Boston Post Road Historic District (Rye, New York)

The Boston Post Road Historic District is a historic district including 3 pre-civil war mansions and their grounds, a 10,000 year old Paleo-Indian meadow and viewshed, a cemetery, and a nature preserve. It touches on the south side of the nation's oldest road Boston Post Road (US 1) in Rye, New York where mile marker “24” out of 230, designated in 1763 by Benjamin Franklin, is set into the perimeter wall; from there the landmarked area of 286 acres (1.16 km²) expands down to the Milton Harbor of the Long Island Sound. Two of the mansions included in the landmark district are Greek Revival; the third is Gothic Revival and was designed by Alexander Jackson Davis.

This site with its archaeological significance and importance to American heritage was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1993.^[2],^[3] The three-quarter mile meadow and viewshed is one of fewer than a dozen such identified Paleo-Indian sites in all of New York State ^[4].

Included within the district are the following historic structures, associated buildings and grounds:

• The 1838 Peter Augustus Jay House now being restored by the not-for-profit organization, The Jay Heritage Center, is one of two Greek Revival residences. It is situated on the Jay Property, the boyhood home of Founding Father John Jay. The existing house was built upon the footprint of an older 18th-century farmhouse, "The Locusts", and replaced with the current mansion by John Jay's eldest son, Peter Augustus Jay. It seems to have been built by Edwin Bishop based on architectural pattern books by Minard Lafever and Chester Hills.^[3], p. 13. Restoration of the house is an official Save America's Treasures project. The site is also on the Westchester County African American Heritage Trail. In January 2009, it was designated a member site of the Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area. The house and property are open to the public.
  • 1907 Van Norden Carriage House designed by Frank A. Rooke. Frank A. Rooke also designed the Claremont Stables and Sheffield Farm dairy plant in Manhattan
  • Zebra House designed by Frank A. Rooke
  • Tennis House
  • Barlow Lane Cottage
  • Summer House
  • Estate Cottage B (demolished)
  • Bowling Alley (demolished)
  • 4 outbuildings (demolished)
  • Gazebo (demolished)
  • Gardens designed by Brinley & Holbrook

• Lounsberry (1831), also known as the Parsons House, is a second Greek Revival residence in the district; notably it has a library designed by Delano & Aldrich
  • Gardener's Cottage
  • Carriage House and Stable
  • Outbuilding with 5 bays
  • Poultry and Wood House
  • Greenhouse
• Whitby Castle (1854), Gothic Revival residence, which is now the City of Rye Golf Club. This was designed by Alexander Jackson Davis for William Chapman
  • Caretaker's house
  • pool house and golf cart garage (non-contributing)
  • Starter's House (non-contributing)
  • Maintenance Building (non-contributing)

Also included are:

• Jay Family Cemetery (3 acres)
• Marshlands Conservancy (137 acres)

References

• Pfeiffer, John "Preliminary Archaeological Survey of the Boston Post Road Historic District of Rye, NY" April 21, 1982.

External links

• Parsons-Lounsbury House, Boston Post Road, Rye, Westchester, NY: 14 drawings, 5 photos, 4 data pages, and supplemental material at Historic American Building Survey
• Jay Family Cemetery
• Jay Heritage Center
• 1838 Peter Augustus Jay House
• Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area
• Save America's Treasures
• Westchester County African American Heritage Trail
• City of Rye (History)
• John Jay
• Library of Congress-Local Legacies-Jay Heritage Center