35-34 Bell Blvd, Bayside, Peter Greenberg, Wiki 1

One of the great things about New York City is that somewhere in the five boroughs, you can find just about anything. When it comes to architecture, that is certainly true. It’s really not surprising that there is even a cobblestone house in the city, a vernacular style of construction that usually is found in more remote rural areas. This one is a city landmark, and stands in Bayside, at 35-34 Bell Boulevard.

The land the house sits on was owned for generations by the Bell family. Abraham Bell, who was a shipping and commission merchant in Lower Manhattan, owned 246 acres of farmland which comprised much of modern day Bayside. Bell made his money on the cotton trade, and in transporting Irish immigrants escaping the Potato Famine.

A dirt road bisected the property into the upper farm and lower farm. This road was called Bell Avenue, and today is Bell Boulevard. In 1842, the Bell’s built a farmhouse on Bell Avenue, in the middle of the property. That house managed to last until 1971, when it was torn down. The area remained farmland throughout most the 19th century. The farmland began to shrink in the 1870s, as spotty development occurred on through to the 20th century. The last of the Bell farmlands, 95 acres, was purchased in 1904 by the Rickert-Finlay Development Company, important developers in suburban Queens.

In 1903, just before the purchase, the NY Times visited the area, and wrote: “the visitor walks along Bell Avenue, a broad stretch bordered by tall and symmetrical maples, offering protection from the hot rays of the sun. In sight of the road are stately old homesteads, half hidden by oaks and elms and everything is so refreshingly rural that it is only by an effort of the imagination that one can realize that only eleven miles away are skyscrapers and stuffy tenements.”

Rickert-Finlay hired Brinton Bell, the son of the Bell family members who sold the land to them, to work on their Bayside project, as well as projects the company had in Douglas Manor and Kensington. The former farmland would be developed in a community called Bellcourt. Restrictive covenants were drawn up, the precursors to zoning regulations, with nine stipulations as to the size of houses, distance from the street, cost, roof styles and other details that would insure a picturesque, country-like setting for the neighborhood.

Rickert-Finlay laid out the streets and sidewalks, planted trees to insure a rural setting, and installed power lines and utilities. They left the actual design and building of houses to the individual lot owners and their architects. They had to abide by the covenant’s dictates, but within that, could design however they chose. Bellcourt was on high ground, with great views and was easily accessible to public transportation. It didn’t take long for all of the lots to be sold, and the building of large upscale suburban houses began.

The developers also built rustic stone pillars to mark the streets. The only remaining pair is in front of this house, on the corner of Bell Blvd and Lamartine Avenue. This lot was purchased for a dollar by Elizabeth A. Adams, who lived in Yonkers. The details of the sale have never been found, but she got a sweet deal for some reason. In 1905, the Real Estate Record and Building Guide announced that she was going to build a “stone cottage to be used as a private residence.” No architect or builder was named in this announcement, and those names have never been found. The house was completed in 1906, and was one of the first houses in the Bellcourt development.

The unknown architect who designed this house mixed elements of the Colonial Revival with the Arts and Crafts Movement, and came up with this unique design. The basic shape of the house is English Georgian, one of the many 18th century styles that fall under the larger umbrella of the Colonial Revival movement. The house is a symmetrical rectangle. The front and rear facades are divided by three arched bays, behind which are deep, recessed porches that run the full width of the building. They are reminiscent of the Post Headquarters building at nearby Fort Totten. That building was built at the same time as this house.

That design would have made a nice enough clapboard or shingled Colonial, but Ms. Adams had her architect go further. The house is covered in round cobblestones. These are natural stones, not shaped or manufactured; their shape comes from centuries of rolling around in river beds. The stones were carefully picked for color, size and shape.

The stones are set in cement, and set deeply into the mortar with only the surface protruding outward a bit. They are especially packed into the arches, with almost no mortar visible here. It’s a very handmade look, one of the hallmarks of the Arts and Crafts movement, which was also quite popular at that time. This house is one of the rare examples of the style in New York City, and one of the earliest houses of this type to be constructed here.

The American Arts and Crafts Movement was the brainchild of Syracuse native Gustav Stickley. His Craftsman Magazine was the bible of the movement. Stickley was highly influenced by the British Arts and Crafts movement, and its leaders, including William Morris. The British ideal was a rejection of mass produced goods, and a return to nature, craft and the works of one’s hands. Stickley embraced that ideal with designs for smaller houses called bungalows, a more open floor plan, natural materials and forms, and the plain, but elegant lines of his oak furniture.

Stickley himself praised the use of river rock and cobblestone, writing that its use was useful in connecting the house back to nature. Besides, there was a lot of this material kicking around in Bayside. Local farmers had found plenty of river stones in the land as they plowed and worked the land. They painstakingly lifted them out of the way of their plows and built low walls that followed property lines and laid out the boundaries of fields. As development replaced the farms, these rocks were usually crushed into gravel for roads. It would have been easy to find and purchase enough local stone to clad this house.

There were already important examples of cobblestone suburban houses in existence, including fine and well publicized houses by architects as distinguished as Stanford White, Lionel Moses and H. H. Richardson. The homeowner or her architect may have been familiar with some or all of these, and were inspired by them. We’ll never know. About ten years after this house was built, the most famous local cobblestone cottage was built in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn – the J. Sarsfield Kennedy designed “Gingerbread House,” built for Howard and Jessie Jones. Today, there is only one other house in Bayside with cobblestone, a house at 38-26 212th Street, with a stone base and chimney.

We do know that even in 1909, this was the only house on the block, and the eastern porches and windows had fantastic views of Little Neck Bay. Elizabeth Adams, and/or her family members lived here until 1922, when the house was sold to Robert and Daisy Wayman, Jr. The house became a boy’s school and for a short time, a restaurant. In the 1930s, it almost became a development site, in conjunction of the proposed extension of the Flushing subway. The owners, a development company, turned the house into apartments. They also built the brick garage at the rear of the house.

In 1949 or 1950, the house got a curb cut, and in the late 1990s, the front porch on the ground floor was enclosed with wood framed windows, and the south entrance was made smaller. Fortunately, the smaller entryway was faced with stones that correspond to the original materials. An ADA compliant ramp was also installed.

This unique home saw very little time as a luxurious and well placed private home. We are fortunate that subsequent owners did not tear it down, or ruin it with strange alterations. They did not try to rip off the stone face or put an addition on it. This early and iconic stone cottage still stands tall on its corner, worthy of its 2004 landmark status, and a slowdown and double-take when you pass by. If you are in the area, it’s worth a good look. Unfortunately, the house is not surrounded by the same beauty, which makes it stand out even more.

(Photograph:Peter Greenberg for Wikipedia)

GMAP

Photo: Bridge and Tunnel Club
Photo: Bridge and Tunnel Club
Photo: Bridge and Tunnel Club
Photo: Bridge and Tunnel Club
Photo: Carl Forster for Landmarks Preservation Commission
Photo: Carl Forster for Landmarks Preservation Commission
Photo: Matt Postal for Landmarks Preservation Commission
Photo: Matt Postal for Landmarks Preservation Commission
Photo: Google Maps
Photo: Google Maps

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