Checkerboard Inn
Checkerboard Inn or Forshee-Jenkins House is the name of a timber frame building at Mansion Ridge Golf Club in Monroe , New York in the United States. It was originally an apartment building that was converted into a pub in 1802 after the opening of the Orange Turnpike , an early toll road in New York. Tradition has it that the name derives from a previous owner's decision to paint the building in a checkerboard pattern to attract customers. It has not been conclusively clarified whether this tradition corresponds to the facts.
In the 20th century the building was expanded to serve as a cottage for the family of the New York silk merchant Moses Migel . After a number of other owners and a lengthy period of neglect, the Town of Monroe now owns the building that is adjacent to the golf club's clubhouse. The city wants to use the unused building, which was entered on the National Register of Historic Places on November 29, 2006 , as a museum of local history and is seeking funding for the restoration .
Building description
The house is built on the side of a mountain and overlooks the appropriate stretch of the New York-New Jersey Highlands and, in the distance, Shawangunk Ridge . The foundation is visible at the northern end of the building. A group of trees surrounds the house on three sides, to the east there are the remains of an old road.
The older main wing is a one-and-a-half-story building section with five bays . The facade consists of aluminum panels over wooden shingles. In the middle of the front of the house is the main entrance, which is designed in Federal style with fluted pilasters . These pilasters support a gable triangle above a cornice . A brick chimney protrudes from the shingled gable roof made of asbestos on each of them . The back porch is in pretty bad shape.
At the western end of the house there is a slightly recessed wing, further east another wing leads to the north. The eastern wing of it is similar to the western one, but a bit larger. On the north side of the house, both wings enclose a terrace .
The floor plan of the house is arranged around the central hall; a fireplace at each end heats the house. The walls are made of plastered wooden slats and have most likely been replaced since construction. Most of the interior is original, with the exception of the bathroom and an adjacent cabinet, which were added in the 20th century. The cellar has not been expanded.
history
Between 1790 and 1810, the main wing was built as anonymous architecture for a local farmer named Bernard Forshee. The Orange Turnpike, which now forms State Routes 17 and 17M elsewhere in the county , was dragged past the house in 1802 - a segment of the road bed remains east of the house and a milestone was stolen.
At some point during the turnpike's existence as a toll road, the house was converted into an inn for travelers. Because it was just south of what is now the Village of Monroe , where there were several other inns, Forshee probably decided to paint his house black and white in a checkerboard pattern . He sold it in 1823 to his son John, who ten years later sold it to Ira Jenkins. At that time, many of the early toll roads in the United States were converted into public ownership because the operators could not pay for their maintenance. It is believed that the house was no longer used as an inn, the checkerboard paint was retained and traces of it still existed at the beginning of the 20th century.
New York silk traders Moses Charles Migel bought the property and adjacent properties in 1916 to Greenbraes farm his 230 acres (90 hectares to make large residence). Because he intended to build a stone stable and house near the Checkerboard Inn - the current clubhouse of the golf club - the access road to the property had to be relocated. This also made it possible to defuse the steep descent to Monroe. Migel paid for the road to be relocated to its current location; Mary Harriman granted right of way.
Three years later, when Migel's son Richard was now tall and married, two wings were added to the house to accommodate the grown family and a shed roof at the back, the only significant change to the building since it existed. The original cast iron components, which the Migels intended to preserve, were mistakenly melted down as scrap during the renovation.
The house remained a residential building until the last private owners moved out in the mid-1990s. It then became the property of a construction company, Great Expectations. The company had bought the Migel property in full in order to create a golf course with an apartment complex. As part of the approval process, the company donated the Checkerboard Inn to the Town of Monroe in 2003. Three years later, the city began seeking government aid to convert the Checkerboard Inn into a local museum.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d James Nelson: National Register of Historic Places nomination, Checkerboard Inn ( English ) New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation . May 2006. Archived from the original on May 17, 2012. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved March 25, 2009.
- ↑ Chris McKenna: Monroe house is home to history ( English ) In: Times-Herald Record . Ottaway Community Newspapers. July 12, 2003. Retrieved February 2, 2017.
- ↑ Business Meeting, Town of Monroe, June 19, 2006 ( English , PDF) June 2006. Archived from 19 original on July 27, 2011. Accessed March 25 of 2009.
Coordinates: 41 ° 18 ′ 2 " N , 74 ° 11 ′ 1" W