Moving day is over and now begins the:
This home is truly a gem and we are so blessed to be the new owners of the oldest home in a Westchester County town about 45 minutes north of New York City.
The property was originally purchased by Samuel Brown sometime after 1715 upon which he built this saltbox style farmhouse. It's estimated the house was built about 1740 but no original deed exists.
This house was the center of a large farm covering at least a half mile down the main street.
The original portion is the larger center piece with the classic characteristic saltbox 1 1/2 stories in front and the transom window above the door.
This collection of panoramic pictures below is my attempt to show the whole house including additions made on both sides:
1. Street view: left portion is garage/laundry and kitchen addition
2. Front patio view: kitchen behind umbrella
3. Main original house
4. Great room on right side with playroom below.
5. Pool view of right side with great room addition.
The official plaque out front dedicated in May 1967 by the Daughters of the American Revolution:
(This house has not been registered as a historical landmark.)
As they say it's in the details and this house is no exception.
Roman numerals carved into the support beams marking where the cross beams and pegs connect:
Here's one of those original pegs:
It's a quaint house: 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 3 staircases, 3 fireplaces (all connected to one central chimney).
Dining room fireplace:
Living room fireplace:
Check out the original floorboards and brick work:
And lastly the Master Bedroom fireplace:
Moving on to the staircases.
Front staircase: super narrow and twisty with a steep rise but easy to navigate (and no kids have fallen yet!):
At the top of this staircase is the coolest nook complete with window (which has been taken over by American Girl dolls):
Back staircase: original and clearly the most used but also very dark (my apologies for the flash enhanced picture below).
You can see the worn foot path on each step:
The entrance for the back staircase is behind the door on the far left picture below:
If you open the door you can barely see the first step in the middle picture and the door on the opposite side.
Finally in the picture on the right with the second door open you can see the great room addition, I prefer to keep both doors open, it makes the space flow much better and feel bigger.
Attic staircase: original and movable access to the attic:
Now for the bathrooms:
The bathrooms are not original, there was no indoor plumbing in 1740 but a most recent third bath keeps with the farmhouse flavor:
And the bedrooms.
The Master Bedroom is on the first floor, original wood planks and fireplace (barely visible to the left):
The other two bedrooms are upstairs and still have the original wide wood plank floors as well.
There's lots of work to be done - the wallpaper will be coming down, new window treatments and paint, etc.
We can't forget the kitchen, tons of cabinets to be painted but loving this countertop and sink!
And we found this wallpaper in a nook under the front staircase:
This collection of items below are things found in and around the Brown Homestead throughout the years:
This little card is pretty neat as it has the name 'Merritt' written on both the back:
(The Merritt Parkway is about 1 mile down the road.)
And front:
The saltbox transom window lets so much light in here at the back door:
And the back door from the exterior:
This back portion was added on at some point enlarging the dining room and creating a small foyer at the back entry.
There are blueprints from a 1943 renovation which I'll share completely in another post but here's the front elevation:
The front door:
This house has copper gutters and the previous owner added all these beautiful exterior sconces:
And the most perfect sconces on the fence posts at the front patio:
The front patio view from the kitchen doors:
And the backyard is complete with the original well (the opening is under the large rock under the birdhouse):
And slate patio, pool and koi pond:
As so the Saltbox Project begins.
Looking forward to gallons and gallons of paint, lots of furniture building, tons of landscaping, installing new light fixtures and on and on.
I'm linking up to:
