A Gothic Cottage in Pelham With Friendly Ghosts and Tales of Hidden Treasure Asks $725K

Nicknamed the Old Stone House, a simple cottage in Pelham, N.Y., is chock-full of romantic tales of friendly ghosts, hidden treasure and a homesick Scottsman. If you are looking for a retreat with an evocative back story, this Westchester County home might fit the bill.

Constructed in 1852, just a few years after the railroad arrived in Pelham, the house sits on the corner of a residential street at 463 1st Avenue in the historic town.

While some sources say that the original owner, Alexander Diack, designed the house as a nostalgic nod to the Scottish home of his youth, the simple stone cottage is straight from the philosophies espoused by landscape designer and architect Andrew Jackson Downing. Before dying tragically young in a steamship accident in 1852, Downing produced two hugely influential books on country houses. Downing advocated “neat and picturesque” dwellings that were practical in design and suitable to the surrounding landscape.

The Pelham house fits his descriptions of rural Gothic cottages built of stone with “high gables wrought with tracery, bay windows and other features full of domestic expression.”

The house was described as still unfinished in 1855 when it was listed for sale. The ad noted it was a stone house “with basement and attic, two stories deep in the back with [an] oval window to the garden.” It was sold to the Parrish family in 1855, and it is with their residence that the tale of the lost gold commences. After the death of Mr. Parrish, his wealthy widow, Mary, was the victim of a home invasion in 1879, robbed by masked men while home alone on the first floor of the stone house.

The New York Herald gave a harrowing account of the robbery, but noted that some neighbors doubted the veracity of the elderly widow’s story. Local legend says that after the scary encounter Mary began hiding her gold around the house and grounds. According to a 1940s history of Pelham, later residents found gold coins under a hearthstone, but the million dollars in gold she supposedly buried was never discovered. Local lore holds that Mrs. Parrish still roams the house searching for her gold, according to local blogs and the book Haunted New York.

In the early 20th century, Frank and Dorothea Snyder purchased the house. It is Dorothea who in 1935 shared the tale of her encounter with friendly apparitions. Soon after moving in she saw a “lovely lady dressed in richly brocaded velvet, with poke bonnet, and pantalets” accompanied by a little girl “dressed in the same quaint manner.” According to Dorothea, the visitors bowed and smiled politely before disappearing around a corner.

Despite the ghostly presence, Frank and Dorothea continued to live in the house — Frank was an architect who produced Building Details, a well-respected 12-part series of measured drawings of architectural elements, and Dorothea ran an antiques business out of the cottage. A website about the house called The Old Stone House, Pelham contains more historic tales.

While no floor plans are available, a current sales listing for the house describes a center hall first floor with parlors on either side. Photos reveal the house has been renovated over the years, but there are some surviving details.

One parlor has a lovely bay window, interior shutters and one of three mantels in the house — no word on whether the fireplaces are in working order.

An updated kitchen is located in the rear of the first floor.

The house has 2.5 baths; one pictured continues the neutral palette of the renovations.

There are three bedrooms and a study upstairs. There is more space in the walk-out basement, according to the listing, which describes it as having three more rooms with “tremendous possibilities.”

Listed by Kathleen G. Yost and Kimberly McGreal of Houlihan Lawrence, the cottage is asking $725,000.

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