Oliver Barrett House
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Oliver Barrett House | |
 West elevation and north profile, 2008 | |
   | |
| Location | North East, New York |
|---|---|
| Nearest city | Hudson |
| Coordinates | 41°54′9″N 73°31′2″W / 41.90250°N 73.51722°W |
| Area | 11.8 acres (4.8 ha)[1] |
| Built | 1853[1] |
| Architectural style | Federal, Queen Anne |
| Part of | Coleman Station Historic District |
| NRHP reference No. | 00001416 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | November 22, 2000 |
| Designated CP | cp |
The Oliver Barrett House is located on Reagan Road in the Town of North East, New York, United States, south of the village of Millerton. It is a frame farmhouse built in the mid-19th century, possibly on the site or with materials from another, older house. In the early 20th century it underwent substantial renovations, particularly of its interior. Later in the century it was subdivided into rental units, a conversion reversed by more recent owners.
It combines the Federal and Queen Anne architectural styles. Barrett, a successful farmer who became the first postmaster of the small rural hamlet in the area. It has been a contributing property to the Coleman Station Historic District since that was created in 1991, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in its own right in 2000.
Exterior
The house is north of the three-way intersection of Coleman Station, Reagan and Sheffield Hill roads, just east of the Harlem Valley Rail Trail and a mile (1.6 km) west of the Connecticut state line. It sits near the bottom of the topographical bowl that forms Coleman Station, on an 11.8-acre (4.8 ha) parcel, mostly clear with some mature trees clustered south of the house, on the east side of the road. The surrounding land is gently rolling, with the house on a small rise that drops to a small pond in the rear formed by a tributary of Webutuck Creek.[1]
Opposite the creek the ground rises sharply again to Hiddenhurst, the early 20th-century retirement estate of Thomas Hidden, now itself listed on the National Register as well. To the south, across Sheffield Hill Road, are some former worker housing from the former Sheffield Farm dairy complex nearby. Across Reagan Road, to the northwest of the property, is the Victorian Arthur Peck House, another contributing property to the district. The land to the southwest, across the rail trail, rises sharply into a woodlot.[1]
There are four resources on the property, two buildings and two sites. The house and the sites of an original barn and silo, as well as that of the post office which served Coleman Station for a century, are considered contributing resources to the National Register listing. The garage, built around 1989, is not.[1]
The main block of the house is a two-story, five-bay structure of hand-hewn heavy timber frame on a foundation of concrete and stone. It is sided in weatherboard and topped with an asphalt side-gabled roof with slightly overhanging eave pierced by two brick chimneys. There is a projecting rear wing with extensions.[1]
A wraparound porch with wooden guardrail and a flat roof supported by round wooden columns runs the length of the west and south elevations. A set of wooden steps lead up to the centrally located main entrance. Above it at the roofline is a pediment with a small casement window. All the other windows are double-hung sash with louvered shutters. The three-bay north and south elevations have a double window at the attic level, with the lower story windows slightly offset to the east and a smaller window between the two on the second story. Fenestration on the rear is asymmetrical and irregular.[1]
The kitchen wing, attached at the northeast, is a full two stories. From it another wing of one and a half stories projects further east. Both have identical treatments to the main block. At the east end of the second wing's north elevation there is an entrance with small porch.[1]
Interior
At the main entrance, an oak paneled door with original beveled glass opens into a wide center hallway, floored in wide oak strips, with a large oak staircase. A paneled door on the north leads to a small parlor, with large double pocket doors leading to a larger parlor and another small single pocket door opening into a large mourning room. In both of these rooms the oak strips on the floor are arranged in a pattern of concentric rectangles. A double pocket door separates them. On the south wall of the parlor is a brick fireplace, built later, with original wooden mantelpiece. The windows have heavy oak trim, raised panels beneath them and a beveled-edge mirror between the two on the west wall.[1]
The room on the north side of the hall has a brick corner fireplace with an oak mantel and beveled mirror above. One of the original cranes remains in the fireplace. Flooring is medium-width oak strip original to the house.[1]
On the south side of the central hall, is another double pocket door leading to the dining room and a small closet built into the paneling below the stairs. All doors on the central hallway have raised panels and brass hardware original to the early 20th century, when they were installed. A door leads from this room to the dining room, in the rear wing.[1]
The main entrance to the dining room is the pair of pocket doors at the east end of the center hall. It has diagonal maple-strip flooring and an oak and glass china cupboard. The south wall has an exterior door of oak paneling with a beveled glass window, flanked by two large windows with raised panels below.[1]
Another door leads into the kitchen wing, which includes a full bathroom and pantry, the latter now used as a laundry room. It is floored in large terra cotta tiles. An original staircase, with rounded pine handrail and square newels and balusters leads upstairs.[1]
The second floor is laid out similarly to the first, on a center hall plan. Its hallway turns toward the rear to access the backstairs to the attic, with risers slightly steeper than those on the other stairs. There is a small kitchenette in the south room. Many doors are original, with one having an original thumb latch. The floor is wideboard pine, most of it original.[1]
In the basement, under the entire house except for the rear extension, the original hand-hewn timber is visible. The beams below the front parlor with the corner fireplace are half-round with bark still attached, and the walls there mortared-over stone instead of the concrete elsewhere in the basement. The heavy board-and-batten doors between the three rooms and their hardware are original. The sub-flooring under the parlor and mourning room runs on a diagonal to support the unusual pattern above it.[1]
