing than he would later on, uses monochromatic
Monochrome
Monochrome describes paintings, drawings, design, or photographs in one color or shades of one color. A monochromatic object or image has colors in shades of limited colors or hues. Images using only shades of grey are called grayscale or black-and-white...
materials and keeps its ornamentation
Ornament (architecture)
In architecture and decorative art, ornament is a decoration used to embellish parts of a building or object. Large figurative elements such as monumental sculpture and their equivalents in decorative art are excluded from the term; most ornament does not include human figures, and if present they...
to the minimum of the quatrefoiled vergeboard motif. He balances regular fenestration
Window
A window is a transparent or translucent opening in a wall or door that allows the passage of light and, if not closed or sealed, air and sound. Windows are usually glazed or covered in some other transparent or translucent material like float glass. Windows are held in place by frames, which...
with the asymmetry of the house plan and the steep pitch of the gables to provide the overall Picturesque effect.