28. 29-32. 33. 34. 35. 36. C. Bishop, Superintendent, December, and expenses. Castile Hardware Co., bathroom work. W. S. Egerton, landscape architect. 75 20 206 13 375 10 23 3 00 111 60 PHILIPSE MANOR HALL. Physical Possession Transferred to Society. Philipse Manor Hall is the ancient stone and brick building in the City of Yonkers which was the residence of the Lords of the extensive Manor of Philipsborough. This building and the acre of ground upon which it stands were purchased from the City of Yonkers and presented to the State of New York through the generosity of the late Mrs. William F. Cochran, who gave $50,000 for that purpose, upon condition that the American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society should be the custodian. This gift was accepted by the State by chapter 168 of the laws of 1908, which committed the property to our care. [See plates 11 and 12.] When the gift was made, the building was occupied as the City Hall of Yonkers. On July 3, 1911, the building was declared by the Common Council to have been vacated and was delivered. to this Society pursuant to the following resolutions: "WHEREAS, All of the City offices having been removed from Manor Hall to the New City Hall, therefore be it "Resolved, That the possession of Manor Hall be and the same is hereby delivered to the American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society as custodian for the State of New York." Cochran Gift for Restoration. Soon after her original gift, Mrs. Cochran expressed her purpose to give $5,000 toward the restoration of the building, and after her death, which occurred on February 3, 1909, the executor of her estate, her son Alexander S. Cochran, carried out his mother's wish in this respect. To this, Mr. Cochran himself has generously added $11,550, making a total of $16,550 given to us by Mrs. Cochran and her son for the restoration of the building. In anticipation of the vacation of the Manor Hall by the City Government, we engaged G. Howard Chamberlin, architect, of Yonkers, to make a thorough study of the building and prepare plans for the restoration; and when the municipal authorities turned the property over to us, the work of renovation. promptly begun. This work has now been substantially finished, and we are prepared to throw the building open to the public as soon as the Legislature provides the funds for the necessary attendants. Description of Manor Hall and Improvements. was Following is a description of the Manor Hall and of the principal improvements which we have made: The building, which is about five minutes' walk from the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad station, is a stone and brick structure shaped like a reversed letter L, its long arm extending north and the short arm toward the west.* Its north end *The points of the compass mentioned in this description are only approximate. The direction of the principal length of the building is about twenty degrees east of north and west of south. The dimensions here given are in feet and decimals. is 60 feet from Warburton Hall; its east front 75.5 feet from Warburton avenue; its south front 22 feet from Dock street; and its western end about 52 feet from Woodworth Place. The building measures 26.1 feet across the north end of the long arm; 91.85 feet along the east front; 62.15 feet along the south front; 25.32 feet along the west end of the short arm; 36.43 feet along the north side of the short arm; and 66.65 feet along the west side of the long arm. It will be noticed that the sum of the measurements of the western exposures (25.32'+66.65' 91.97') slightly exceeds the length of the east front (91.85'). A similar discrepancy is observable between the total measurements of the north and south exposures. The building is not perfectly symmetrical in whole or in detail. The east wall is 1.7 feet thick. The other first story walls vary from 1.89 to 1.93 feet in thickness. The second story stone walls are about 0.25 of a foot thinner. All window spaces are squared up with brick. Beneath the window-sills, the brick-work is not as thick as the adjacent wall, and it extends low enough to permit inside window seats in the recesses within. The structure is two stories high, with attic in the hipped gambrel roof. The upper slopes of the roof are inclosed with a balustrade, the space between the rails being nine feet. There is a cellar under the southern portion of the house, including the space under the East Hall and the Dining Room. Near the middle of the South Front, there is a Colonial porch, about ten feet wide and six feet deep, with side seats between the pillars and pilasters. The steps are of red sandstone. On each side of the porch are two windows. In the second story, in the spaces corresponding to the door and four windows of the first story, are five windows. The windows and doorway are not spaced symmetrically. In the second story of the East Front are eight windows. Underneath them in the first story are corresponding windows, except that the spaces under the third window from the south and the second window from the north are doorways with porches similar to that on the south front. There are also windows and doors in the other sides of the building. Where the windows have shutters, those of the first story are outside and those of the second story inside. The jambs of the South Front door are beveled, flaring outward. The jambs of the windows, except those of what was the old kitchen at the north end (not the cellar kitchen) are beveled, flaring inward. The East Front is of red brick laid in Flemish bond. All other sides are rough gneiss rubble. When the building passed into the custody of the American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society in 1911, the brick front was painted yellow and the stone sides plastered with stucco, in which condition they had been for years; but by mechanical means, and the application of strong lye and acids, the paint and stucco have been removed, restoring the antique appearance of the building. It has been said that the bricks were imported from Holland a statement more frequently made with respect to Colonial buildings than the facts probably warrant, although as early as 1633 we find records of ships coming from Holland with bricks as ballast. Bricks were also imported from The Netherlands purposely for building, and in the records of New Amsterdam we find reference to the appointment of "tellers of bricks and tiles coming from Patria and other places"— Patria being the Dutch Fatherland. But the Dutch inhabitants of New Amsterdam did not depend on the old country entirely for their bricks, for they began to make them for themselves within two years of their settlement. A letter of Domonie Michaelius, dated August 11, 1628, says: "They bake brick here, but very poor. There is good material for burning lime, namely, oyster shells, in large quantities." The bricks used in the Manor Hall are more or less irregular in size, but generally measure 8 by 4 by 2 inches, except where modern bricks have been inserted in repairs. Some, however, measure 834 X 4 X 2, 812 X 4 X 2, and 8 X 414 X 134, and a few yellow bricks found in making repairs are 7X 314 X 13. There are also many large red bricks 7%1⁄2 X 72 X 214 in size in various parts of the construction. On account of these irregularities, efforts to identify the age of the building by the bricks have been unsuccessful. Whatever their source or age, they are not standard bricks of the English Colonial period. Chapter 138 of the laws of the Colony of New York for 1703 fixed the standard size of bricks, as it doubtless had been for years before, at 9 by 414 by 211⁄2 inches. No person, master, or servant, was permitted to make or suffer to be made. within the Colony bricks of any other size. Bricks were imported, however, from Holland and other places, up to the time of the Revolution, for an act of March 8, 1773, "to regulate the sale of bricks within the city and county of New York," reiterates the dimensions above named, but excepts such bricks as anyone might make for his private use and "bricks imported from Europe." The prevailing proportions of the Manor Hall bricks the breadth one-half the length, and the thickness one-half the breadth are very suggestive of Dutch bricks. From the Groot Placaet Boeck of Holland we find that in 1645 and again in 1662, and presumably for years following, it was required that bricks made in that country should be twice as long as they were wide and twice as wide as they were thick. Dutch bricks, however, were not all of the same size. 66 Moppen" were ten inches long, Amsterdam measure. Leiden or Rhine brick (Leytse ofte Rhijnse steen) were 7+ inches long (7 duim stijf). Yssel brick (Ysselschen steen) were 61⁄2 inches long. The old Manor Hall brick do not correspond to any of these Dutch measurements, and yet they are not of the English standard, and it is highly probable that they were imported. All sills and lintels are of pine or oak. Running the whole length of the East Front and of the western side of the long arm of the L under the second story window sills is a string course of two layers of brick, projecting about three inches. Under the string course on the East Front is a beautiful Colonial cornice. When the house came into the custody of the Scenic and Historic Society in 1911, there was, in the angle of the building, a brick addition about 30 by 3612 feet in size built by the City and used for the accommodation of the janitor's family. This addition succeeded a frame structure erected by the Woodworth family and used as a billiard room, There was also a brick addi |