Thanksgiving means a 4-day weekend for most Americans so my sister and I took full advantage of it. I booked us a tour of the Armour-Stiner Octagon House in Irvington, NY. Originally scheduled for 11:30am, we had to switch to the 2:30 tour so my sister could sit on the phone dealing with the bank regarding her hacked account. Once that was resolved, we enjoyed a sumptuous snack at the Red Hat, an elegant, comfortable restaurant on the water’s edge, to wait until tour time. There I was able to take a new angle of my favorite bridge, the NYC skyline, and the crashing Hudson River waves on this extremely blustery day. The gull below was fun to photo as I walked slowly towards him (5 steps, wait – 5 steps, wait). I got close but I knew I reached the end of his comfort zone when I took two steps forward and he took two steps back. I took one more step, but it was too close for my feathered friend, and he flew away.
The restaurant itself is beautiful as you can see below; I imagine it must be an exceptional place to dine al fresco during the summer months.
On the site of the former Lord and Burnham Greenhouse Manufacturing Company, the Red Hat sits in what used to be the factory’s boiler room. When active, this company built unique, intricate and beautiful atria, such as the one at the New York Botanical Gardens (see photos below).
While pricey, the food and (mid-day!) cocktails at the Red Hat were exceptional. I had a Honeynut Old Fashioned and Alex had a Cranberry Marguerita.
We shared the whipped ricotta crostini with honey drizzled on top. Everything was as good as it sounds.
In no time at all it was time to head back for our tour. After parking, we explored the property while waiting for the tour to begin. The carriage house is inhabited by Michael Lombardi, whose family is the current owner. Michael also informs the tour guides when the Lombardis want to use the main house so as not to overlap with tours.
These buildings match the overall decor and style of the main house. The greenhouse includes a public bathroom, an experience all its own. To flush you had to push down a vertical lever, and the light switches were push-buttons (something my grandmother’s Victorian house had. A nice “trip down memory lane” moment!). There was something special about using antique facilities, it made one feel more of the history. So often tourist locations have modern facilities. Just another example of how fun it is to explore off the beaten track.
As I write this blog, we are having our first snowstorm so looking at the photos of the stunning autumn leaves below is warming me up a bit! It was a truly a stunning, sunny, fall day.
Then, finally, it was time to tour the main house.
The Armour-Stiner Octagon House was built between 1859-1860. Octagonal houses were a fad architectural form of the mid-19th-century US, touted by an architect as easing the workload of housewives. There were 1,000 such houses built and about half remain standing today. However, this particular 8-sided home is unique for several reasons, most notably because this is the only house of this kind that is fully domed.
The Octagon House has always been a private home, held by several families over the years. It is called the Armour-Stiner House in honor of the first two owners. The first owner, who built the original home, was Paul Armour. However, Joseph Stiner, the 2nd owner, is included in the building’s current name as many of the features the house is famous for today were added by him. After Joseph Stiner, the house went through several owners and a steady decline until 1976, when the National Trust for Historic Preservation acquired the estate. It became the first property acquired by the National Trust and resold to a private citizen, preservation architect Joseph Pell Lombardi, in 1978. Mr. Lombardi, and his son, Michael, have done all the restoration work we see today.
The dome was added by Joseph Stiner. On the tour we learned this addition was not done properly: essentially, the dome was just plopped on top, causing significant structural issues over the years.
The outside of the house has a wrap-around porch, added at the same time as the dome. To stick with the theme of 8, there are 8 steps up to the porch!
Mr. Stiner is known for having been very close with his dog, Prince. How do we know this? Well, for starters, the dog’s profile is found throughout the porch’s railing and trim. “We know what Prince looked like,” the tour guide remarked wryly, “but have no idea what Mrs. Stiner looked like.”
The house was newly decorated for Christmas, staying true to the Victorian architecture and décor.
The house is painted with 8 different colors that harmoniously present themselves, which also makes it unique among octagonal homes of the day. Most homes of this type were built farmhouse-style and painted simply, in white or muted colors. The colors here are the original hues, based on analysis of the 19th century pigments, and would have been considered a bold design statement.
Entering the house was stepping back in time. Every detail has been meticulously restored. Everywhere I looked there was something beautiful for my eyes to rest upon. Most of the woodwork in the house is Long Leaf Yellow Pine, a strong and fire-resistant wood. (The tree has been over-harvested over the years, but the army Corp of Engineers is working to bring the species back.) All the furniture is authentic to the period, made in the US, and typical of an upper middle-class family of the era.
We entered the house, putting our coats on hooks in the room to our left. Here two stunning ornaments were displayed – which I happily learned were on sale in the gift shop. I was excited until I saw the price, so settled for this photo as a memory. My tree will just have to live without it!
In the style of the time, your most elegant and ‘expensive’ rooms were on the ground floor. The entryway below, with its woodwork and silver wallpaper (and ceiling!) sent the clear message: the residents have money.
The carpets are reproductions of the original carpets in the home, as best as the restorers could tell from old photographs. Made by The Wilton Company, they are stunning with incredible colors and fine details. During the Victorian era, carpets were made by sewing thin strips together. To be cleaned, carpets had to be taken apart, cleaned, dried and then re-sewn. Needless to say, the invention of a carpet broom/vacuum cleaner was quickly and widely received.
One of the original owners was deep into phrenology, a 19th-century pseudoscience that claimed personality traits and mental abilities could be determined by the shape and bumps on a person’s skull. His walking cane had a skull with the ‘zones’ on it, and there were other such items around the house.
To the right of the entrance hall was a study. Here you can see one of the many corners of the house. Architects claimed octagonal homes made a housewife’s work easier because it reduced the number of steps a woman has to take to clean a traditionally shaped home. But given the arm-work involved in maintaining all these tight corners, I cannot see how such spaces make housework easier. Hmmm… I don’t suppose the architects espousing octagonal homes were men who never did housework??
The next room we visited was the formal parlor. This yellow room has the original ceiling fixture and, on that day, also held a beautifully decorated Christmas tree, the first of several in the house. As this was a room for guests, it contains the best artwork of the house. The artwork is mostly in the Hudson River School and the painting by Thomas Chambers seen below, is the most valuable. Chambers has been called the ‘first American Modernist’ and is considered a Primitivist.
Next up was the formal dining room. The table was set for a Christmas meal, complete with a menu that would have been served at the time.
Walking through the small pantry, which connects to the kitchen, was fun. The copper sink was impressive, as were the photos of the Lombardi family from when they lived here. No longer formal rooms, the simplicity was quite evident.
The formal name of the kitchen is the finishing kitchen, or Ladies’ kitchen (I imagine the ‘real’ kitchen was at the bottom of the staircase off the room). Mrs. Stiner was honored by her husband in that he gave her crown molding and a desk.
The stove is original but no longer uses coal or wood: it was outfitted with electricity and the 8 (of course) burners.
Also displayed in this room were items from the Stiner company, which sold foods and delicacies.
Next, we climbed the grand staircase to the second floor. While we were not allowed to touch any of the walls or items, I think they took pity on my bad knee and let me lean on the banister! It was a visual treat to see how the garland on the stairs continues in a spiral up all the floors.
The first bedroom, complete with its own sitting room, still has the original painted ceiling. The question remains how that came to be, especially given the state of “modernization” attempts and disrepair the house experienced for the decades leading up to the Lombardis’ restoration.
This next room is probably the master bedroom, based on the photo of Lombardi and his wife, as well as the story behind the bed. For 20 years Lombardi tried to get this bed with its octagonal posts. When it went up for auction, he lost the bed but kept writing to the owner over the years. When the man died, his heirs finally sold it back to him. The wood is pine but painted black to look like ebony.
Joseph Lombardi and his wife, Nan.
On this floor was also the Room of Curiosities, another fad of its day. Objects from the natural world were a necessity, as was a large hutch for displaying treasures. Like personal tastes dictated what to buy and display, my personal tastes dictated what I photographed!
The Room of Curiosities also includes a display of antique Christmas cards. Of interest, was how the images of Santa are not the same. The “red coat Santa” was not adopted as typical in the US until much later. Also interesting was this factoid shared by our guide: the word ‘Santa’ as a reference to the iconic gift giver, first appeared in a Boston newspaper in 1773, during the same week as the Boston Tea Party, but then disappeared with historians not seeing the word re-appear until the 1860s.
I will take this moment to share other photos and information about Christmas learned on the tour. First, the style of ornaments in the house is called ‘Dresden’. The stars tend to be lead as was the tinsel. Originally, glass ornaments were blown because people could not afford real fruit to hang on the tree. Lastly, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert brought the tradition of Christmas trees to England, while German immigrants were the ones to make such decorations popular in the US.
Included in the following photos are some of the ornaments I liked the most.
The star’s tinsel is made from lead.
The last room we visited was the Egypt Room, a popular decorative style of the time as well. This room was for diversions, including the organ and a sink for washing paint brushes and other supplies. Of particular interest are the Jewish items on display as the Stiner family was Jewish. It is surmised that the family only brought their closest friends to this room and also held their in-home services here.
As we left the tour, I took a sneak peek and saw what the house looked like under the porch!
While there were no photos of street art today, I end with this photo: the beginning of the day’s sunset, shading the dramatic clouds.
