Cassidy Cottage 59 Prospect Ave

The Larchmont Manor Company sold this property in 1885 to Katharine Adelaide Dana, widow of John, of Richfield Springs, New Jersey. On November 18, 1890, the Paragraph reported the destruction by fire of a house on this site, "the residence of Mr. Dana, the well-known photographer of New York" who was probably the widow's son. An "immensely large" elm on the property was killed by the fire as well.

Bien's 1893 map indicates that the lot was then vacant and belonged to Henry B.W. Burt, a member of the Larchmonr Yacht Club since 1888. The property was sold in 1895 to Martin Cassidy of New York City who then transferred the title once again in 1897 to William Murray, a principal in the manor company. Murray returned the title to Cassidy the following year, encumbered by a heavy mortgage. A transaction of this sort usually would indicate that a building has been erected, particularly when one of the parties is known to have been involved in real estate development. The house was sold at a public auction to William Mercer Baird in 1909. Although it has had 7 owners since, the house has remained virtually intact.

The Cassidy Cottage represents a fine moment in American domestic architecture that flowered from the late 1880s to the early years of this century. It exemplifies the First Colonial/Federal Revival. The First Revival was sparked by buildings in the Colonial and Federal styles erected at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The Cassidy Cottage represents a free adaptation of the Colonial mode and the more informal Shingle style that originated in such resorts as Newport, Cape Ann, and the Maine shore.

The asymmetrical placement of naturally formal elements is characteristic of the style of the home, as is the use of dark-stained shingles. The off-axis entry and the large stairhall are also characteristic of the style along with the large but delicate fireplace and the fireplace surround with original ceramic tile and the free flow of space from room to room.