Gillett-Tyler House

Staten Island

 

Summary

 

The Gillett-Tyler house is significant for its architectural design, for its association with an important period of American history, and for its association with three significant persons. Picturesquely sited on Todt Hill, this impressive Greek-Revival-style mansion is a fine example of the early-nineteenth-century frame buildings that were constructed in New York, New England and throughout the country. Originally built in Enfield, Massachusetts around 1846 for Daniel B. Gillett, this two-story house was reconstructed in Staten Island in 1931, when the buildings in the Swift River Valley were moved or razed to allow for the creation of the Quabbin Reservoir in western Massachusetts.

 

Charles A. Wade, a builder from Dorset, Vermont, took advantage of the interest in colonial and early-nineteenth-century American history that flourished in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as well as the inexpensive building supply of the Swift River Valley, and offered to find authentic New England houses and move them to the locations of the buyers' choice. Wade was commissioned to relocate this building to Todt Hill on Staten Island, situated among large, newly constructed homes and nineteenth-century country estates, to serve as the home of Walter A. Tyler, an executive of the L.A. Dreyfus chewing-gum-base manufacturer. The over-200-mile move is testament to the deep interest in colonial and early American history at the time, and the perceived value of its architecture.

 

The two-story, simple box-form house has a slate-shingled, low-pitched, hipped roof, a subordinate, one-and- a-half story wing, and historic six-over-six, double-hung windows. Bold, Greek- Revival-style, classically-inspired decorative details include its emphasized cornice line with wide divided bands of trim, two-story, vernacular Doric pilasters, and the fluted Ionic columns and sidelights flanking the door at the recessed entry porch. In the 1950s, the house and property were sold to Horace P. Moulton, vice president and general counsel of AT&T and his wife Gretta, a champion of Staten Island's Greenbelt parkland. The building remains in use as a private residence.

 

DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS

 

Todt Hill

 

The Gillett-Tyler House is located at 103 Circle Road on Todt Hill, historically known as "Yserberg" or "Iron Hill," the highest of the chain of serpentine hills that extends through the center of the island from Upper New York Bay. Mainly located in the neighborhood of Dongan Hills, the summit of the hill at 409.8 feet is said to be the highest natural point on the eastern seaboard from Maine to Florida. The hill is roughly bounded by the Staten Island Expressway to the north, Richmond Road (one of the earliest roads on the island) to the east, Moravian Cemetery to the south, and the Staten Island Greenbelt to the west. Geographically, Todt Hill was formed by the "terminal moraine," or maximum advance point of a 17,000 year-old glacier. The high points of Brooklyn, Queens and some parts of New Jersey were formed by the same moraine. Todt Hill Road provides the main access to the hill, running from Richmond Road (south) to Victory Boulevard (north), and, besides other smaller streets, is intersected by Four Corners Road, which runs east to Richmond Road.

 

The Dutch name "Yserberg" or "Iron Hill" was used by the early settlers due to the rich resources of Limonite iron ore, found in the serpentine rock that was mined on the southern end of the hill as early as 1644. Although officially called "Todt" Hill today, the origin of the name, said to be from later than the Revolution, is disputed. "One view derives the name from a [deadly] encounter there between the Dutch and the Indians, making it equivalent to Death Hill; another, published in 1856, derives the name 'Toad,' [rather than 'Todt'] from a trivial social incident [involving an amphibian]; while a third, which seems the most probable, relates the name Todt or dead to an early use of the hill as a burying place," the seventeenth-century Dutch Moravian Cemetery.

 

The existence of Prehistoric Native American sites on Todt Hill is indicated by several chert (stone) artifacts in the collections of the Staten Island Institute of Arts and Sciences. The first theory on the derivation of the name "Todt" also alludes to the presence of Native Americans in the area, although it is unclear if an actual campsite existed there. In the 1687, Governor Dongan granted 5,100 acres of land, including most of the land on the hill, to John Palmer as part of the extensive Iron Hill patent, and, as the name suggests, iron ore was mined there by early settlers. In the mid-nineteenth-century, Todt Hill, like other picturesque settings on Staten Island, became the location of country homes on large estates, owned by wealthy businessmen and professionals who wished "to enjoy the scenery of the country, without removing too far from active [city] life."

 

Henry B. Cromwell, owner of Cromwell Shipping Lines, and his wife, Sarah Seaman Cromwell, purchased a country estate with nineteen acres of land on Todt Hill in February of 1862. Their son, George Cromwell, became an attorney and the first borough president of Staten Island, serving five terms from 1898 until 1914. "A pioneer of the social-planning school of government," as borough president, Cromwell was "best remembered [for his campaigns] to improve the condition of Staten Island and to make plans for its future development." While he was in office, Staten Island's village halls were consolidated and the new Borough Hall (a designated New York City Landmark) was constructed in 1904-6, as part of Cromwell's plan for a grand Civic Center at the entry point to the borough. Built at a cost of $750,000, it was "the most expensive building constructed by the city in those years." Consistent with his vision that Staten Island's population would grow, Cromwell invested extensively in real estate in Dongan Hills.

 

By 1907, in addition to the family estate inherited from his parents, Cromwell owned over 200 acres of land on Todt Hill. He began selling off acreage of the property for development in the early twentieth century, including the site of the Gillett-Tyler house, and "many beautiful homes were built in the vicinity."

 

A contemporary of George Cromwell, architect Ernest Flagg was [also] "continuously engaged in an aggressive campaign of land acquisition from 1897 when he purchased his first parcel of land on Staten Island, until his death a half-century later." By the mid-1940s, his estate on Todt Hill contained over 300 acres of land. Similar to that of Cromwell, the Flagg estate was eventually subdivided and sold off for the continued development of the large homes that cover Todt Hill today.

 

The vacant site of the house was purchased by Carolyn R. A. Tyler from Herbert C. and Marie Louise Frederichs in December of 1930. Frederichs had purchased the property a year earlier from George Cromwell, who had begun to subdivide his property on Todt Hill for development. Easements on the deeds restricted the type, size, setbacks and cost of any improvements to be built on the site, allowing for the continued use of the private road (Circle Road) by the new owner, for the installation and maintenance of utilities by Cromwell, and the construction of a full, two-story, one-family residence costing not less than $20,000.

 

Enfield, Massachusetts

 

Enfield was located in the eastern part of Hampshire County, in the Connecticut River Valley of western Massachusetts on the former hunting grounds of the Nipmuck Indians. The area was first settled by Europeans around 1730 and given the Indian name "Quabbin," meaning "many waters," which foreshadows its later fate. Incorporated in 1816 and named for Robert Field, an early settler, both the east and west branches of the Swift River ran through the town. While agriculture was always an important part of the small rural community's economy, it was Enfield's location on the Swift River that helped to make it a prominent milling center and the most prosperous of the valley towns. The east branch of the river was dammed for milling prior to 1770 and two major manufacturing companies operated there for most of the nineteenth century.

 

The small town's population was directly affected by the mills' production, starting at just below 900 in 1820, reaching its peak at 1,936 persons in 1855 - when the mills produced their largest output - and then slowly declining from just over 1,000 in 1860 until the town's dissolution. The Athol branch of the railroad came to Enfield in 1872, connecting the town to Springfield and Northampton; however, the new mode of transportation's effect on the mills was shortlived and manufacturing began to decline after the 1870s.

 

As early as the 1890s, western Massachusetts and the Swift River Valley were studied as potential answers to Boston's growing water needs. By the turn of the twentieth century, the population of the four valley towns located in the proposed flood zone, Enfield, Dana, Greenwich and Prescott, began to decline. After the Ware River Act (1926) and Swift River Act (1927) approved funding to begin construction, the Metropolitan District Water Supply Commission (MDWSC) began purchasing land for the proposed Quabbin Reservoir and watershed. The buildings of Enfield, as well as those of neighboring Greenwich, Dana and Prescott, later known as the "lost towns," were purchased by the state and resold and moved or demolished and burned. Although the residents were bitterly opposed to leaving the Swift River Valley and the taking of their homes, the state's power of eminent domain prevailed. Over 6,000 graves were relocated and forests were clear cut and burned.

 

After a farewell ball held in the town hall of Enfield, the "lost towns" were officially disincorporated on April, 28, 1938.

 

Almost seven years after the flooding of the valley began on August 14, 1939, the Quabbin Reservoir was filled to its capacity of 412 billion gallons. The Quabbin Reservoir is currently the largest body of water in Massachusetts and one of the largest man-made water supplies in the country, covering 38.6 square miles. Its protected watershed has become a wildlife area with limited recreational access (to protect water quality), including hiking and fishing.

 

Daniel B. Gillett

 

Daniel Bates Gillett, a descendant of both an early settler of this country and a Revolutionary War veteran, was born on July 21, 1819, in South Hadley, Massachusetts. After being educated in Hadley and South Hadley, he lived briefly in Hartford, Connecticut and Amherst, Massachusetts, before marrying Charlotte E. Woods of Enfield, Massachusetts, whose ancestry includes prominent and founding members of the town. In 1846, a year after his marriage, Gillett moved to Enfield and engaged in the Woods family's manufacturing business. Daniel and Charlotte Gillett had two children, Daniel Bates, Jr. and Rufus W., before she died in 1856. On September 25, 1858, Gillett married Persis L. Winslow, who died on March 20, 1880.

 

For most of his life, Gillett was associated with the Minot Manufacturing Company and Woods & Bros. manufacturing companies in Enfield, both of which his father-in-law, Leonard Woods, helped found. The Minot Manufacturing Company was successful under different ownership for most of the nineteenth century. By the 1870s, the company had merged with the George H. Gilbert Manufacturing Company of Ware, Massachusetts, and had broadened its production. Under the leadership of Edward Bates Gillett, president, Charles D. Gilbert, secretary, and Daniel B. Gillett, treasurer, Minot had two mills (and a grist mill), five sets of machinery, 50 employees, and an annual production of 300,000 yards of cloth. Gillett retired from manufacturing in 1890, but remained a financial partner in the Gillett & Flint portable saw mill lumber business and owned the village grist mill.

 

Daniel Bates Gillett also served as Postmaster from October of 1851 until February of 1853, as one of the town's three selectmen from 1862-64, as State Senator from the Hampshire and Franklin County district in 1866 and as County Commissioner for two years, and held other town offices. Described as "an exceeding pleasant gentleman" and a "general favorite with his fellow townsmen," he remained in Enfield until his death in 1901.

 

Dorset, Vermont and Charles A. Wade

 

Surrounded by the peaks of Dorset Mountain, Owls Head, Netop and Mt. Aeolus of the Taconic Range, Dorset, Vermont became best known for its white marble, which was first quarried in 1785 and became the town's most prominent nineteenth-century industry. In the 1860s, when the marble industry was nearing its peak, the first "summer people" began to visit Dorset via Vermont's expanding railroad network, adding tourism to the other existing, albeit smaller industries. Taking the place of the declining quarrying industry, tourism became the town's dominant source of income and activity during the twentieth century. Dorset has remained a popular summer destination for almost 150 years.

 

Driven by the needs of tourists, in 1909, local resident and entrepreneur, Charles A. "Charley" Wade (1874-1949) started a horse-and-carriage livery business in Dorset that became immediately successful. Five years later, Wade and his wife Agnes bought a small Greek Revival house which they ran as the Wade Inn. Wade described the inspiration for his next endeavor in a 1937 article in the Christian Science Monitor: "I used to hear the summer people talking about the beautiful old houses," while driving them around in his horse and carriage.

 

"They would remark on the fine doors, the paneling, the many-paned windows, and the first thing I knew, I was interested too. Then the automobile came along and put the horse out of business, and I had to look around for something else to do. About the same time I had a lot in the center of the village I wanted to sell, and when a woman came to me to buy it I told her there was a string attached to that lot - that I always dreamed of a Colonial house low and placed well back from the road, settled there. And she said, 'That's odd, I've had the same

 

idea.'"

 

In 1928, Mrs. Agnes (Cowperthwaite) Houghton of Schenectady, New York bought vacant property adjacent to their inn in Dorset Village from Charles and Agnes Wade, and later hired Wade to dismantle, move and reconstruct a dilapidated Greek Revival house on the lot, relocated about fifteen miles from Hebron, New York. A tribute to the success of the endeavor, another summer resident and Mrs. Houghton's sister, Mrs. Walter L. Tyler of Brooklyn, "employed Wade to haul another house from Hebron; it was placed on the east side of Route 30 north of Church Street. Wade also moved a third house from Hebron for Bertha Benson," and so began Wade's next entrepreneurial endeavor.

 

At about the time Charley Wade was moving and reconstructing houses in Dorset, the Metropolitan District Commission (MDC) planned to flood the Swift River Valley to create the Quabbin Reservoir. The buildings in the flood zone that were purchased by the state were offered for resale, at prices ranging from about $50 to $200, provided the purchasers removed the structures from their sites.

 

It is likely that the first house moved to Dorset from Quabbin was for Dr. John B. Kouwenhoven of Yonkers, New York, who began corresponding with the MDWSC in the fall of 193 0. Kouwenhoven actually bought two houses, and had Wade reconstruct the second as a wing. For the next thirteen years, Wade offered to find authentic New England houses and move them to the locations of the buyers' choice. The benefits of the endeavor were three-fold for Dorset: reconstructing the buildings enriched the town's architecture, provided Depression-era work for a local crew of about 35, and also provided homes for the growing number of "summer people" who seasonally visited the village. It also saved well-constructed, older buildings from destruction, provided historic building stock for interested buyers, permitted the preservation and reuse of these early American buildings elsewhere, and maintained built evidence of the four towns about to be "lost" under the Quabbin Reservoir.

 

Rather than jack up the houses and move them on large trucks, Wade's method of sketching the building, marking each beam, disassembling each house (called "wrecking" on his bills), transporting the pieces in truckloads, and then reconstructing them at the new site, facilitated the over-100-mile move from the Swift River Valley to southern Vermont. An article in the Christian Science Monitor in 1937 credited Dorset with having seventeen of the relocated Quabbin houses. Of the over thirty houses Wade and his crew moved between 1928 and 1941, the furthest was the Daniel B. Gillett house, which was moved to Staten Island in 1931.

 

Walter A. Tyler's mother and aunt had already commissioned Wade to relocate two buildings (one each) in Dorset, Vermont, when in 1931, the Daniel B. Gillett house was deconstructed in Enfield and reconstructed on Staten Island. About a year prior, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts had purchased the building from Alice Gillett Philps, and resold it to be moved. Unlike the others Wade moved, the disassembled house traveled most of the over-200-mile distance to its destination via train to St. George, and then by truck to its site on Todt Hill. The New York City Department of Buildings records list Jacob A. Johnsen as the builder of the 30' x 40' main section and 18' x 24' rear ell of the former Gillett house. It is not clear if Wade or any of his crew members traveled to New York to oversee the reconstruction. A year later, in 1932, local architect James Whitford designed a wing for the house.

 

The Colonial Revival Movement and Historic Preservation

 

Colonial Revival-style architecture grew out of a larger social movement in which some Americans looked to back to an idealized Colonial past as a "solution" to what they saw as society's current "problems." "The Colonial Revival is the United States's most popular and characteristic expression," according to architectural historian Richard Guy Wilson, who credits nationalism (on various levels) as a main source of the movement. Although usually roughly dated from the 1860s to the mid-twentieth century, with the 1876 Centennial Exposition and the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition as catalysts for the movement's expansion, the Colonial Revival period had much earlier roots. By 1842, a member of the American Antiquarian Society wrote, "Fashion has taken up antiquity. Old pictures, old furniture, old plates and even old books which have heretofore suffered neglect...are now sought with eagerness as necessary adjuncts of style."

 

Described as "a sudden wave of nostalgic patriotism and a yearning for old time simplicity," the popularity of the movement was partly driven by the uncertainty of post-Civil-War life, recession, modernization, industrialization and massive immigration. Based more on myth than fact, the "revived" period began with Plymouth Rock (ignoring the earlier settlers at Jamestown) and stretched well into the 1820s, 50 years after the country had won its independence from the British crown. The nation's Founding Fathers and early European settlers were idolized as heroic pioneers and patriotic farmers for their virtues, high ideals and successful fight for freedom. This patriotism manifested itself in genealogical research, the study of early American history, the collection of antiques and replicas, works of literature and fine and decorative art, and around the 1890s, the construction of Colonial Revival-style buildings, landscapes and gardens.

 

In the mid-nineteenth century, early preservation efforts included restoring or reconstructing the homes of America's founders, such as Monticello and Mount Vernon. According to historian Mary Milley Theobald, "historic preservation formed the core of the Colonial Revival, a social and stylistic mindset that peaked in the 1920s." At that time, very wealthy philanthropists began collecting buildings as well as objects for museums, including Henry Ford's Greenfield Village in Michigan, the DuPonts' Winterthur in Delaware, Alexis Havermeyer Webb's Shelburne Museum in Vermont, and John D. Rockefeller's Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia. Simple architectural forms and inexpensive wood materials allowed reproductions to trickle down the social scale, but "for those who could afford it, an antique house - restored, modernized and appropriately furnished - became the ultimate fashion statement."

 

The timing of this movement coincided perfectly with Charley Wade's building-moving endeavors and the availability of early-nineteenth-century building stock in the doomed Swift River Valley towns. In creating a business based on moving historic wood houses, Wade took advantage of the deep interest in colonial and early-nineteenth-century American history that flourished in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The over-200-mile move of the Gillett house is testament to the great interest in colonial and early American history at the time, and the perceived value of its architecture.

 

"A fascination with early America," according to Wilson, "led many architects to act as preservationists while at the same time drawing inspiration from this work for their new designs." Colonial Revival architecture began as an adaptation of early Classical Revival (Georgian and Federal) forms and details applied to "modern" Victorian-style building sizes and plans. By the turn of the twentieth century, the focus changed to more accurate copies and proportions, aided in part by careful research and the publications of photographs and measured drawings by The American Architect and Building News (beginning in 1898) and The White Pines Series of Architectural Monographs (beginning in 1915). "Colonial Revival houses built in the years between 1915 and 1935 reflect these influences by more closely resembling early prototypes than did those built earlier or later," according to architectural historians Virginia and Lee McAlester. The style continued to be popular well into the mid-twentieth century, and its influence is still noted on buildings designed today.

 

The Design of the Gillett House

 

The house was likely built around 1846, when Daniel B. Gillett moved to Enfield. Constructed at the base of Great Quabbin Mountain, probably on land that was part of the original Woods farm, the house was "delightfully situated upon an elevation of one hundred feet above Swift River [set on 25 acres] at the foot of Mount Quabbin." The Greek-Revival-style home was considered one of the "show-places" of Enfield.

 

The Greek Revival style was the dominant style of architecture in the United States from approximately 1820 to 1850 (later in some areas) and has been called the "National Style," found in all regions of the country. Although earlier styles that were popular in the colonies and newly independent nation, such as Georgian and Federal, also had classical roots, the Greek Revival style marked a divergence from popular English and European architectural trends. Created by employing details and shapes borrowed directly from classical antiquity, this Classical Revival style alluded to the ideals of democracy, liberty, republican government and civic virtue. The buildings of Greece had become widely known in the late eighteenth century following the publication of archaeological surveys, the most influential being James Stuart and Nicolas Revett's The Antiquities of Athens of 1762. An increased desire for distinction from England after the War of 1812 and identification with and sympathy for the people of Greece during their own war for independence (1821-30) further emphasized the importance of Greek classicism. In addition to its idealistic roots, the widespread popularity of the style is attributed to the distribution of builders' guides and pattern books available in the early nineteenth century, including Asher Benjamin's American Builder's Companion (1806), as well as Modern Builder's Guide (1833) and The Beauties of Modern Architecture (1835) by Minard Lafever. Further contributing to its appeal, the Greek Revival style was very adaptable, and reached all levels of building, from monumental high-style to vernacular in civic, commercial and residential architecture.

 

Although the authorship of the house has not been documented, the proportions and detailing of the Gillett house indicate that it was probably an architect-designed or closely copied pattern-book house, rather that a vernacular interpretation. The popularity of Greek Revival style, spread by the growing number of trained architects working in America, is well documented throughout the country, especially in the larger cities. According to architectural historian Talbot Hamlin, the Boston city directory lists 20 architects in 1846-47. Outside the city, Asher Benjamin and Elias Carter also worked on residential commissions in western Massachusetts. Ithiel Town designed the Bowers house in Northampton. In addition to designing several churches in Northampton, Colonel Isaac Damon was paid for drawings for buildings at Amherst College in the 1820s. Several residential works have been attributed to architect George Cutler of Amherst. Other architects, including Henry and Robert Sykes and Chauncy Shepard, also worked in the Connecticut Valley.

 

The rectangular form of the two-story Gillett house with a low-pitched, hipped roof is very common on Greek Revival buildings with a less-than-full-height or without an entry porch. Although McAlester describes the one-story variant as rare in New England, the building's recessed entry porch, supported by fluted Ionic columns and door flanked by three-light sidelights provides the elaborate entry characteristic of the Greek Revival style. The emphasized wide-banded cornice, which represents a classical entablature composed of cornice, frieze, and architrave, is divided by a row of dentils and runs around all four sides of the building; and the full height, vernacular Doric pilasters are important defining details of the style. While stone was preferred for more monumental civic buildings, wood frame construction was popular for residential buildings. The flush wooden siding of the front facade and white paint were commonly used to emulate more expensive, masonry materials. The hipped roof is also characteristic of the style but was a less-common feature in the northern states, where the gable-front roof was more prevalent. While in Enfield, a standing-seam metal roof covered the house; it is likely that the current slate dates from the 1931 reconstruction on Staten Island. Also common to the Greek

 

Revival style, the building retains its historic six-over-six, double-hung wood windows and simple wood surrounds, which are typically less elaborate than the doorways.

 

Although also typical of the Greek Revival style, the subordinate, one-and-a-half story wing, with historic six-over-six, double-hung wood windows and six-light frieze-band windows, was constructed in 1932. Designed by James Whitford, this two-bay, clapboard-clad, eaves-front, Colonial Revival-style wing is a well- scaled addition to the main house.

 

The one-and-a-half-story, 1932 wing designed by James Whitford reflects the 1915-1935 period of Colonial Revival architecture, when buildings more closely resembled early prototypes. Showing a clear understanding of actual Greek Revival architecture, the wing was designed to be subordinate to the house and has many of the Greek Revival features that would have been present in an original nineteenth-century addition, including facade symmetry, similar materials, and six-over-six, double-hung wood and, frieze band windows.

 

James Whitford, Sr. (aka James Whitford 2nd), was the second of three generations of architects with the same name who lived and worked on Staten Island. Born in Port Richmond in 1871, James Whitford, Sr. received his training in the architectural office of his father, an English immigrant. Known as the "dean of the Staten Island architects," Whitford, Sr. is credited with having designed more than 2,000 buildings, both residential and commercial, during his 50-year career. Although he worked in several different styles, many of his residential commissions are Colonial Revival style buildings. Some of his early works, reflecting the early stages of the period, have Queen-Anne-style massing with applied "colonial" details. As Colonial Revival architecture evolved, so did Whitford Sr.'s designs.

 

Although the house remains close to its 1930s appearance, a sun porch was added between 1986 and

 

1993

 

Walter A. and Carolyn R.A. Tyler

 

Walter Arnold Tyler, originally of Brooklyn Heights, was the son of Walter Lincoln and May Louise Cowperthwaite Tyler, prominent members of Brooklyn society. Tyler graduated from Polytechnic Preparatory School and Cornell University and was in the naval aviation service during World War I. In the 1920s, he was working with the L.A. Dreyfus Company, a chewing-gum-base manufacturer, and by December of 1928 was set to move to Singapore for three years as a representative of the company. Tyler's brother-in-law, Ellsworth Buck, had begun working as a purchasing agent for the L.A. Dreyfus Company in 1919, and, after the death of its founder, Dr. Louis A. Dreyfus, was elected treasurer in 1920. Buck's survey of raw material sources in Southeast Asia led to the creation of a permanent buying establishment in the major port of Singapore. By 1926, Buck assumed the presidency of the company and continued to serve as its chairman from 1932 to 1957. Walter A. Tyler succeeded his brother-in-law as president of the L.A. Dreyfus Company, serving from the mid 1930s until the 1960s. In 1935, L. A. Dreyfus became a wholly owned subsidiary of the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company, and by 1946, Tyler sought to move the plant, and later his residence, to Plainfield, New Jersey, citing "particularly onerous" city and state taxes. The company remained in operation in New Jersey until 2007.

 

Carolyn Rodgers Averbeck Tyler was the daughter of Annie Rodgers Averbeck and Maximilian Justus Averbeck of the Apthorp apartments on the Upper West Side. A graduate of Vassar College, she later served as Secretary of the Vassar Club of New York. Carolyn and Walter Tyler were married in All Angels Church on West End Avenue on March 19, 1927, and made their first home at 139 Fourth Street, New Brighton, Staten Island. Mrs. Tyler had three children and was active in social affairs and the Girl Scouts until dying of pneumonia in 1940, at the age of 41. The Tyler family owned the house from the time of its reconstruction on Staten Island in 1931 until 1953. By December of 1953, Walter Tyler had remarried and was listed as a resident of Plainfield, New Jersey and Yankeetown, Florida, where he died in May of 1964, at the age of 68.

 

Horace P. and Gretta S. Moulton

 

After brief ownership of just over one year by Joseph and Audrey O'Connor, the house and property were sold to Horace Platt and Gretta S. Moulton in 1954. Moulton (1908-1991), a native of Burlington, Vermont, graduated from Dartmouth College and Harvard Law School. Having worked as a lawyer for New England Telephone & Telegraph in Boston since 1944, Moulton moved to New York to work for AT&T in 1951. He was elected as vice president and appointed general counsel of the company in 1955 and served those positions until his retirement in 1972, when he became a partner with the law firm of Cadwalader, Wickersham and Taft in Manhattan. The United States Trust Company elected Moulton as a trustee in 1962, and he was also a director of the Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company and the National Legal Aid Society.

 

Gretta S. Moulton (1912-1971), originally from Massachusetts, was an avid golfer and was also involved in the Girl Scouts. Described as "an energetic camping consultant," Moulton helped with the Girl Scouts camping program at Camp High Rock, located in what is now part of Staten Island's Greenbelt, New York City's Department of Parks and Recreation's High Rock Park. When the Girls Scouts of Greater New York sold the camp property to a real estate developer in 1964, Moulton, having "recogniz[ed] the magnificent beauty of the place" worked with Borough President Albert Maniscalco, Robert Moses, Nelson Rockefeller, Laurence Spellman Rockefeller and other concerned citizens to have High Rock declared parkland in 1965. Upon her death in 1971, her ashes were scattered in the park. Moulton's contributions to the establishment of the park are commemorated by a walking trail and a gate to High Rock Park named for her, the latter designed by landscape architect Bradford Greene, and built in 1995.

 

The Moultons had two children. After the death of his wife, Horace Moulton remarried the former Elizabeth H. Munson. They owned the house from 1954 until 1979, when it was sold to its current owners.

 

Description

 

Located on Circle Road and set into the east side of Todt Hill, the Gillett-Tyler House has majestic views of New York Harbor, the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, Coney Island, New Jersey and beyond. The basically rectangular-shaped lot has about 85 feet of slightly curving frontage along the Circle and extends 241 feet eastward along its northern border and almost 280 feet eastward along its angular, southern border. The house is well-centered on the higher portion of the site, which slopes steeply down in a southeasterly direction. The extensive grounds are beautifully landscaped with terraced paths, constructed of wood railroad ties and crushed stone, and stone patios. Beyond the paths, the eastern edge of the lot is more thickly wooded.

 

A cobblestone drainage ditch separates the property from the street. Access to the front of the house is provided by blacktop covered, semi-circular driveway, flanked by two large, likely original trees, and continues along the south side to the rear of the building.

 

The basic rectangular-shaped building has a 1932 side (south) wing, a historic ell and an enclosed sun porch at the rear (east) that was added between 1986 and 1993. The front (west) facade of this Greek Revival- style house is three bays wide with a recessed, subordinate three-bay side wing. The change in grade of the natural hillside area allows for a full basement story at the south and east facades. The two-story, slate-shingled, hipped roof main portion of the white-painted house has flat wood sheathing with monumental, full-height, vernacular Doric pilasters at the corners and flanking the entry. A wide-banded, denticulated cornice, located under the eaves, runs around all four sides of the building.

 

The historic, six-over-six, double-hung, wood window sash remain in all openings, surrounded by simple wood moldings and flanked by non-functional, black-painted, aluminum shutters with historic iron shutter dogs. Historic twelve-light, wood storm windows remain on the first floor, while there are aluminum, triple-track storm windows at the second floor. Granite steps with an iron railing lead from the driveway to a landing of blue and red slate set in concrete, flanked by planted front terraces set behind a concrete-pointed, rubble stone walls, topped with square wood post and baluster railings. More granite steps with rectangular granite block cheek walls and non-historic iron railings lead to a recessed entry portico, marked by two fluted, Ionic columns. The paneled wood door has a non-historic aluminum storm door and is flanked by three-light sidelights set on wood panels. There is a recessed ceiling light and mailbox at the entry, paired floodlights attached to the cornice at both corners of the building, and metal ice guards at the roof.

 

The clapboard-clad, two-bay, north (side) facade of the house is set on a white-painted, stuccoed concrete foundation. The full-height, monumental corner pilaster of the front facade returns around the northwestern corner of the building, while a 1"x8" corner post marks the eastern edge. The historic six-over-six, double-hung, wood windows remain in the westernmost opening at the first floor and both openings at the second floor, flanked by aluminum shutters and historic shutter dogs. A picture window flanked by three-light casement windows replaces in the easternmost opening at the first floor replaces a three-sided, bay projection shown in a historic photo of the building, taken while the house was still located in Enfield. Three-pane, in- swing windows and concrete window wells at the basement level align with the windows above.

 

An aluminum gutter runs along the eave of the roof with leaders at either end of the building, set into the recess of the pilaster at the western end. There are three projecting, through-wall air conditioning units on this facade: above the westernmost bay through the wide, denticulated cornice, below the westernmost, first floor window, and near the first floor tripartite window. Paired floodlights are attached to the cornice at either end of the north facade, paired stove vents are located near the tripartite window, and there is a utility box, meter and wires at the basement level near the westernmost window.

 

The rear of the main building is largely obscured by the historic rear ell and the sun porch addition, and is visible only partially above the latter, although the wide-banded, denticulated cornice is visible under the eaves across this facade. At the second floor, one historic, six-over-six, double-hung, wood window remains in the southernmost bay and a multi-light wood and glass door is installed in the enlarged opening of the center bay to access the terrace above the addition.

 

A 1932 side wing obscures most of the main building's south facade except for the westernmost bay, which has one, six-over-six, double-hung wood window at each floor. The windows have simplified wood surrounds and are flanked by black-painted, aluminum shutters and historic iron shutter dogs. The first floor window retains its historic, twelve-light storm sash, while the second floor window has triple-track, aluminum storm windows. There are two projecting air conditioning units at this facade, one through the clapboards below the first floor window and another through the wide-banded cornice above the second floor window. Additionally, there is a small alarm box attached to the soffit of this facade.

 

The clapboard-clad, one-and-a-half-story side wing is three bays wide, set on a full concrete basement and has a slate-shingled roof. At the front (west) facade of the addition, two, six-over-six, double hung wood windows with twelve-light wood storm windows at the first floor are flanked by black-painted aluminum shutters with historic cast-iron shutter dogs. The second floor features three, six-light, wood windows in the wide-banded, under-eaves frieze. Unlike those on the first floor, the shutter dogs at the second floor hold back historic, black-painted, functional wood shutters. There are two, three-light awning windows set in the white- painted, stuccoed foundation, which is partially obscured by a raised planting bed set behind a stone retaining wall. There are wires and two projecting, through-wall air conditioning units at this facade, one below the southernmost first floor window, and one through the frieze between the center and southernmost windows.

 

The three-bay side (south) facade of the addition has similar features to the front. There are three, six- over-six, double-hung, wood windows with simple wood surrounds flanked by black-painted aluminum shutters with historic cast-iron shutter dogs at the first and second floor. The graduated second floor windows have non- historic, triple-track aluminum storm windows and there are wires, conduit and an alarm horn attached to the building at this facade. The basement level features one, six-over-six, double hung wood window flanked by two, black-painted, wood paneled nine-light glass doors.

 

Unlike the other two sides, the rear (east) facade of the 1932 addition features large, tripartite picture windows at the first and second floors. The windows are framed by simple wood surrounds that make it difficult to determine if they are original or alterations to the historic addition. A shed-roof dormer at the second floor, which contains the tripartite window, is flush with the facade. Similar to the front, there are two, three-light awning windows set in the foundation at the basement level, which is partially obscured by a raised planting bed set behind a stone retaining wall. Wires are attached to this facade and white aluminum gutters which run along the eaves of both the dormer and addition roofs drain into a leader at the southern corner of the building.

 

The one-and-a-half-story, two-bay ell at the rear (east side) of the building is a historic part of the Daniel B. Gillett house and was moved from Enfield, Massachusetts. When reconstructed in 1931, the new site in the bank of a hill allowed for the construction of a two-car garage at the basement level under the addition. Set on a concrete foundation covered with white-painted stucco, the north facade of the addition has an eaves- front, slate-shingled roof with metal ice guards and a five-bay, shed roof dormer. Because the dormer on the roof of the ell is not present in a historic photo of the Gillett House in Enfield, it was likely added when the building was reconstructed.

 

The white-painted, clapboard-clad side wall features two, historic six-over-six, double-hung wood windows (the easternmost with triple-track aluminum storm windows) and an offset, three- light awning window and concrete window well at the basement level. Like the main building, black-painted aluminum shutters with historic shutter dogs flank the windows. The shed-roofed, pop-up dormer has five, six- light casement windows. Aluminum gutters run along the eaves of the addition and dormer roofs and have leaders at the eastern end of each.

 

The two-bay, gable-front rear of the historic, clapboard-clad addition has a single, six-over-six, double- hung wood window in the gable and two, six-over-six, double-hung wood windows at the first floor. The house's hillside setting allows for a full basement level with large, eight-light and wood paneled garage door. The door is framed by a wide-wood framing and set into the white-painted, stucco-clad concrete block walls. Additionally, there are paired flood lights, a vent and wires at this facade.

 

A one-story, flat-roofed sunroom addition comprises the remainder of the rear (east) facade. Constructed to enclose an existing terrace, the addition features large picture windows set on paneled wood bulkheads between fluted, Ionic columns. Built on a white-painted, raised concrete basement, the east facade of the addition features two large, picture windows flanking paired sliding glass doors that access a small balcony with an iron railing. The low, paneled wood bulkheads are set on a wide stone sill. Like the main building, there is a wide-banded cornice above the column capitals, in proportion to the size of the addition. A square wood post and baluster railing, similar to that at the front terrace, surrounds the second floor terrace created by the flat roof of the addition.

 

Similar to the east side, the south side of the sunroom addition features two large, picture windows set on paneled wood bulkheads flanking paired French doors between fluted, Ionic columns. A tapering concrete staircase with an iron railing, flanked by planting beds set behind stone retaining walls, leads from the driveway to paired glass doors. Also like the east facade, there is a wide-banded cornice above the column capitals and a wood post and baluster railing at the second floor terrace. There are two projecting air conditioning units through the paneled bulkhead below the windows and small, recessed lights in the soffit of this facade.

 

- From the 2007 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report

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