Allen-Belville House, Peter Greenberg for Wiki

I did a double take when I saw this house. It looks so much like the houses I grew up around; old Greek Revival and Italianate farmhouses in upstate Otsego County. But this house is in the middle of upscale, suburban Queens. A quick look around the neighborhood shows all kinds of 20th century residential architecture, from one end of the century to the other, but nothing is as old as this late 1840s farmhouse, sitting by itself of a generous lot.

The house’s address is 236-12 Center Drive, in Douglaston, an area with a long history. When the Matinecoc Indians lived in this area, it was called Madnan Neck, and was a favorite area for fishing and harvesting oysters and clams. They were used for food, and the shells were used to make wampum, for trading. When the Dutch and English settlers showed up, in the late 17th century, a settler named Thomas Hicks and his men evicted the Matinecoc in a battle, even though the Dutch authorities had not approved of such actions. It was the only such seizure of property in the annals of Flushing, which oversaw this part of Long Island.

The early residents of the area were both Dutch and English. They named the area Thorne’s Neck, then Wilken’s Neck, and finally settled on Little Neck, the name that stuck until the second half of the 19th century, when the name moved to an adjacent town. Subsequent settlers utilized the clam and oyster beds so prized by the Matinecoc, and harvested their bounty until the beds became too polluted to use in the early 20th century. Until industrialization and sewage ruined everything, Little Neck clams and oysters were famous for their superior qualities.

Much of the peninsula’s land belonged to the Weakes family, the Van Wycks, then Wynant Van Zandt, who sold it to the Douglas family. George Douglas, a Scotsman, established Douglas Manor in the 1830s. A bit further south, away from the shore, the town of Marathon grew up, with parcels of land belonging to several prominent families, including the Allen family. The Allen farm was massed from smaller purchases by the Allen’s before 1820. The land passed to several generations of Allen’s before ending up with Benjamin P. Allen. In 1847, Benjamin acquired the last piece of the family farmstead, where the house now stands, and began building his home.

The house is a classic Greek Revival farmhouse, popular throughout the Northeast in the 1830s and ‘40s. It’s got some Italianate decorative elements as well, as that style began gaining popularity. It’s a vernacular house, constructed without architects, but sturdily made by skilled builders, probably including Benjamin Allen himself. The house is faced in clapboard, with ornate fluted Doric columns, one of the hallmarks of the Greek Revival style. The porch also features Italianate dentils and brackets, which may have been added a bit later. The house is quite large; five bays wide and three bays deep. The house has a wide center door, which is not original, but a later Victorian replacement, and a wonderful octagonal cupola on the roof.

Benjamin Allen and his wife Catherine raised seven children in this house between 1855 and 1874. In 1865, Allen allowed the children of the community to attend a school he established, here in this house. Allen was also quite active in his church, and was a vestryman and warden in the local Zion Episcopal Church. The church was established in 1830, and its original building built then. Like most churches of the day, it had a burial ground next door, and here Benjamin Allen and other family members are interred. He died in 1883.

William P. Douglas was the son of George Douglas, whose manor adjoined the Allen farm. In the 1860s, in an attempt to get put this area on the map, he donated the right of way, and a building for a station for the Long Island Railroad, making the town easy to get to from Long Island, as well as Manhattan and Brooklyn. He called the station the “Douglaston Station,” and soon the town of Marathon, much to many people’s displeasure, became known as Douglaston. Mr. Douglas gladly, and no doubt humbly, accepted the honor.

After Benjamin Allen’s death, the property was purchased by William Douglas and added to his estate. He used the Allen house as a guest house for visitors. Douglas was well-known for more than just being a rich landowner and for “founding” a town. He was wealthy banker and financier, and a Vice-Admiral in the New York Yacht Club. He gained national and international fame after his yacht “Sappho” beat the British in 1876 in a race that became known as the “America’s Cup.” Douglas entertained the upper crust lavishly, establishing his manor as a center for yachting and polo.

Douglas had subdivided his estate, and attempted to develop it, but he was a man before his time. He hired a landscaper who spent years planting foliage and fruit and flowering trees. The trees became one of the great assets of the property, many of which still stand. But the development he dreamed of would not come at his hands. In 1906, he sold the estate to the Rickart-Finlay Realty Company. Douglas died in 1916, in his home on East 76th Street in Manhattan.

The new borough of Queens was growing, better roads, bridges and railway connections were being built, and now was the time for suburban development. Rickart-Finlay bought the 180 acre estate, with over a mile of shoreline, and began development. The area around the Allen house became Douglas Manor, a planned upscale suburban community. The Douglas home, originally the Van Zahnt manor, set back on a large lot, became the Douglaston Club, an elite private club for the Manor’s tonier residents. When much of this building was destroyed in a fire, the Allen house was used as one of the models for its reconstruction.

The Allen house was purchased by Anne R. Faddis, who bought seventeen lots in total, including this house. Walter Scott Faddis sold it in 1945 to Alan Warner, who sold it a year later, in 1946 to Hugh and Elinor Beville. When the house was designated an individual landmark in 1977, it still belonged to the Beville’s and is officially called the Allen-Beville House. Today, in 2014, it has been passed to yet another steward, charged with its continued protection.

Today, Douglaston contains two landmarked districts, and contains three of this area’s oldest buildings. The oldest is the 1735 Van Wyck House, followed by the 1819 Van Zandt house, although that one is partially a recreation, as noted before, and this, the Benjamin Allen farmhouse, dating from 1848 to 1850. Its address is 236-12 Center Drive. Along with the homes built in the 20th century, they form an architectural timeline, adding to the beauty and historic value of this part of Queens. GMAP

(Photo:Peter Greenberg for Wikipedia)

Photo: Douglaston Little Neck Historical Society
Photo: Douglaston Little Neck Historical Society
Photo: Google Maps
Photo: Google Maps
Van Zandt-Douglas Manor, now Douglaston Club. Postcard: Douglaston Little Neck Historical Society
Van Zandt-Douglas Manor, now Douglaston Club. Postcard: Douglaston Little Neck Historical Society

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