9 Tavano Road (Robinwood Historic District)
Introduction
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The Robinwood Historic District consists of 21 mid-century Modern houses erected as the centerpiece of a unified housing development in the mid-1960s in the Town of Ossining, Westchester County, New York. Included in the district is the home at 9 Tavano Road. All of the houses were designed by architect Harry Wenning and were stylistically contemporary and well-integrated with their natural surroundings.
The Robinwood Historic District, including 9 Tavano Road, was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2019.
Images
![Plant, Sky, Building, Car](https://storage.googleapis.com/clio-images/medium_3032_IMG_1937.jpg)
Backstory and Context
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Two of Harry Wenning's Robinwood designs, 9 and 10 Tavano Road, were featured in the New York Times in an article entitled "Development in Ossining Offers Homes and Exteriors of Redwood and Glass." The house at 9 Tavano Road, a five-bedroom dwelling priced contemporarily at $48,500, featured a number of characteristics common to the Robinwood development: geometric massing in combination with a low-pitched gable roof with deeply projecting eaves, concrete block and post-and-beam construction, redwood siding, and large glazed expanses. It is a split-level dwelling with an irregular footprint. The primary entrance is located in a tall glazed expanse that rises from grade to roofline. On the west is an elevated porch creates a sheltered space below, at grade. The opposite, east elevation, has a two-by garage which is receded from the elevation of the main house and at a lower grade
On the interior the main upper living area contains the living and dining room open directly onto a large porch with views of the landscape. Downstairs are two bedrooms and a large recreation room, along with the garage and storage area. A fireplace is a central component of the living room.
Sources
- “Robinwood Historic District #100003632.” National Register of Historic Places. United States Department of the Interior/National Park Service.
- New York Times, "Development in Ossining Offers Homes and with Redwood and Glass," 31 July 1966.
- Roger Panetta, Westchester the American Suburb, New York: Fordham University Press, 2006.