Fair Lawn is a house located off NY 9D just south of Cold Spring, New York, United States. It was designed by the painter

Thomas Prichard Rossiter Thomas Prichard Rossiter (1818–1871) was an American artist born in New Haven, Connecticut. Known for his portraits and paintings of historical scenes, he later came to be associated with the Hudson River School of artists. Life and career ...

, who moved into it for the last decade of his life. Subsequent owners modified the house slightly. In 1982, it was listed on 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 ...

Building

Fair Lawn is located along a private driveway that begins just opposite Plumbush, the home of cannonmaker Robert Parrott, which was a

bed and breakfast A bed and breakfast (typically shortened to B&B or BnB) is a small lodging establishment that offers overnight accommodation and breakfast. In addition, a B&B sometimes has the hosts living in the house. ''Bed and breakfast'' is also used to ...

until its conversion into a private school in 2013. It is surrounded by trees on three sides, and overlooks Foundry Cove on 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 ...

to the east, with views of Storm King Mountain and the

Hudson Highlands The Hudson Highlands are mountains on both sides of the Hudson River in New York (state), New York state lying primarily in Putnam County, New York, Putnam County on its east bank and Orange County, New York, Orange County on its west. They conti ...

beyond. The house itself is three stories high, three

bays A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...

by three, with a flat roof and dentilled Greek

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative Moulding (decorative), moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, ar ...

. It is faced in painted brick with stone

quoin Quoins ( or ) are masonry blocks at the corner of a wall. Some are structural, providing strength for a wall made with inferior stone or rubble, while others merely add aesthetic detail to a corner. According to one 19th-century encyclopedia, ...

s. There is a brick and shingle hipped-roofed north wing with another flat-roofed section extending from its own north, and an enclosed porch on its west with Tuscan columns. A wraparound porch surrounds the other three elevations, with a '' porte-cochere'' at the bottom of a three-story projecting bay on the east (front) facade.

History

Rossiter designed the house and moved in during 1860, when it was completed. After his death in 1871 a new owner, Chalmers Dale, added the wings and upper cornice. There have not been any significant modifications since then.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places in New York Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in New York (state) Houses completed in 1860 Italianate architecture in New York (state) Houses in Putnam County, New York National Register of Historic Places in Putnam County, New York