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Home My WebLink AboutPE-16 FOR OFFICE USE ONLY l BUILDING-STRUCTURE INVENTORY FORM UNIQUE SITE NO. /03tn on(P`J DIVISION FOR HISTORIC PRESERVATION QUAD NEW YORK STATE PARKS AND RECREATION SERIES ALBANY, NEW YORK (51 K) 474-0479 NEG. NO. YOUR NAMI : 'Town of Southold/SPLIA DATE: September 1986 YOUR ADDRESS: Town Hall, Main Road TELEPHONE: (516) 765-1892 Southold, L.T. , N.YM971 ORGANIZATION (if any): 'Southold Town Community Development Office IDENTIFICATION I. BUILDING NAME(S): W 11 i ams,Well s hnils�e_ 2. COUNTY: S.uf f o Ik TOWN/CITY: Southold _VILLAGE:Peennir 3. STREET LOCATION: Indian Neck_ Lane , east slde, south of Snring Ta. 4. OWNERSHIP: a. public ❑ h private IN S. PRESENT OWNER:Theod, James ADDRESS: Indian Neck Lane 0- USE: Original: Residence Present: Residence 7. ACCESSIBILITY TO PUBLIC Exterior visible from public road. Yes 0 No ❑ Interior accessible: Explain DESCRIPTION - H. BUILDING a, clapboard ❑ b. stone ❑ c. brick ❑ d. board and batten ❑ MATERIAL_: e. cobblestone ❑ f. shingles ❑ g. stucco ® other: '). STRUCTURAI. it. wood frame with interlocking joints SYSTEM: b. wood frame with light members ❑ (if known) c. masonry load bearing walls ❑ d. metal (explain) e. other 10. CONDITION: a. excellent ❑ b. good ® c. fair ❑ d. deteriorated [) 11. INTEGRITY: a. original site ❑ b, moved ❑ if so,when" c. list major alterations and dates (if known): Stucco is not original. PR RSM-IX-0 From West 12. P1I07TO: Front Fa.rade & N--elevation 13. MAP: N.Y. S . DOT Southold Quad 6 y Peconi #J Sch IT •a - � G'o C S� -v • o ► • . 4 6 2. o • o �Mt o Z BM• '• 29 J 70 o 4q m �t t { a PE 16 • C41 I I IREATS TO BUILDING: a. none known ® b. zoning ® c. roads ❑ d. developers ❑ e. deterioration ❑ F. other: 15. RELATED OUTBUILDINGS AND PROPERTY: a. barn❑ b. carriage house ❑ c. garage ❑ d. privy ❑ e. shed ❑ f. greenhouse ❑ g. shop ❑ h. gardens ❑ i. landscape features: Mgrri a e house moved From site of }. other: Lt.Moses house is now a shed. 16. SURROUNDINGS OF THE BUILDING (check more than one if necessary): a.open land ® b. woodland LSI c. scattered buildings 50 d.densely built-up ❑ e. commercial 71 f. industrial ❑ g. residential ❑ h.other: 17. INTERRELATIONSHIP OF BUILDING AND SURROUNDINGS: (Indicate if building or structure is in an historic district) Indian Neck Lane is a little traveled, picturesque country road with scattered houses. Behind this house is an old Indian site. 18. OTHER NOTABLE FEATURES OF BUILDING AND SITE (including interior features if known): 12-story, 3-bay side entrance plan house with steep gable roof and interior chimney. 9/'6 windows with some original glass. SIGNIFICANCE I't. DATE OF INITIAL CONSTRUCT[W 176c ARCHITECT: BUILDER: IIISTORICAL AND ARCHITECTURAL IMPORTANCE: Was Williams in 1858 George B. Wells in 1909 In 1985 the Southold Town Landmark Commission surveyed this house. Their report is attached to this form. 'I. SOURCLS: Chace. Map of Suffolk County. 1858 F. Belcher Hyde. Atlas of Suffolk County. Z. I. Vol. 21 North Side. Sound Shore. 1909 22. THLMF.: Form prepared by Rosemary Skye Moritt , research assistant. PE 16 THEODORE JAMES. JR. , HOUSE Indian Neck Lane, Peconic This is a ane-and-a-half story half house, facing west on Indian Neck Lane in Peconic, Southold Town, Lang Island . The exterior was stuccoed and painted green by the Wells sisters who cygned the property until 1960. To the south and rear (east ) sides of the house are extensive gardens reflecting the owner 's expertise in horticulture. IMM IAN IVC CK iANc:— N PAR0R �- oRlcriNAL I(lrG�1G f+� S�rN FORP4L13 PANTRY f F. I � 1 Southold Town Landmark Commission. 1985 e PE 16 2 The home of THEODORE JAMES, JR. Indian Neck Lane, Peconic March 30, 1985 House analyzed by Ralph Williams, of Southold Town Landmark Commission Also present ; John Stack and Joy gear THEODORE JAMES HOUSE, PECONIC PARLOR The parlor of this half-house shows construction over several periods . The mantel and much of the south wall carry Georgian style pine paneling, probably installed in an early 1B00' s restoration of the house . A china cabinet to the right of the fireplace is coated inside with blue milk paint, dating possibly to the 1760' s . Under several later coats of paint, the mantel had a black layer of paint, possibly applied to mourn the death of Lincoln. Hearth bricks in front of the fireplace are set in sand . A summer beam separating the parlor and the original kitchen is boxed in, the boxing p( obably added in the early 1800' s renovation of the house. Windows in the parlor have 9 over 6 lights, some of which are original glass . Floorboards are wide and even. They lie on the much-worn okiginal —, floorboards, which can be seen in the cellar on their exposed ,foists . Today the parlor has an 1800' s Victorian ambience, with a dado topped by an ornate chair rail, and above it showy maroon striped wallpaper comple- menting the chair rail, and a high, richly molded baseboard . The upper wall and ceiling were undoubtedly replastered at this time, covering the beams . Today a beaverboard ceiling covers the plaster, possibly an addition of a summer resident in the 1920' s . THE ORIGINAL KITCHEN - N9V A STUDY The central chimney stack opens into a second fireplace in this room. Its mantel is simple, but mantels are not customarily found over cooking fireplaces . This one may have been originally on the parlor fireplace, and brought here when the parlor was renovated, c . 1800 Fxtensive renovation to this kitchen fireplace also occurred at this time. It appears to have been narrowed and lowered, and its beehive oven removed to an outside location. A seam in the bricks to the left of the present fireplace indicate the fireplace 's original width. The present beehive oven, located to the fireplace 's left, fills the space gained Taken the fireplace was made narrawer. T.io indications that the fireplace vas once higher are 1) : a pintZe on the left wall inside the fireplace is unfunctional today because a crane, or pothook, could .not swing out from it unless the fireplace opening was continued { PE 16 THEODORE JAMES HOUSE,_ PECON SC, page 2 higher; and 2) ; under the wallpaper over the fireplace one can feel the bricks of a large corbelled mantel, stepped upward in an inward shape from each side . This gives the width and heighth of the originally built, c . 1?50 mantel. EARLY PANTRY - NOW A BATHROOM In the northeast corner of the kitchen can be seen remains of horizontal paneling which may date to the beginning of the house . The extent of the paneling indicates that there may have been a pantry in this corner, and that the rest of the kitchen may have had exterior walls paneled in this same fashion. Evidence of an interior dividing wall which may have separated the parlor from the kitchen was found in the floor and on a present partition wall. It is felt that the interior separating wall between the kitchen and the parlor, and the wall enclosing the pantry, were made of vertical boards now to be found upstairs enclosing the closet. THE PRESENT KITCHEN The present kitchen, added to the rear (east) of the house, was originally a boathouse on Peconic Bay, brought here and added to the house in 1890-95. It was insulated with newspaper and seaweed. THE FRONT ENTRANCE The front entrance is finished in beaded vertical boards , the wood showing marks of having been hand planed, and placed when the house was built. Directly opposite the front door is a closet that abuts the chimney stack. Its batten door dates from the original house . To the right of the closet is a stairway leading to the second floor. THE SECOND FLOOR Here can be seen the chimney stack exposed . It is made of old-style, small bricks , baked to different colors, and cemented with clay. The second floor originally had three small bedrooms, but one was removed to make a landing around the chimney stack. Doors on the second floor are batten style, with early, hand-wrought Suffolk latches. One door has a latch--string opening, and may have been the original front door, brought upstairs and installed after the 1800's renovations downstairs . The double hung windows upstairs are 19th Century, THE. ATTIC The attic is reached through a trapdoor over the second floor landing. Its pine (or chestnut) rafters are tenoned . Some rafters are hand-hewn, with adz marks showing. Others are vertically sawn, and may be replacements . The house width is ?1 '511. Marked on the south -call in the attic is the Southold Town Landmark Commission. 1985 continued . ' PE 16 n THEODORE JA14ES HOUSE, PECONIC, Page 3 date : "July 7, 1888" - possibly the time when the exterior was reshingled and the downstairs parlor was renovated with a dado and new flooring. THE CELLAR Access to the cellar is made on narrow, well cut stone steps . Time has added soil to the property, and several modern brick tiers top the stone walls of the entrance, to bring it up to the level of the ground . The small, square cellar is lined with large, random size stones originally set dry, now pointed with Portland cement mortar. The joists in the ceiling are sawn, but evidence still exists of earlier hewn beams . The present owner, Theodore James, Jr. , is an author who writes travel and garden feature stories for the New York Times . He belongs to the Garden Writers Association of America and the Authors Guild . He has written ten books and is a prolific contributor to numerous magazines . A shed on his property was once a carria e house on the Pace--Kinroperty on Main Road and Indian Neck Lane i7r n Peconic . The carriage house was said to have been built "the year Napoleon invaded Russia . " It is also said that Hessian soldiers had been billetted in this home during the Revolutionary War. Southold Town Landmark Commission. 1985