Davenport House- Sans Souci

Introduction

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The Davenport House, also called Sans-Souci (French for “carefree”), was constructed in 1859 by Lawrence Davenport. The Davenport Family was a significant family in the development of New Rochelle and would retain ownership of portions of Davenport Neck for just under 130 years. Upon the death of Newberry Davenport, the estate was split between his two sons, Newberry Jr. and Lawrence Davenport. Newberry Jr. took up residence in the family’s previous home on the neck, the Lispenard-Rodman-Davenport House, while Lawrence would erect his own house on his portion of the estate which would become known as San-Souci. The house was sold in 1865 to Anthony Walton White Evans and then to Leroy Frantz in the 1920s. Over those years, sections of the original property were sold off to affluent individuals from the city looking to establish waterfront estates along the Sound.

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Backstory and Context

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Sans-Souci was designed by Andrew Jackson Davis—a prominent architect who specialized in the Gothic Revival style—and was originally constructed as a one and a half story stone cottage featuring bargeboards, bay and diamond paned oculi windows, a rear veranda, and symmetrical chimneys.[1] The house was altered three distinct times after its construction, however, in each of these cases the alterations did not detract from the original design. The first alteration was designed by Davis in 1871 and consisted of a Library and a billiard room which were connected to the house by a glazed conservatory.[2] In 1875, the Evans family would put on another addition to the house, this time it was a single story northern wing which was later enlarged to two stories along with the southern wing. Finally, during the 1920’s Leroy Franz remodeled the now two story south wing into a ballroom. The interior of the cottage and the period additions are largely unchanged today.

After only six years of ownership, Lawrence Davenport sold the house to Anthony Evans and Frederick Close was hired to mirror the Davis addition on the north side. The northern addition was the location of the servant’s quarters which as Andrew Jackson Downing one wrote about the houses that he designed with Davis, “a villa in the United States is a country house of a person of competence or wealth sufficient to build and maintain it with some taste and elegance… [they require] the care of at least three or more servants”.[3] The cottage turned villa would remain with the Evans family until 1922 when it was purchased by Leroy Frantz, the founder of the First Westchester National Bank.

Sans-Souci was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in recognition of its architectural value.[4] The restoration of the home was done by Theodore R. Greene in order to save the house from demolition two years prior in 1978. The house is considered to be a fine example of an American Gothic cottage designed by Davis, a master of the style. The house has been utilized for a number of receptions including a collection of weddings and Republican Party functions, a partial homage to its past owner, Leroy Frantz, who also used the ballroom of the house for reception events.[5]

Sources

[1] Austin O’Brien, “Davenport House”, National Register of Historic Places Inventory—Nomination Form (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, 1980), Section 7.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Barbara Davis, “By any name, Davenport House remains a magnificent structure”, published August 8, 1996, accessed through the Westchester County Historical Society on September 10, 2020.

[4] June Schetterer, “An American Gothic is his dream come true”, The Standard Star, Section A, Tuesday, September 2 1980, accessed through the Westchester Historical Society archive.

[5] Ibid.

Image Sources(Click to expand)

Westchester County Historical Society Archive