page_title: Wildcliff
section_title: Architecture
hierarchical_section_title: Wildcliff / Architecture
caption_attribution_description: This is an image of a place or building that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places in the United States of America. Its reference number is 2001656 More images
context_page_description: Wildcliff, also referred to as the Cyrus Lawton House, was a historic residence overlooking Long Island Sound in New Rochelle in Westchester County, New York. This 20-room cottage-villa, built in about 1852, was designed by prominent architect Alexander Jackson Davis in the Gothic Revival style. The home was added to the National Register of Historic Places on December 31, 2002.
  The unoccupied mansion was destroyed by a suspicious fire on the evening of November 26, 2018. The house was a total loss. On December 12, 2018, four 13-year old, middle school boys were arrested and charged in connection with the fire. All were charged as juveniles with misdemeanor third-degree criminal trespass, while one faces a felony charge of fourth-degree arson.
context_section_description: Wildcliff is a 2½-story house faced primarily in rubblestone of various colors. These stones give the picturesque design a natural quality, as if the building were rising out of the landscape. For a house in the Northeast, Downing prescribed a design with high roofs, thick walls, warm rooms, and chimneys. The original front facade of the building was on the southern portion of the present house facing Long Island Sound, now partially obscured by the out-of-character one story addition used as a theater. This facade originally had a 2½-story central gable with a pair of windows on the first
  story looking out over the water. In the mid 1860s, Davis designed additions to the house in the same style with special efforts made so that the changes would be as inconspicuous as possible. Bargeboards and other ornamental details match exactly and stonework was laid so that there would be no sign of the joint between the old and new sections.
  Later owners Julius and Clara Prince were responsible for the second major expansion to the home which was done in the half-timbered Tudor style. The additions consisted of the construction of a porte-cochere, a new entrance on the south facade of the home, and the conversion of the original entrance into a long, twelve-part window.
  The original plan of the house can still be read on the interior. To the south is the original library and entrance hall, now combined into one space. On the upper floors are bedrooms with steeply sloping walls reflecting their locations within the gables. The attic retains some original floorboards and four paneled doors with original knobs. The interior retains much of its historic plan and some historic fittings, but much of the interior detail has been lost.
caption: detail
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