THE OLD HOUSE-Does anyone know the backstory of the building?

[Taeylor Collins]

I have always loved this building.  I know that it burnt to the ground (correct?) in 1969.  I would love to hear more about the buiding and it's history. As always! Thanks

Taeylor

[bluefielder]

Taeylor, try this site for info on the Old House.

http://www.hudsonvalleyruins.org/yasinsac/spratt/spratt.html

This is a fascinating site with plenty of photos of the Old House and history.

[Taeylor Collins]

It would be nice to known what they thought burned the place down??  Vandals??   Or insurance money!  LOL  Fascinating though and thanks. 

[Miss_Winthrop]

The mansion was truly beautiful.  It was nice seeing photographs depicting different angles of the mansion.  There were quite a few shots of the various DS actors walking up to the Old House during the early seasons. It really puts it all into perspective for me.

[Doug]

I think the foundation and the basement of the house is still there today. In the book "DS Companion", it
has one photo of Jonathan Frid inside the house and I have a collection of DS trading cards I bought back
in 1993 and it some cards of photos of Frid standing outside of the house and there is snow on the ground.

Whoever owned the house and property, I don't know why they let the house fall into ruins and not
restore it. Just think, if that house was standing today, it would attract tourists who are fans of DS.

[Pansity]

Whoever owned the house and property, I don't know why they let the house fall into ruins and not
restore it. Just think, if that house was standing today, it would attract tourists who are fans of DS.

Speaking as someone who lives and works in the general vicinity of Lyndhurst, I would say the answer to that is money.  That whole stretch along the Hudson river USED to be lined with millionaire's properties of that nature, but the cost of keeping the properties up, expecially once the Depression hit, and later, pretty much doomed most of those properties.  Real pity.    The only ones still surviving are either National Trust, Hudson River Trust, or private owners who use the properties for rentals for special events.  Even if you go up to Lockwood matthews in Norwalk, Connecticut (HODS finale was shot there) you can see that its taking them ages to bring the house back to what it was in its prime.  It, too was nearly lost before funding was acquired.

As to the fire that destroyed Spratt house, local urban legend, which I've seen repeated in DS fandom, is that it was squatters and cigarettes.  And the property is far enough off the beaten path and was probably old and dry enough that the fire department couldn't save it.

Jeannie

[Taeylor Collins]

TO BE BLUNT.  THAT SUCKS!!!

[Doug]

As to the fire that destroyed Spratt house, local urban legend, which I've seen repeated in DS fandom, is that it was squatters and cigarettes.  And the property is far enough off the beaten path and was probably old and dry enough that the fire department couldn't save it.

I've been to upper State of New York twice within the last three years and I was told the State has a law that if anybody owns a old house or building that is condemn and falling apart, they have a choice of either restore or demolish it. It is not like that down here in the South.

[Nelson Collins]

I'd be interested in knowing if there are any photos of the interior, or any blueprints/floor plans.

I have drawn a tentative diagram myself (of the Old House).  And believe me, it was pretty difficult trying to cram 12 bedrooms upstairs they would have had to have with all family and guests living there (Joshua/Naomi, Abagail, Barnabas, Jeremiah, Sarah, Vicki, Josette, Andre, Natalie, Angelique, Millicent, Daniel)!!! 

[Doug]

I'm glad you brought that up about the twelve bedrooms. But I wish they used the older photos of the Spratt house when it was people were still living in it for the still photo and not the abandon still photo.

[MagnusTrask]

What gets me is that it looks huge at first, but it's the portico that's enormous... the actual house inside it looks much smaller than a mansion, unless it stretched back a very long way.

[Nelson Collins]

And it doesn't look like it did.  It looks square.  I'd surmise that at most, there were six rooms on the 2nd floor on either side and five to six on the ground floor on either side, with a central foyer staircase in the center, at least that is how I am sketching the inside (I have a nutty dream of one day owning some land in the country and I would like to build a house that looks like the Old House on it)...

[Doug]

I'm wondering if they can still build a house just like the Spratt House today. I'm sure the cost would be huge.

[Taeylor Collins]

And it doesn't look like it did.  It looks square.  I'd surmise that at most, there were six rooms on the 2nd floor on either side and five to six on the ground floor on either side, with a central foyer staircase in the center, at least that is how I am sketching the inside (I have a nutty dream of one day owning some land in the country and I would like to build a house that looks like the Old House on it)...

KEEP DREAMING!    It sometimes is the only we have.  On the topic:   I love this web page and I was so grateful to be shown the story behind this lovely house!    

Happy Happy Halloween, Halloween, Halloween Happy Happy Halloween Silver Shamrock!  Take the key and lock her up...lock up her up!  Sorry Pinogritio!   And they both have the same tune....

[Miss_Winthrop]

Speaking of bedrooms in old mansions, I visted Pres Grant's home in Galena, and was struck by how small the bedrooms are by today's standards.  Also, I've visited the old Pabst mansion up in Milwaukee.  In that home, the bedrooms were larger to accommodate the much larger furniture of the later Victorian era.