Albert and Emily Wilson House

Albert Wilson was a successful Architect born in 1878 in New York City. He earned his degree in Architecture in 1904 from Columbia University. As an aspiring architect, Mr. Wilson apprenticed with Architect Grovesnor Atterbury prior to founding his own firm in 1911 with partners Julian Peabody and Archibald M. Brown.Collectively the three men built a successful business which was noted for the design of large residences for wealthy clients, many of which were built on Long Island.

Mr. Wilson's firm would gain a reputation for the formal, central plans that featured rounded entry stairs, bay windows, and fireplaces flanked by bookcases. These would become signature features in many of the homes he designed. Peabody, Wilson and Brown Architeture was in business for 24 years; the firm began to decline with the economic impact of the Great Depression. The firm finally dissolved in 1935 with the death of business partner Julian Peabody.

After the firm dissolved, Mr. Wilson moved his office to his family home in Mamaroneck where he partnered with August J. Rahm to create a new firm. By this time, elaborate two-story mansions were a thing of the past and the modern one-story suburban home had taken root in American architecture. The Brook Street house built in 1949 was a simplified design devoid of ornament reflecting the influence of modernism. The house was intended as a retirement home for him and his wife.

The Brook street house is an U-shaped one story house with a colonial revival feeling in its brickwork, scale and slate roof. It has the basic conveniences of a small modern house with the traditional and formal floor plan that the firm was known for designing. A grand entryway was replaced by a small entry foyer which had paired doors leading into the kitchen, living, dining rooms as well as other spaces in the house. The sitting room features Mr. Wilson’s typical fireplace flanked by built-in bookshelves. The focal point of the main room was a bay window that provides the view to the rear yards, the house also has a garage on the left North-West side.

The Wilson house was completed in 1951. The house retains much of its original integrity, it is still furnished with the furniture collected by Mr. Wilson and his wife from a European trip and/or pieces built by the architect himself. 

1. Kocher, A. L. "The Architectural Record." USModernist. Accessed December 10, 2020. https://usmodernist.org/AR/AR-1926-11.pdf.
2. "National Landmarks — Mamaroneck Historical Society." Mamaroneck Historical Society. Accessed December 10, 2020. https://www.mamaroneckhistoricalsociety.org/national-landmarks.
3. Wilson, Albert E., and Emily, House, National Register for Historic Places. Accessed November 29th, 2020.