Property Name: Highland Cottage
Other Name(s): Squire House, Squire School, Mud House
Street Address: 36 South Highland Avenue
Section, Block, and Lot: Section 89.19, Block 4, Lot 67
Architect/Builder: S. Marvin McCord, Architect
Date of Construction: 1872
Architectural Style: High Victorian Gothic (1860s-1890s)

High Victorian Gothic architecture, which evolved from the Gothic Revival style, differs from that style in its use of contrasting polychromatic bands on the exterior wall surfaces and more elaborate decorative elements. This style was usually reserved for public buildings such as
schools or churches. As it is related to the Gothic Revival architecture, structures in this style also contain such elements as steeply pitched rooflines, elaborate ornamentation, and a predominantly vertical orientation.

Highland Cottage is a rare application of the High Victorian Gothic style in a private home. The structure is two stories tall and three bays wide. The exterior is defined by its irregular massing and rooflines; the structure contains a tall, pyramidal roofed central tower and a shorter, mansard roof southern section contains a turreted dormer window on the roof and a large bay window on the first floor of the main façade. The one story northern wing contains a mansard roof and a porch extending along the main façade. The steeply pitched gables, the most prominent of which is located above the main entryway, are cast in Sing Sing marble. The most striking architectural feature of Highland Cottage is its concrete construction. The exterior walls are made of 18-inch-thick concrete, covered with a layer of stucco that was scored in a fashion that lends the appearance of stone blocks. The house’s doors are solid walnut, as is its trim. The detailed and elaborate exterior ornamentation is mostly concrete and was cast in specially designed molds.

Significance: Architectural and Cultural

Highland Cottage was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. It is architecturally significant as one of the earliest surviving concrete houses in Westchester County and the only such house within Ossining. It is also culturally significant for its association with Henry J. Baker, Amos O. Squire and his daughter Evelyn Squire Culp, each of whom played an important role in Ossining’s civic life in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Narrative:

Highland Cottage, also known by the name Squire House, is a High Victorian Gothic style cottage constructed in 1872 by late 19th century financier Henry J. Baker (1818-1878), a New York City businessman who moved to Ossining. The house was built almost entirely from concrete, leading to the disparaging nickname “Mud House”. Workers experienced in the use of concrete in house construction were brought to Ossining from England to build the house, as concrete has always been rarely used in house construction in the United States due to the long-
time availability of wood and brick masonry as construction materials in the United States. The cement used to form the walls was mined and processed in the Town of Rosendale in Ulster County, New York, the site of one the largest cement manufactories in the United States at the
time.

Amos Osborne Squire (1876-1949), the most famous resident of the house, operated a private mental hospital called the Grandview Sanitarium inside Highland Cottage. Squire later became chief physician at Sing Sing Prison during the early 1900s and served as the medical examiner for
Westchester County for twenty-three years and as the Village’s health officer during the 1920s. Squire’s daughter Evelyn Squire Culp (1907-2002), who was named Ossining Woman of the Year in 1970, played an important role in the civic life of Ossining during the mid 20th century in
such organizations as the Ossining Historical Society, the Ossining Women’s Club, and the Ossining Garden Club, among others. Culp also ran the Squire School of Business at the house from 1952 to 1984 and taught office skills such as typing, shorthand, and other secretarial skills.
Culp donated the house to Westchester Preservation League in 1984 and continued to live in the house until 1996. The Preservation League later sold the house to a private owner.

Village of Ossining Significant Sites and Structures Guide, page 158.

Taken with a Sony RX100 IV.

I recently visited the Horace Greeley House, home of the Newcastle Historical Society in Chappaqua, NY. And no, I didn’t bump into Bill and Hillary Clinton.

Horace Greeley was an American reformer and editor best remembered for launching the ‘New York Tribune.’ He is known as one of the most influential figures in publishing in the 1800s. With the help of his newspaper, he set out to educate and influence Americans on numerous social and economic issues like slavery, prostitution, capital punishment, alcoholism, and more. In 1851, he wrote an editorial in which he wrote “Go west, young man.” This quote inspired many to set out and conquer the frontier. He was also the founder of the first temperance club in Vermont. He was initially hesitant to join the anti-slavery movement, but once he did, he made every effort to convince the public about the evils of slavery.

Bought in 1864, Horace and Mary Greeley continued to make it their summer home until their deaths in 1872.

Taken with a Sony RX100 VII

During the Revolutionary War Major John André of the British Army was captured, disguised in civilian clothing, at this site by three Patriot militiamen. They found papers on him that implicated him in espionage with Benedict Arnold, a high-ranking officer of the Continental Army. After a military trial André was executed; Arnold defected to the British and lived his remaining years after the war in England.

A memorial was erected on the site in 1853, on land donated by some members of the local African American community. It was one of the earliest monuments to honor any event of the Revolutionary War. Later it was expanded and incorporated into Brookside Park, a late 19th-century Beaux-Arts residential development by the firm of Carrère and Hastings. Still later it became the campus of two different girls’ boarding schools, one of which was attended by Lauren Bacall. It became a park and took its current name in the middle of the 20th century, and all buildings but the gatehouse were demolished.

Note the statue commemorating Andre’s capture in the top left corner of the first picture.

It has a special meaning for me. For a long time in the 1990s and early 2000s I pretty much lost interest in photography. Then I left my camera in a taxi in Geneva, Switzerland in 2010 (I eventually got it back thanks to the effort of one of my sons-in-law), but before I did, I bought a new camera: a Panasonic Lumix LX-3 and somehow it reignited my interest.

I had a serious illness in 2020 and wasn’t able to get around much. After I recovered this was the first place I went to take some pictures.

Taken with a Sony A7IV and Nikon Nikkor Micro 55mm f3.5

This ordinary picture of a somewhat unassuming wall is all that remains of what was at various times the site of three different bodies that played important roles in the history of Briarcliff Manor:

• The School of Practical Agriculture and Horticulture.
• Pocantico Lodge
• Miss Knox’s School

The building that housed these three entities remained more or less the same (see below). It was just the occupants who changed. It burned down during the occupancy of Miss’s Knox School and was not rebuilt. The attractive Tudor revival building seen in the background in the second picture above is called The Manor House. It was built later (in 1925) and I’ve already posted about it (See: The Manor House).

If you’d like to know more about this story, take a look here: The School of Practical Agriculture and Horticulture/Pocantico Lodge/Miss Knox’s School. Notebook 2024 – 11

Taken with a Sony RX100 III