Thomas Nelson House

Introduction

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Home of Manhattan based lawyer Thomas Nelson and his family, the two-story Italianate style home features tall windows, front double doors, and a broad veranda. The home was completed around the 1860s however, it is unclear if it was his permanent home while working in New York City. The Thomas Nelson House is an intact example of the popular Italianate style of Westchester homes of the time.

Images

Thomas Nelson House, December 2000

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Backstory and Context

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Thomas Nelson spent the earlier years of his career working with his father, WIlliam Nelson, in his office in Peekskill. The home was most likely the family’s summer home while Nelson worked in Manhattan, although it served as Nelson’s official residence during his failed Congressional campaign in 1860.[1]

Judge Thomas Nelson died at the house in 1907 at the age of 88. In the decades following his death, much of the estimated 8.5 acre property was sold off.[2] The remaining one and a half acre of land stayed with the family until the 1940s, after this it as the home of the former mayor of Peekskill and architect, Ralph Hopkins. It remains a private home today.

Sources

[1] Williams, Gray. Jackson, Kenneth T.. Picturing Our Past: National Register Sites in Westchester County.

[2] “National Register of Historic Places Inventory.” United States Department of the Interior-National Parks Service, completed by Karen Burghart.

Image Sources(Click to expand)

United States Department of the Interior - National Parks Service

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Nelson_House_(Peekskill,_New_York)

Picturing our Past