Eleazer Hart House

Following the Revolution, as the country became more populous, the more ornate style of center-hall houses with rooms on both sides of a central entrance hall became more popular to the ordinary homes of the time. A smaller home was normally no more than one room wide, and if they had any entrance hall, it was tucked to one side of the front room. In 1785, the confiscated Philipsburg Manor lands were sold off; a farmer named Eleazer Hart paid 770 pounds for a 154 farm on the western bank of the Bronx River.[1]

The property included a one and a half story house, probably with an all-purpose room on the first floor. Hart built a new two and a half story house and transformed the former house into the rear wing, probably becoming the kitchen.[2] The farm remained in the family through the 19th century; in the beginning of the 20th century was divided to create the neighborhood of Cedar Knolls. Many of the houses resemble the Hart house, in what is considered Colonial Revival, although it is largely Federal. Much of the house has remained as Hart built it in 1785.[3]

[1] National Register of historic Places Inventory-Nomination Form, United States Department of Interior-National Parks Service, https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75323049

[2] Williams, Grey. Kenneth T. Picturing Our Past: National Register sites in Westchester County. New York. 2003.

[3] Yonkers: Then & Now, Yonkers Historical Society and the Blue Door Artist Association (Arcadia Publishing, 2008), 88.