McFarlane–Bredt House facts for kids
Quick facts for kids |
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McFarlane–Bredt House
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 Location in New York City
Location in New York
Location in the United States
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| Location | 30 Hylan Blvd., Staten Island, New York |
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| Area | 3 acres (1.2 ha) |
| Built | 1840s |
| Architectural style | Italian-Swiss villa, Victorian country villa |
| NRHP reference No. | 83001784 |
| Added to NRHP | September 8, 1983 |
The McFarlane–Bredt House is a really old and important house in Rosebank, Staten Island, New York. It was built around 1840 and looks like a fancy Italian Villa. This house is made of wood and has two floors. Over the years, it grew bigger with new parts added in the 1860s, 1870s, and 1890s.
Because of its history and unique style, the house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. This means it's a special building worth protecting!
Contents
What Does the House Look Like?
The McFarlane–Bredt House is located at 30 Hylan Boulevard. It's an early Victorian country villa, built in the early 1840s. The house sits on a small hill on Staten Island's North Shore. From here, you can see an amazing view across the Narrows to New York Harbor.
Today, the house has two stories and is covered with clapboard (overlapping wooden boards). Even though it's now divided into apartments, the outside still looks much like it did over 100 years ago.
Main Entrance and Windows
The main door is on the south side, facing where the carriage drive used to be. Above the double door, there's a cool-looking cover that looks like a fabric tent. Thin, crisscross posts hold up a curved metal roof. It has a wooden border with pointy, decorative shapes hanging down.
Right above the main entrance, on the second floor, there's a small balcony. It rests on two decorative supports and has a pretty wooden railing with a diamond pattern. A casement window (a window that opens like a door) leads to this balcony. Above it, there's a smaller version of the decorative wooden awning. All the second-floor windows in the older part of the house have these nice wooden canopies.
The first-floor windows have double-hung sash (two window panes that slide up and down). The roof's cornice (the decorative molding at the top of the wall) is very wide. It's held up by long, thin brackets that step backward in four layers. Each layer has a wooden acorn hanging from its end.
Different Sections of the House
The east wing, added in the 1870s, has a similar cornice but smaller. The west wing, from the 1890s, has shorter brackets with one hanging decoration each. Besides the main entrance, each wing also has its own front door.
The western door has a narrow porch with wooden hearts decorating its edge. The eastern door has a simple, small stoop with a flat roof.
The "Front" Facing the Water
The north side of the house faces the Narrows. This was probably considered the "front" of the house, like many homes built along the Hudson River. The main feature here is a long, open porch called a veranda. It has flat wooden posts with diamond patterns and small brackets above decorative wooden shapes along the roof's edge.
Long casement windows open onto this veranda from the first-floor rooms. In the middle of each three-sided bay window, there's a beautiful French door with a half-moon shaped window above it. The edges of these two openings are decorated with thin borders of ruby-red glass. Most of the original wooden window shutters are gone now.
Roof and Chimneys
The main roof is quite flat. But above each of the two-story bay windows, it rises to form a jerkin head gable (a roof section with a shortened point). This makes the bay windows stand out and adds interest to the roofline. The house has four brick chimneys for its many fireplaces.
The westernmost part of the house, likely from the 1890s, is almost square and has three stories. It sits on a red brick foundation and has a pointed, pyramid-shaped roof. This section might have been meant for servants. Its original windows were replaced with adjustable jalousies (slatted glass windows). The entire house is painted a deep gray with white trim today.
A Look Back in Time: The House's History
Early Owners
The McFarlane–Bredt House was built for Henry and Anne McFarlane. They bought the land in 1841. Henry McFarlane was one of the first people to develop land on Staten Island. The area where the house is, Clifton, was an early fancy neighborhood.
A map from 1846 shows the McFarlane house as it was first built. It had a wide, two-story central part with a large veranda facing the Narrows. The property also had an ice-house, a gardener's cottage, stables, two greenhouses, and a fish pond!
In 1846, the McFarlanes sold the house and land to Daniel Low for $9,000. Over the next few years, it was sold a few more times. In 1850, Henry Dibblee, a dry-goods merchant, bought the house. He lived there for 15 years.
When Dibblee sold the house in 1865 for $25,000, it was a very large amount of money for that time. This shows the house was in great shape and had been improved. Dibblee likely added the first part to the west side of the house, almost doubling its size. Great care was taken to make the new part look exactly like the original house.
The New York Yacht Club
From 1868 to 1871, the McFarlane–Bredt House became the clubhouse for the New York Yacht Club. It was their second home! While they were based here, the club successfully defended the America's Cup for the first time. The America's Cup is one of the most famous yachting races in the world.
After the Civil War, yachting changed. Very rich people who owned huge steam yachts joined the club. They wanted a more elegant place for social events. The clubhouse in Clifton wasn't big enough for large parties. So, in 1871, the New York Yacht Club sold the house to Frederick Bredt for $16,000. Because he was the first owner after the Yacht Club, his name became linked to the house.
The New York Yacht Club later moved to Manhattan. They eventually built their current beautiful building at 37 West 44th Street in 1901.
Later Owners and Changes
The McFarlane–Bredt House had two more additions after 1871. Frederick Bredt probably didn't enlarge the house, as he only owned it for three years. He sold it to George D. Ives in 1874. Ives owned the house for a long time. The style of the wing added to the east side suggests it was built in the 1870s.
In 1891, James Thompson bought the property. He owned it until 1908, and his daughter, Jeanette, owned it until 1948. It's thought that Thompson built the three-story addition on the far west end. This part looks very different from the rest of the house, being bold, square, and tall.
In 1948, Jeanette Thompson sold the house to T. Gilbert Brouillette. He lived there until 1961. After that, developers bought the property, and ownership changed several times. Finally, in 1975, the City of New York bought the house. The idea was to create a public park and save these important old Staten Island buildings on their beautiful site by the Narrows.
