Soundview Manor

Robert B. Dula (1849-1926) was born in Lenoir, North Carolina and was in the Home Guards at the end of the Civil War. When the Civil War ended Robert B. Dula moved to Missouri where he started a tobacco business. Dula headed the Drummond Tobacco Company in St. Louis until the company was sold to the American Tobacco Company in 1898. Five years later when Dula decided to join the recently established American Tobacco Company in 1903 he relocated to New York City with his family.

Robert B. Dula was married to Josephine Carr with whom he had five children: Iva, Belva, Rena, Grover, and Robert L. The family moved again to an apartment building on Broadway by 1910. By that time all but one son had gotten married or moved on from their house. A year later the American Tobacco Company was broken up and Robert B. Dula went into retirement. In 1920, years after working in tobacco Dula bought a large parcel in the southwestern portion city of White Plains. He commissioned the architect Chester A. Patterson to design a house on the property as a gift for his son Robert L. Dula, who got married in 1919.

Soundview Manor is a good example of Beaux Arts classicism. Some of the notable features of the interior of the home include the French doors, the Rococo marble mantelpieces in the living room and the dinning room, and the shelf niches with scallop shell heads. The east elevation of the home has three pairs of French doors on the first story, a pair of French doors on the second story, and two single glass doors on the third story. On the west elevation there is also a porch, however a stuccoed wall separates it from a shallow second open porch adjacent to the north. The north elevation has a variety of double hung and casement windows.

When Robert B. Dula died in 1926 in his New York apartment he left a large estate to his five children. Unfortunately, Robert Dula and his wife were being sued by their former daughter-in-law Elsie Hinman, Robert L Dula’s spouse, who began a long series of lawsuits in 1924 against her husband and his parents for lack of financial support. Possibly in an attempt to keep Elsie from getting the Manor, the house was sold in foreclosure auction in 1926. Elsie’s lawsuit’s continued until 1927 when she won a small settlement. 

The Miner W. Allen family owned the Sounview Manor from 1926 to 1945. Their family was from Ohio and came to White Plains after Miner was hired by Union Carbide to become vice president and manager of its world wide manufacturing operations. In 1945 the Allens sold the home to the Lipmans. In 1952 Regina and Robert Alexander purchased the Manor from the Lipmans. Then in 1980 the Sawwower family bought the property and operated part of the house as a bed and breakfast until 2015. As of 2016 the current owners of the home have been requesting the State Supreme Court to order White Plains to permit the demolition of this 1920 mansion; this request has led to much community controversy. The fate of Soundview Manor is yet to be decided.

1. Williams, Gray. Jackson, Kenneth T.. Picturing Our Past National Register Sites in Westchester County.
2. Shaver, Peter. Soundview Manor. National Register of Historic Places. Published October 1st 2007.
3. Casey, Pat. Judge to White Plains: Return Taxes to Soundview Manor, The Examiner. August 27th 2012. Accessed September 8th 2020. https://www.theexaminernews.com/judge-to-white-plains-return-taxes-to-soundview-manor/.
4. Liebson, Richard. Owners to White Plains: Let us demolish mansion, lohud. September 1st 2016. Accessed September 18th 2020. https://www.lohud.com/story/news/local/westchester/white-plains/2016/09/01/white-plains-soundview-manor-landmark-fight/89710992/.