One of the more unique and enchanting historic summer “cottages” I have seen in my travels is this early 20th century rustic example in the Onteora Park colony. Built in 1902 for John S. Stanton Sr. (1837-1933), this residence was later the summer home of Dr. Edward Ahrens and his wife, Gertrude, who founded the Mountaintop Arboretum nearby. The house stands 3 1/2-stories tall and features horizontal log siding on the ground floor and cedar shingle siding above. The facade is dominated by the broad gable end roof that extends downwards to the first floor at flared eaves on the sides and over the windows.
This handsome cottage on Thurber Road in the Onteora Park colony in the Catskills of New York, was built by 1902 for Col. James P. Kimball (1840-1902), and his wife, Maria (Brace) Kimball, as their summer home. James Peleg Kimball was one of the most renowned U.S. Army surgeons of the late nineteenth century. The home was meant to be the couple’s place of respite, but Col. Kimball died here in 1902, not long after the family moved into the home to enjoy the fresh air of the Catskills. Maria Kimball retained the cottage for years until it was sold in 1919, and owned later by Clayton McMichael of Pennsylvania, and a director of the Onteora Summer Theatre. The rustic Shingle/Arts and Crafts style cottage was originally named Beauford Lodge, and was later named Stone Acres by McMichael.
Onteora Park is one of many notable summer colonies in the Catskill Mountains that were developed in the late 19th and early 20th century. Onteora Park is located in Hunter, New York, and is comprised of a development of over 100 residential properties along with club buildings and the All Souls Church. The development of Onteora Park is largely credited to Ms. Candace (Thurber) Wheeler, one of America’s first woman interior and textile designers and co-founder of the Society of Decorative Art in New York City. In 1883, she and her wealthy brother, Francis Beattie Thurber, purchased land here with sweeping views of the Catskill Mountains, and built two summer houses for their respective families. By 1887, Candace Wheeler and her sister-in-law, Jeannette (Mrs. Francis B.) Thurber, decided to expand and develop their property as a vacation community of like-minded people dedicated to the arts. Years after the first cottages were built, Candace asked her son, Dunham Walker, an architect, to furnish designs for a community summer chapel. After the site had been secured, Canadian architect (and summer resident of Onteora) George Agnew Reid, was asked to put Mr. Wheeler’s plan into acceptable form and to supervise construction. The original wooden church was changed over to stone, all in a Victorian Gothic style. By 1910, the building was enlarged with the addition of the chancel and addition of transepts and possibly the square bell tower. At this time, the church was also electrified. Today, the church is lovingly maintained and open for the summer season and special ceremonies.
The Memorial Church of All Angels is located in the center of the summer colony of Twilight Park, found in the town of Hunter in the Catskill Mountains. The founding of the church began shortly after the colony was established in 1888, when two years later, the Rev. H. M. Baum from Evanston, Pa., an early visitor to the Park, realized the need for an Episcopal Church, and funds were raised to build a small chapel, known as the St. Paul’s Church. The church was foreclosed upon in a matter of years. In 1895, church services were again reinvigorated when the Rev. Henry Yates Satterlee, the first bishop of Washington, then the Rector of Calvary Church, New York, had taken the cottage of his cousin, the artist Walter Satterlee, for his summer home. He set out to establish a summer chapel for Episcopalians in Twilight Park, and he hired architectAlexander Mackintosh, to furnish plans for the church. The church opened in 1896, and it would be expanded in 1909 with an addition and porch and again in 1915 with the belltower. The church opens every summer for services and is one of the finest Episcopal chapels in the Northeast.
Tucked away in the town of Hunter in the Catskill Mountains of New York, the summer colony of Twilight Park has stood as an exclusive and private resort community established in the late 19th century. Twilight Park was born out of the Twilight Club, a Manhattan social club in the late-19th century and brought to life by founder, Charles F. Wingate. Mr. Wingate traveled to the mountaintop in 1887, and became enamored by its natural beauty. He arranged for the purchase of a former sheep meadow and led the construction of the first cluster of cottages in what would become a large community of over 100 summer homes. Cottages were laid out on roughly parallel roads at different elevations and on old connecting paths that later became roads with all lots built on ledges overlooking the Catskills. The first cottages were log cabins, and quickly followed by larger, Queen Anne style “cottages” as others invested in the development. This cottage, known as Brae Side Cottage, was built in 1888 during the first phase of development in Twilight Park, and it is notable for its varied siding, diamond-pane windows, complex roof form with dormers, and the laticed entry.
In 1830 Rev. Philip O’Reilly was sent by Bishop John Dubois to establish missions and build churches along the Hudson River wherever there were sufficient resident Catholics. O’Reilly visited the village of Saugerties, in Ulster County in 1832 and began holding services in private homes. The area was home to many Irish residents working in industry, a large number of which were Catholics, and as a result, the village here became the location of the first Catholic church in the county. Father O’Reilly founded St. Mary’s in 1833 creating the first parish of the Hudson, spanning New York City to Albany, with the cornerstone of the new church laid that same year; though, the church would be dedicated a decade later. The church cemetery grew from the first graves around the church in 1833 to fill much of the church property now occupied setting the Gothic edifice in a sea of gravestones. The church grew and eventually the steeple was added in the 1860s. It is also said that the church basement was used as a stop on the Underground Railroad. The church (like many in the United States) has struggled to maintain its large campus, which originally contained the church, a school, and convent, but the church remains in good condition, shining like a beacon on a hill on the Hudson.
Ulster County, New York, is known for its many stone houses, largely built in the 18th and 19th centuries by Dutch and other European settlers to the region. This stone house in Saugerties was built beginning in 1727 by Hiskia DuBois (Du Boys), who established a 40-acre farm here. The original homestead was the one-and-a-half-story east wing of the present structure and occupied by Hiskia until his death in 1757, afterwhich, the property was inherited by his son David, who would sell the farmstead to Dr. Christoffel “Christopher” Kiersted (1736-1791), the first doctor to take up a residence in present-day Saugerties. After Dr. Kiersted died in 1791, the property was expanded and enlarged to its current composition, likely by his son, John Kiersted. Under the ownership of John, a grove of Black Locust trees were planted in the front yard setting the cottage in a small forest. The DuBois-Kierstede Stone House is currently the home of the Saugerties Historical Society, which operates the structure as the Kiersted House Museum, along with a preserved Dutch Barn on the site.
Elka Park in Hunter, New York, is a really unique summer colony developed in the late 19th century as a country retreat for wealthy German-Americans to escape the woes of city life, primarily from New York City. Between 1890-1896, a total of 21 homes were built as summer cottages, 17 remain to this day. Almost all “cottages” were built with at least 4 bedrooms with space for servants, guests would lodge at the nearby Elka Park Clubhouse, which was destroyed by fire and replaced after WWII. The private community remains a secluded respite and relatively unknown to most. This cottage was built in 1896 for a tax commissioner Mr. Kurth, from plans by Hugo Kafka, a Czech-American architect with an office in New York City. Kafka also had a summer cottage at Elka Park. This cottage was purchased in the 1920s by Johann Kliegl, a German inventor and businessman who settled in New York, developing the “Klieglight”, a carbon arc lamp used heavily in filmmaking at the time. The late-Italianate style cottage remains well preserved to this day and even has a historically appropriate paint scheme!
Built nextdoor to his business partner’s summer cottage (last post), Wilhelm (William) J. D. Keuffel, a German immigrant from Saxony, erected this summer cottage in the fashionable German-developed summer colony Elka Park in upstate New York. Keuffel & Esser Company (K&E) was founded by German immigrants Wilhelm J. D. Keuffel and Hermann Esser and manufactured high-quality surveying, drafting, and calculating tools for architects, engineers, surveyors, and building contractors in Hoboken, New Jersey with a sales office in Manhattan. By the early twentieth century, it was one of the largest manufacturers of scientific instruments in the world. Keuffel made good money, and summered in Elka Park for years until his death in 1908. The Queen Anne style Victorian “cottage” features the typical asymmetrical plan, corner towers, varied siding and detailing, and many porches to provide the residents with sweeping views of the distant mountains.
Down the street from the Old Platte Clove Post Office in Elka Park, New York, I stumbled across this large, shingled church with few houses nearby. I had to investigate! In 1888 parish lines for the Catholic church were redrawn in the area necessitating a new church near the summer colony of Elka Park. By 1891, a small, shed-like church was built here. By 1911, the small house of worship had outgrown its usefulness and it was considered a blight compared to the high-style homes nearby. A local summer resident, Francis H. Lewis funded $5,000 of the $6,500 cost of the building, and local carpenter Arthur Showers, was commissioned to erect the building. Father Keefe had conveyed to the builder some remembrances he had of a small church in France, and wished for it to be designed that way. Using local building traditions, the church was constructed of local lumber with shingled siding. The building and adjacent cemetery remain active to this day.
Buildings of New England 
