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AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



November, 1913 



The rooms are low and rambling and the cabinet work superior in quality and finish 



well by the activities of the intrepid little ferry mistress, 

 "Mollie" Sneden, whose ancestral home Mr. Williamson 

 occupies, as because General Washington had charge of the 

 redoubts at this point, that the business man found the en- 

 vironment suited to his tastes. It is all historic ground 

 hereabout. On the high point above the landing, there 

 were posted some five hundred Continental troops imme- 

 diately after the Battle of White Plains in November, 1776, 

 and the ruins of the redoubts are still to be seen. 



The story is often told of how Martha Washington 

 ferried over the river here to join the General at Cambridge, 

 Mass., in 1775, in order, he urged, "to avoid the Toryism 

 of New York." Both Washington and Rochambeau crossed 

 the Hudson in 1781 by way of Sneden's Ferry, reconnoit- 

 ering the British position to the east, and it is an historical 

 fact, the first salute to the flag was fired by order of the 

 British Parliament in the river between Sneden's Landing 

 and Dobb's Ferry at the conclusion of the war. 



From Sneden's Landing to Tappan, the country abounds 

 in historic interest and a number of charming old homes, 

 the property of the Lawrence family, are, like the old Sne- 

 den house, in a wonderful state of preservation. Others be- 

 side Mr. Williamson have becomed imbued with the artistic 

 beauty and old-time atmosphere of this sequestered spot, 

 and in the colony occupying various of the 

 historic houses are F. M. L. Tonetti, the 

 sculptor, whose wife was a Lawrence, and 

 owns about one hundred acres of land in 

 this vicinity; B. F. Goodhue, of the firm of 

 Gram, Goodhue & Ferguson, architects of 

 Manhattan, and Dr. Henry Mitchell Smith, 

 eye specialist of Brooklyn. 



Mr. Williamson's home is a picturesque 

 dwelling of the Dutch Colonial type. It has 

 a gambrel roof and good simple lines and 

 is the style so popular in modern suburban 



real estate developments, but with that indescribable differ- 

 ence which distinguishes the old from the new — that evan- 

 escent something — time supplies, but which evades the 

 grasp of even the most skilful of architects. 



Standing on the brow of the first gentle slope, close to 

 the water's edge and but a stone's throw from the ferry, it 

 is little changed in appearance from the original design. 

 Structurally it has been slightly re-modeled by several of 

 its long line of tenants. It has needed but a few modern 

 improvements, such for example, as plumbing and the like, 

 to make it meet the requirements of modern domestic life 

 as satisfactorily as it did in the past. 



The first story is of rough cut brown stone, culled from 

 an old quarry in the vicinity. When built, the blocks were 

 put together with mud and at a later date the stones were 

 pointed up with mortar. The second story is of frame and 

 clapboards have succeeded the wide cedar shingles of for- 

 mer days. On both the east and west facades, the roof 

 has, in more recent years, been broken with dormer win- 

 dows, two on each side. Wide chimneys flank the ends 

 and one time they were capped by English chimney pots. 



In the double veranda running across the front of the 

 house, the most obvious architectural blunder has been com- 

 mitted, but before Mr. Williamson's tenancy, let it be said. 

 While this feature enhances the comfort of 

 the occupants, it detracts perceptibly from 

 its appearance. It will in time be re- 

 moved. At the rear the house remains 

 practically unchanged. Here the simplicity 

 and symmetry of early American architec- 

 ture are delightfully demonstrated. In 

 front, the outlook from the broad Colonial 

 doorway is over the Hudson and the low 

 lying hills in the distance. At the back it 

 is upon a lovely old-time garden filled with 

 First floor plan Hollyhocks, Columbine, Larkspur and all 



