One more spectacular Victorian

Thanks to Town Historian An Linden, I took another trip to Amenia to take a picture of this beautiful house. Here's what she told me about it: It is in what they call the "Tuscan villa" style with a tower. The building belongs to Darlene Reimer, who restored it from a pathetic state. It is white now, probably not the color it was originally...but it is wonderful inside...Her architctural office is on the first floor, a real estate agent on the second. You will see that it is very much the size of our contemporary houses...not a mansion. There is lots of history to go with each one of the homes you show...the one important fact about all of them is that they were built after the NY Central Harlem Valley Railroad came through in 1850. There were some going industries in Amenia including iron and condensed milk (Borden in Wassaic) accounting for the size and detail on the houses.

They were not "mansions", just homes of successful business people of the 19th century. By Victorian standards, these are not large houses. Some of them (the three you show in the photos) are painted historic colors of the period...chosen to hide the train smoke and dirt from the iron industry, and chosen to satisfy the victorian love of ostentation.