The Cunningham House is a handsome red brick four story townhouse, built in 1835 and listed on both the New York State and the National Register of Historic Places. It is located in the historic district of the Hudson River Valley hamlet of Tappan, New York, with its well-regarded Restaurant Row. Tappan, itself was recently restored with brick-laid sidewalk, working lanterns and hitching posts. The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, it is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources. The Cunningham House is set on a landscaped property with a private sculpture garden. It is within steps of a New York City-bound commuter bus stop, as well as a half-dozen fine restaurants including America’s oldest tavern, the ‘76 House, built in 1754. The Tappan Historic District also has retail shops, a town park, a newly expanded and renovated library, and the historic DeWint House Museum & Gardens, famed for its many visits from General George Washington during the Revolutionary War.
The Cunningham House was constructed on the approximate site of Yoast (Joost) Mabie’s house where the Orangetown Resolutions were signed on July 4, 1774, and it probably still retains the original foundation fieldstones from that building. It was originally built to be an elegant family residence in 1835 by Dr. Morris Bartow. It remained in the Bartow family until the 1880s, when it served as the headquarters for the New York, Ontario and Western Railway. Around 1910-15 the wood-frame kitchen wing was added on the south, and an enclosed porch was built across the west-facing side of the house. The Cunningham House is listed as the Mason Samett Townhouse in historic preservation records, in recognition of its owners at the time of its official listings in ‘89 (NY) and ‘91 (USA).
Once known locally as The Federal House for its architectural style, it was built at the same time as the Tappan Reformed Church across the street and with the very same Haverstraw bricks laid in “Flemish bond.” The Federal style is often described as a refinement of Georgian style, drawing on contemporary European trends, in particular the work of Robert Adam (1728-1792), who traveled to the Mediterranean to study classical Roman and Greek monuments. Indeed, The Cunningham House has many Greek Revival features, such as the denticulated frieze, rectangular lintels of sandstone, and a fine side hall and transom-lit front doorway. The lunar windows in the north gable have fan muntins. The overhanging roof and dormers are Victorian. The foundation is well-dressed sandstone and the interior has a graceful staircase, marble mantels, and handsome trim work throughout. The property itself is enclosed across the front by a black wrought iron fence dating to the mid-19th century.
There are four levels in the 3000-square foot structure, including a single-floor annex built in the early 1900s.
In the 20th Century, the building has housed an art gallery and
sculpture garden
, an antiques gallery, a scientific research center, a medical center, a dental practice, a real estate office, the offices of an architectural firm, and an engineering firm. Its most recent retail use was the 118 Main Boutique, a gift shop featuring women’s clothing and jewelry, children’s books, handcrafted items from local artisans, and seasonal gifts and cards.
Since 2013 The Cunningham House has been home to Janson Media, an international media company and independent content studio. There are front and rear entrances to the main level of the building which includes a side hallway, a conference room, a screening room, employee cafe, and a westward-facing sun porch with access to the sculpture garden and parking lot. The main level also features five cut-glass Italianate chandeliers. The second level features a side hallway, a full bathroom and two large rooms currently serving as stylish, well-lit office spaces, each with a marble fireplace. The two rooms are separated by historic pocket doors dating to 1835, and feature the building’s original “sugar pine” wide-plank flooring. The top level features two video edit suites with five workstations, as well as a garret apartment complete with bedroom, kitchenette, full bathroom, laundry room, and sitting area. The entire townhouse still has its original antique glass windows from 1835.
The ground floor level, known in the late-1800s as the Historic Kitchen, has a separate entrance and features a large room with a ceiling with exposed beams, wide plank pine flooring, a bathroom, a wet bar, two storage closets, and a small atelier in the rear with two-foot thick fieldstone walls. This floor today is a private Clubroom with a bar, and several comfortable seating areas. It has its own separate entrance from the street, and doubles as a podcasting studio.
All utility systems have been recently upgraded. There are smoke and heat detectors on all four levels of the building, two separate central air conditioning units servicing the 3rd and 4th floors, and a ductless A/C unit in the Employee Cafe. There are two separate heating zones in the building, which is serviced by natural-gas fired radiators and baseboard heating, and municipal water and sewers. The entire building is connected to the internet by state-of-the-art, high-speed fiber-optic cable.