A Walk with Win Perry

              Van Houten's Landing Oral History Project
A walk with Win Perry
Upper Nyack Village Historian

1. Win standing with Jeff Berman by Van Houten's Landing 1798 sign on N. Broadway between houses numbered 315 and 317.
	We're standing on the corner of North Broadway and Highmount Avenue by a new sign for Van Houten's Landing Historic District.  We call this Van Houten's Landing, and the date is 1798 because prior to 1798 Upper Nyack was just a series of 6 farms extending from the river to the top of the mountain.  In that year, John Van Houten bought this 20 acres extending from here up to just this side of the Upper Nyack School notched out of the adjoining farms.  It became the nucleus of a neighborhood around the landing and John Van Houten's boatyard.
 
2. House at 317 N. Broadway - Michael and Priscilla Sperling's House
	This house was built in the 1850s.  It's not one of the earliest in the neighborhood, but it is typical in the sense that it was originally a 3 bay house.  See the 3 upstairs windows, and a door and 2 windows on the first floor, and a kitchen in the basement.  The south wing with the gable facing the street was a later addition, and that is characteristic of the neighborhood.  Those little square houses, about 22 feet square, or 18 by 20 were built for the first generation and then very soon enlarged.

3.  House at 319 N. Broadway - Win and Betty Perry's House
	The 3 windows toward the south are the original part of the house, and the 2 windows toward the north are part of another house that was brought here and added onto it.  The original part of the house had a low roof, like the house to the north - little belly windows upstairs.  The roof was raised to match the 2-story height of the addition.  
	It originally belonged to Abraham Pitt, a boot maker, and his little shop was right here, right out on the street.  That was where he made and sold his merchandise - in 1846.  Three generations of the Pitt family lived here; after Abraham, the next 2 generations were carpenters or contractors, and one of them was my great-uncle, so it has been in the family since it was built.  

4.  2-story carpenter's shop on Van Houten behind 319 N. Broadway
	This building is a carpenter's shop built in 1895 by John W. Pitt and his son Charles Pitt, who were carpentry contractors in the neighborhood in 1895.  They built the store diagonally across the street on the corner of School Street that we will see in a moment, and did the carpentry work on the Empire Fire House.  I don't know whether you can see it, but there's a sign up on the door which is not original but was copied from their business card.  It says "Carpenters,Builders and Contractors - Jobbing promptly attended to". 
	They had a long work bench down the middle of the second floor that roasted in summer and froze in the winter.  The only heat was a little kerosene stove.  There was a dirt floor downstairs - they kept their pony and their cart there and stored building materials.  I put the concrete floor in, and added a wider door so we could use it as a garage.  But it's very helpful for storing chairs that need new seats and things waiting for a yard sale - a place to get out of the house when Betty wants the kitchen to herself.  So it's a great thing to have.
	Like all properties in the neighborhood, there was no indoor plumbing.  The well was down on the far side of the property, and curiously, it's on the property line - it was a cooperative effort with the neighbors to share.  It was a hand-dug well.  They put a little wooden house on it and a door on each side - one for each neighbor.  The outhouse was only about 50 feet away, attached to the back of the carpenter's shop, and we hope that the ground water became satisfactorily clarified by the time it got to the well.  There were a lot of epidemics around in the 19th century, and perhaps the primitive water supply may have contributed to that.  

5. 14 Van Houten Street - Dave and Kaete Nazeroff house (before the 2004 addition)
	This house in back of me, and the one next north of it were built in 1826, among the earliest in the neighborhood.  The owners of this one were a family named Gardineer.  We don't know their occupations or much about them, but it's a wonderful because it's the only one that retains it's original shape.  Here the well was right out where the fence is behind the flowers near the street.  The kitchen and dining room are in the basement, the living room on the main floor, and two little bedrooms upstairs.  Besides there being no plumbing, there was a living room fireplace for heat.  It was very simple - no electricity.  Lighting was by kerosene lamps and candles.  

6. 316 N. Broadway at School Street - Joe and Cathy Heider
	This wonderful Victorian home was built about 1884 by James Vorhis who owned the boatyard at that time.  He could look right down Van Houten Street toward his business.  It is now owned by Joe and Cathy Heider who have restored the interior.  Actually it is very little changed since the time it was built.  It has glorious woodwork and is quite a delightful home.  It was probably the second house on this site.  
	There are the remains of a concrete wall here, 13-feet square (by the sidewalk in front of the house).  Maps of the area show a 13-foot square butcher shop here.  It's hard to imagine what it was like.  I guess it was un-refrigerated with meat hanging on hooks.  They sold the meat to local residents.  The Heiders found a 13-foot square building added to their garage with meat hooks inside of it, so we suspect that it was the butcher shop that was moved back there when the house was built.  

7. School Street Row Houses 
	After Vorhis bought this property, these 9 row houses were built.  I think he built them primarily for his employees at the boatyard.  They have served continuously as homes.  They were probably rented at first, but have long since passed into personal ownership.  People have raised their families here.  The school was originally at the end of the old part of School Street. 

8. Upper Nyack School
	Where the green lawn was visible at the end of the road was about where the front steps of the school were located.  It was originally 4 rooms or maybe 5, but it was added to on both ends.  By the time I went there, in the 1940s, there were, I think, 8 classrooms, and a stage at the end of a group of classrooms that could be combined by opening a folding wall.  So that was the auditorium and multi-purpose room.  
	A play field was bought later and extended out to Highmount Avenue.  That was the baseball/football/general purpose play field for the school.  Back of the house at the end of the road was a plateau with a paved basketball court.  It's hard to imagine how all that fit into this little neighborhood, but it was really quite an exciting little school yard for the local children.  You can see a tall fence (behind 316 N. Broadway).  That fence is so high because it was behind the backstop of the baseball field.  
	Right in the corner here was a little concrete sand-box that kids could play in.  There were a couple of swing sets and a fine merry-go-round that was extremely exciting, but it probably knocked out several dozen sets of front teeth because it hung from chains and swung back and forth in a dangerous way.  The school board finally wised up and got rid of it.  But it was wonderful.  There was a maypole, and on May Day - before May Day became communist property - we did that business of weaving the ribbons around the pole on May 1st.  The Upper Nyack School at this location served from 1885 until 1955 when the current elementary school was built farther north on Broadway.  .

9. 318 N. Broadway - Gina Rawding and Olaf Quoohs
	This store was also part of James Vorhis's property. It was built soon after he acquired the property in 1884 - maybe it was built in 1885.  As I mentioned earlier, it was built by the local contractors John and Charles Pitt who lived diagonally across the street (at 319 N. Broadway).  James Vorhis had something of a little company town here, what with the row houses for his employees, the boatyard and the store.  He could pay them on Friday and get the money back on Saturday in rent and groceries.  
	My grandfather (Harry H. Perry) actually was storekeeper in this building in the 1890s.  It also served as post office.  At the time the post office was just a set of cubby-holes on the counter.  The merchandise was displayed on 2 floors - first and second floors.  He went bankrupt after a few years.  I guess maybe it was a little too ambitious a business for this little neighborhood.  
	There was at one time another little building where the forsythia bushes are, just north of the store.  For a while the post office was in it.  It also served as the office of a steamboat company for a while.  You could buy your ticket here apparently, and walk down the hill to get the boat to go to New York City or Albany, or points in-between.  
	Edward Hopper used this store as the model for his well-known painting "Seven A.M."  so the current owners call it the Seven A.M. Store.  


10. 328 N. Broadway
	This old store building, which is now the Upper Nyack Village Hall, has been in the center of the neighborhood since it was built - probably around 1890.  It has housed many different businesses.  I can remember it as a liquor store, candy store, real estate office, and grocery store before it became the village hall.  

11.  330 N. Broadway
	The little red firehouse on North Broadway was originally both the firehouse and the village hall.  The meeting room upstairs was the meeting place of the village board.  It was built, I think about 1887.  I'm trying to think of the name of the architect - it may come to me later (Horace Greeley Knapp).  It's a good example of a small-town firehouse, and as such it was put on the National Register of Historic Places a few years ago It is well-known as the Goosetown Firehouse.  The members of the fire company have enthusiastically adopted the nickname of the village and their motto is Goosetown Against the World.

12.  15 Castle Heights Avenue - home of Jonathan Demme and Joanne Howard
	This house was built in the late 19th century by a man who had become rich selling supplies to prospectors in the Gold Rush.  He came back to Upper Nyack and had this house built - and actually loaned the Village trustees the money necessary to build the Village Hall and Firehouse across the street.  It has since been home to many talented, interesting and creative people.  

13.    18 Castle Heights Avenue
	Jeff Berman: Win, this is my home.  Can you tell me something about it?
	Well yes, Jeff.  Thank you for inviting us into your yard - the grandest and most interesting house in the neighborhood.  A lot of its history is still to be discovered.  We have some interesting clues.  The architectural historians tell us that from its style - the original style - the house was probably built in the 1820s.  It was originally a federal style - a rather simple brick rectangle with a balustrade around the top.  It didn't have these porches or the high roof or any of the balconies, turrets, towers,  porte cocheres, whatever, that were later added to it.	
	It was not separated from the boatyard property by deed, until much later than 1820 - maybe 40, 50 years later.  That fact has led me to theorize that it may have been the home of John Van Houten Sr.and Jr.  John Van Houten Sr. still owned the boatyard in 1820.  His son inherited it - briefly - he died soon after.  Then the original John Van Houten's grand-daughter, Ellen Van Houten, married John Tallman, and I think they lived here. 
	Another clue is that Lower Castle Heights Avenue, which passes this house, was at one time called Tallman Street.  There's also a Tallman Place and a Tallman Avenue, just a few blocks south, so I guess somebody decided that was too many Tallmans and made it a continuation of Castle Heights Avenue, which is slightly offset from it - the upper part. 
	 In the 1880s the house was grandly re-modeled.  The architect was Horace Greeley Knapp.  He was also the architect of the village hall and fire house.  I think you would call the re-modeling Queen Anne style.  In addition to the many wonderful details that are piled up here, the house at that time was given a porte cochere at the west entrance and a semi-circular balcony on the south wall - fine example of Queen Anne style of piling as many shapes and contrasting forms together on one building as they could.  I think it's exuberant and expresses the joy of architecture.  I really like it.  I'll bet it's a fun place to live.

Jeff: Around the side of the house there's a sun motif.  Was that a common motif on houses?
	Well, that also was part of the Queen Anne re-modeling, and I think it was a popular motif at the time.
	This is the west side of Jeff's house.  This is where the porte cochere was in the 1880s re-modeling and was taken down by the previous owner rather recently.  I might mention while we're here that Dan Wolff, who lives down the hill, did some historical research and found that at one time it apparently belonged to the owner of the Rockland Lake ice business.  
	Then in later generations it belonged to at least 3 generations of the Gilchrest family - Dr. John Gilchrest was a local dentist.  I think his son was also.  I remember the son as an old man, chairman of the Upper Nyack School Board and a fierce defender of the interests of the fire department, of which he was a social member.  His father was an early photographer - took photographs using glass plate negatives which are presently in the ownership of the Stockmeyer family - and a great resource of local history.  Geraldine Gilchrest Savoury, a descendant of the grand-daughter of the family, has published My grandmother's Diary, a book about the family's life in this home.  It's quite interesting.
	This is the well that provided water originally for the home.  It would have had a shelter over it to keep leaves and debris out as was common.  As a matter of fact, Jeff says that Geraldine Savoury has shown him a picture of a little house over it.

14.  14 Castle Heights Avenue - Marisol and Ben Falchuk
	This is a delightful little house that still looks much the same as it did when it was built.  It was one of the early ones in the neighborhood - it probably belonged to someone whose livelihood was related to the landing or the boatyard.  It and the one next to it were built, I believe, by Moses Wyman, an ancestor of mine.  I'm not sure which one his family lived in, but they both share a back fence with the Perry property at the foot of Perry Lane.  My great grandfather and his brother, 2 Perrys, married 2 sisters, Wyman girls, who lived in one of these houses - they met over the back fence.  

15. 12 Castle Heights Avenue - Dan Wolff and Marta Renzi
	(Included in remarks for 14 Castle Heights)

16. 4 Castle Heights Avenue - Fran and Jerry Marton
	(Ignore the first couple of remarks on the DVD - Win wishes to alter what he said)  This house is on property that was separated from the boatyard in 1854, and the house probably already existed at that time.   It was later the home of Mr. Ayers, who was the owner of the boatyard.  It has been added to many times in different ways.  The dormers are the most recent addition.  It originally had no windows in the attic on that side. They have raised the roof line a bit.  

17.  10 Castle Heights Avenue - Gene Brown
	Well, Gene, yours is certainly one of the most interesting homes in the neighborhood, and you're such a recent newcomer, why don't you tell us about your tenure in the house?
Gene:  Well, my father bought it in 1927 when I was 4 months old.  He bought it in May and we moved in in September.  I have lived here basically ever since.  
	Wonderful.  Was this a Felter house originally?

	It was built by John Felter who was a boat builder.  My understanding was that he had a boatyard not at Van Houten's, but right next to it - separate from it.  He built it - I don't know the exact details.  His daughter Alice lived 2 doors away.  As a youngster I remember her.  She was a Mrs. Lyeth - but she was originally a Felter.
	Oh yes, I remember vaguely Mrs. Lyeth.  
I see a vertical board about 3/5 of the way across the front of the house on the second story.  I'll bet that indicates the original corner of the house.  Where the dining room is might be a more recent addition.
	You can see in the inside, especially up in the attic, it has obviously been added on.  I used to wonder about when that took place.  Recently I've seen a picture that's been passed around, a very nice picture taken at the boatyard, with this house in the background, and the picture's dated 1898 - you can see the addition in the picture, so it was at least before 1898.
	That's consistent with the style - that it looked like earlier construction. 
	Right.  The original house was around 1858 or so.
	I see the north part has a brick foundation.  Does the south part have brick also, or is that sandstone?
	It's sandstone.  
	It's hard to imagine now, but there was quite a sizeable barn in the backyard, wasn't there?
	Well, we had an old barn, I guess you would call it a carriage house.  It was there until 1990.  On the left side was a big door, where the carriage or buggy or whatever was, and on the right an area that had stalls for the horse.  I remember an old bucket that has since disintegrated.  Then the whole upstairs was one big area where you could put the hay with a door where you could pitch the hay out.  It was a wonderful place for us kids to play.  
	Where was the well on the property?
	Probably on the south side of the house, because in the basement there's still a old pump and sink down there and a cistern outside.  
	I suppose there was probably an outhouse originally.
	Well, I'm sure there was, but I don't remember it.  Whether my father put it in, or whether when he bought it is was already in (plumbing)…
There have been a few changes inside - 
	Mort:  What is that Gene? - (a large block of red sandstone)
	My father tried to preserve it.   I can tell you that EK is Eddie Kalaidjian who lived up on Castle Heights.  LP I think is Lily Polhemus.  It goes way back.
	It's a step to get up onto the horse or into the carriage- the horse or the carriage would be brought to here and maybe there was a little portable platform as well, because it's kind of a big step.  You may remember, Win, when the porch came all the way to the end…originally it was more ornate - a big, wide porch.  You would come to the edge of the porch and then step onto the block.
	I see.  This is obviously the local red sandstone and this neighborhood was quarried before the homes were built, as were most of the properties along the Hudson in Upper Nyack and in GrandView.  There was quite a business of shipping this sandstone, or brownstone, into New York City and elsewhere, and many of the older homes and foundations of homes were built of it.  I think it's the most beautiful stone in the world and it's certainly distinctive to our neighborhood. 
	It's beautiful - a soft red.  You see it on the ground at this point.  You notice the plateau that the house is built on goes two properties over and then goes up.  On this side it goes down.  I'm quite sure that was excavated
	It's sedimentary stone and it was originally deposited in level layers and it got tilted up when the Palisades mountains were extruded up through them.  They were more or less level and they would take out the stone as far as they could, and then they would find another one farther down.  It caused these terraces that you see on these riverfront properties.
	(Inside the south basement of Gene's house).  Gene, this is a delightful little room.  Was it the kitchen at one time?
	Well, my understanding is that in the early 19th century, many of these houses had the kitchen in the basement, as this obviously did.  There's an old fireplace there - the pump here - and the sink.  This was the bottom of the dumb waiter which ran up into the living room, and I think probably the cooking in the kitchen may have helped heat the house.  
	I suppose the range sat in front of the chimney here.
	There was probably an old iron cookstove - possibly, before that, they could have cooked in the fireplace itself.  
	Do you think this pump was piped out to a well?
	I think there was a well just a few feet outside.
	I love the look of these windows opening out into the area way.  You get a nice kind of filtered light.  
	I think it's interesting - I believe you have said yourself that these houses are built on the hillside and therefore one side of the house is facing down slope, so on one side you can get full size windows, while on the back the windows are very small.
	It was a real room in a way.
	Not a room for tall people.
	Not a room for tall people.

18.  Ellen St. street sign
	I mentioned earlier that John Van Houten bought the 20 acre tract of land from the river up to the other side of Broadway and that this began the development of the neighborhood that centered around the landing.  We know that he had a boat building business, because we have a contract that he and Elijah Appleby signed, agreeing to build a steamboat and in which they secured the right to collect fares from the people in Nyack when it stopped at the Upper Nyack landing.  
	I told you that the property was inherited by his son and that his granddaughter Ellen married John Tallman, so we're standing at the corner of Ellen Street now that was named for Ellen - her name was actually Eleanor - her nickname was Ellen and that's how Ellen Street got its name, and of course Van Houten Street was named for the family.  Ellen Street was built on a terrace that was created by the quarrying of the local red sandstone.  John Van Houten - each of the Van Houtens - began selling off lots to people who wanted to live around the landing.  Ellen was quite active in that enterprise, and most of these lots were ones that she sold.  
	The boatyard itself remained as pretty much a single part, although the south end, which I mentioned was at one time a separate boatyard, later was combined with the rest.  

19.   312 Ellen Street, corner of Lower Castle Heights
	This is a delightful home is a very early house in the neighborhood.  I believe the tiny left-hand wing was the original house, and the larger north wing was an addition, but they're both very old.  At one time they belonged to Captain Andrew Kinnier, who was the owner and captain of a schooner that was docked here at the landing, engaged in the coastal trade - what they called a packet - it carried merchandise from port to port.  His obituary states that he was famous for rescuing 7 people from drowning at one time or another, on the Hudson.
	It later belonged to Richard Mole, Sr. and Jr.  Senior was quite a talented artist.

20.  310 Ellen Street
 	This is quite a good example of the little houses in the neighborhood.  For many generations it belonged to members of the Sarvent family - the Sarvents were early settlers in the area.  One of them was the first mayor of the village.  The village was incorporated in 1873.  I don't think he lived in this house, but he was related.  

21.  304 Ellen Street - James and Elizabeth Youman
	Another delightful example of the little houses in the neighborhood, this one is very much unchanged from the front, except that when the Youmans were having it remodeled they found that the roof had been raised.  Originally it was a story and a half with a full basement, instead of 2 stories with a full basement.  It had those little windows upstairs that you still see on some of the other houses.  
	When I was a child, and for a couple of generations before, most of these homes were homes of Italian Americans.  The man who lived here was a great wine maker.  He had his little vineyard in the backyard.  He shared the wine with all the neighbors. 

22.  302  Ellen Street - Cavid and Elizabeth Cantor
	This tiny house was the home of the Lodico family.  It was a big family.  There was actually another room on the front that has since been removed - but it was still pretty small.  Mr. Lodico had, I think, worked at the boatyard, but by the time that I was a child he was semi-retired and he was the custodian of the Upper Nyack School and held forth in the boiler room at the school.  
	One of his sons, John Lodico, is an electrical contractor and an activist and politician - I think in the Conservative party - in Rockland County.  I may be wrong, but I think he was the one who filed the lawsuit that found that the old form of government by a board of supervisors didn't comply with the one man/one vote rule of the Constitution and that he was the one responsible for the forming of the county legislature form of government in Rockland.  He's a great guy - very interested in local history and local affairs - goes to all the town meetings - always has something good to say.
	I remember him as a couple of grades ahead of me in the Upper Nyack School.

23.   300 Ellen Street - Ken Rothschild and Hilarie Blumenthal
	Here's another typical example of the older houses in the neighborhood - it still looks very much the way it always has - except that the dormer windows are a recent addition.  They had low eaves at the front, and small windows.  Architectural historians tell us that porches were not original, that they became popular partway through the 19th century and were added.  I find that hard to believe