Reynolds-Carpenter House (Old Chappaqua Historic District)

The Reynolds-Carpenter House is located on scenic Quaker Road in the Old Chappaqua Historic District in the town of New Castle in Westchester County, New York. Tradition attributes the building of the house to John Reynolds, Sr. in 1740. Reynolds settled in Chappaqua that same year and was a large landowner, who donated two acres for the construction of the Friends Meeting House, also located on Quaker Road. A grandson of John Reynolds inherited the Reynolds-Carpenter House and in 1846 sold the house to Robert Carpenter, who added the rear wing in 1850. The Reynolds-Carpenter House remains a well maintained eighteenth century private dwelling. The Old Chappaqua Historic District, including the Reynolds-Carpenter House, was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.

The area along Quaker Road (once named “Pines Bridge Road”) where the Old Chappaqua Historic District is located, was originally settled by members of the Society of Friends around the year 1730. At that time, the area was referred to as “Shapequaw” and is known today as “Chappaqua.” The Quakers had moved across the mainland of New York (Westchester County) from Long Island where they had “established a Meeting” as far back as 1645. Their first Quaker Meeting House in Chappaqua stands in the same spot where it was originally constructed in 1753.

The Reynolds-Carpenter House is located just under a half mile south of the Quaker Meeting House on Quaker Road. Its construction ca.1740 is attributed to John Reynolds, Sr., who had settled in Chappaqua that same year. Architectural elements of the oldest parts of the residence, which were discovered in 1971 when paneling was removed from the bedroom walls on the second floor, help to date it, including: old hand-hewn chestnut beams, wooden pegs, oak lath, and mortise and tenon joints. Evidence was also found of where the low six-foot five inch ceiling typical of early dwellings, which had been raised three feet for additional headroom.

John Reynolds, Sr. had seven sons, including Sutton Reynolds, Sr. His son Sutton Jr., owned the house in 1846 when it was sold to Robert Carpenter. Robert Carpenter was a Quaker but was not originally from Chappaqua. It is thought that he had moved here from across the Hudson River, near Duanesburg. Once here, he married Eliza Allen, a daughter of prominent Chappaqua resident Samuel Allen. They had three daughters: Maria, Mary Emma, and Carrie. After Eliza’s death, Reynolds remarried a woman named Lucy, who had a daughter from a previous marriage also named Emma. It was daughter Maria who inherited the house. Owing to disputes over Maria’s will, however, the Reynolds-Carpenter House was neglected for a time and fell into disrepair. In 1944, it was sold to the Griggs family, who made repairs. In 1953, it was sold to the Gruber family who continued the work. 

The original and oldest portion of the wood-frame Reynolds-Carpenter House is two stories, five bays, and possesses a gable-roof. The rear wing, also constructed of a wood frame sheathed by clapboards and measuring two bays by two bays, was added in 1850 by Robert Carpenter. Immediately north of the house stands a 19th century wood-frame barn. The Reynolds-Carpenter House remains a well maintained eighteenth century private dwelling. The Reynolds-Carpenter House is included in the Old Chappaqua Historic District, which was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.

1. Chappaqua Historical Society, Town of New Castle. Prepared by Dorothy Whitney Gruber in collaboration with Isabelle A. Haight. The Early Quaker Hamlet of Old Chappaqua: Its Houses, Its People, Its Way of Life. Chappaqua, NY. The Chappaqua Historical Society. 1973.
2. Chappaqua History Committee and Gray Williams. New Castle: Chappaqua and Millwood. “Images of America” series. Charleston, SC: Acadia Publishing, 2006.
3. “Old Chappaqua Historic District #74001319.” National Register of Historic Places. United States Department of the Interior/National Park Service. 1974. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75323143 
4. Williams, Gray. Picturing Our Past: National Register Sites in Westchester County. Westchester County Historical Society. 2003.