Eustatia (

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

for "good place to stay") is a brick house overlooking the

Hudson River The Hudson River, historically the North River, is a river that flows from north to south largely through eastern New York (state), New York state. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains at Henderson Lake (New York), Henderson Lake in the ...

Beacon A beacon is an intentionally conspicuous device designed to attract attention to a specific location. A common example is the lighthouse, which draws attention to a fixed point that can be used to navigate around obstacles or into port. More mode ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

, United States. Located on Monell Place in the northwestern corner of the city, it is a rare survival in Beacon of a

cottage A cottage, during Feudalism in England, England's feudal period, was the holding by a cottager (known as a cotter or ''bordar'') of a small house with enough garden to feed a family and in return for the cottage, the cottager had to provide ...

in the

High Victorian Gothic High Victorian Gothic was an eclectic architectural style and movement during the mid-late 19th century. It is seen by architectural historians as either a sub-style of the broader Gothic Revival style, or a separate style in its own right. Prom ...

style. It was built in 1867 to designs by

Frederick Clarke Withers Frederick Clarke Withers (4 February 1828 – 7 January 1901) was an English architect in America, especially renowned for his Gothic Revival ecclesiastical designs. For portions of his professional career, he partnered with fellow immigrant Cal ...

for his friend John J. Monell (after whom today's street is named), a New York state judge. Monell had recently married Caroline DeWindt Downing, widow of his friend the influential Newburgh architect

Andrew Jackson Downing Andrew Jackson Downing (October 31, 1815 – July 28, 1852) was an American landscape designer, horticulturist, writer, prominent advocate of the Gothic Revival in the United States, and editor of ''The Horticulturist'' magazine (1846–1852). ...

, with whom Withers had worked. They built the house on property deeded to them by her father, John Peter DeWindt, near her family's own cottage. As per Withers's specifications, the house is built of red Hudson River brick and light Milwaukee brick for the

polychromy Polychrome is the "practice of decorating architectural elements, sculpture, etc., in a variety of colors." The term is used to refer to certain styles of architecture, pottery, or sculpture in multiple colors. When looking at artworks and ...

. This cream-colored brick he also called for in the construction of his Arcade Building (1871) for

Riverside, Illinois Riverside is a suburban village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The population of the village was 9,298 at the 2020 census. It is a suburb of Chicago, located roughly west of downtown Chicago and outside city limits. A significant por ...

, a suburb under development by his once partner

Calvert Vaux Calvert Vaux Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, FAIA (; December 20, 1824 – November 19, 1895) was an English-American architect and landscape architect, landscape designer. He and his protégé Frederick Law Olmsted designed park ...

and

Frederick Law Olmsted Frederick Law Olmsted (April 26, 1822 – August 28, 1903) was an American landscape architect, journalist, Social criticism, social critic, and public administrator. He is considered to be the father of landscape architecture in the U ...

. Eustatia was notably produced from the office of Vaux, Withers, & Co., the second architectural partnership Withers formed with Vaux; the latter's involvement is unclear. Withers's design was heavily influenced by concepts from his mentor Downing, and the house appeared in the 1873 edition of Downing's popular ''Cottage Residences'' (1842), among many other plans added by George E. Harney. It retains the form and reserve of many of Downing's designs, but adds the "polychromatic enrichment" of the Ruskinian Gothic style Withers had explored in Beacon beginning in 1859 with its

Reformed Church Reformed Christianity, also called Calvinism, is a major branch of Protestantism that began during the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. In the modern day, it is largely represented by the Continental Reformed Christian, Presbyterian, ...

. A garden next to the house planned by

Henry Winthrop Sargent Henry Winthrop Sargent (November 26, 1810 – November 11, 1882), American horticulturist and landscape gardener. Early life Henry Winthrop Sargent was born in Boston, Massachusetts, Boston, the first child of Hannah (Welles) Sargent and artist ...

has been destroyed, but the interior retains many period details such as a tiled

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock consisting of carbonate minerals (most commonly calcite (CaCO3) or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite (CaMg(CO3)2) that have recrystallized under the influence of heat and pressure. It has a crystalline texture, and is ty ...

entry floor and dark

walnut A walnut is the edible seed of any tree of the genus '' Juglans'' (family Juglandaceae), particularly the Persian or English walnut, '' Juglans regia''. They are accessory fruit because the outer covering of the fruit is technically an i ...

moldings after a fire. Its original form and exterior appearance have remained largely intact since its construction despite subsequent changes in ownership and the addition of modern utilities. In 1979 it was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

. The house is named for Eustatia Island, a 30-acre

island An island or isle is a piece of land, distinct from a continent, completely surrounded by water. There are continental islands, which were formed by being split from a continent by plate tectonics, and oceanic islands, which have never been ...

of the

British Virgin Islands The British Virgin Islands (BVI), officially the Virgin Islands, are a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean, to the east of Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands, US Virgin Islands and north-west ...

(BVI) in the

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

where DeWindt's family had once lived as Dutch immigrants. File:Monell house from lawn.png, Original veranda and riverfront elevation File:Keystone of Monell house.png, Keystone carved with intertwined initials of Caroline and John Monell File:Rear of Monell house, Beacon.png, Rear of Monell house with balustrades

References

Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in New York (state) Gothic Revival architecture in New York (state) National Register of Historic Places in Dutchess County, New York Houses in Beacon, New York Frederick Clarke Withers buildings {{DutchessCountyNY-NRHP-stub