Few New Yorkers could know there’s a Nineteenth-century Italianate villa tucked above the busy business strip of Richmond Street in New Dorp, Staten Island.
The previous dwelling of Gustav Mayer, the German-born baker who invented the Nilla wafer, stands simply 4 blocks from the New Dorp prepare station. With its unique pine flooring and 120-year-old working icebox, the house serves as a largely untouched reminder of Staten Island’s rural previous.
The Gustav Mayer home is 4 blocks from the New Dorp prepare station.
Ryan Kailath / Gothamist
The entrance of the home sits atop a crest that slopes down a half acre landscaped backyard to busy Richmond Street.
Ryan Kailath / Gothamist
From Richmond Street, the home seems part-Gothic novel, part-wedding cake. A large entrance porch spans the total constructing, with carved wood columns and unique wavy glass home windows look out on a sloping garden.
Lots of the heirloom plantings date to the Nineteen Thirties, in accordance with Robert Troiano, the present proprietor.
The home’s exterior was landmarked within the Eighties. The again entrance faces a quiet residential avenue.
Ryan Kailath / Gothamist
The entrance porch stretches as broad because the constructing.
Ryan Kailath / Gothamist
The house’s unique proprietor David Ryers was a commander within the New York state militia and the final proprietor of the close by Rose and Crown Tavern, which, in accordance with the Historic Marker Database, was occupied by the British through the American Revolution and is the positioning the place Gen. William Howe learn the Declaration of Independence to his officers on July 9, 1776.
In 1855, in accordance with an NYC Landmarks Preservation Fee report, Ryers tore down the tavern and constructed this home as a substitute, impressed by the panorama architect Andrew Jackson Downing.
The two,400-square-foot parlor ground is at the moment the residing quarters, which Troiano up to date with a contemporary renovation.
Ryan Kailath / Gothamist
Mayer, the German-born confectioner, purchased the home in 1889 and moved there in 1890. Within the basement, he tinkered with recipes and finally created what turned Nabisco’s Nilla wafer.
Upstairs, Mayer’s daughters Paula and Emilia turned the home into a private canvas. Each girls lived right here into their tons of, by no means married, and painted Swiss and Italian landscapes from their travels straight onto the partitions.
Troiano visited Paula Mayer close to the tip of her life, when a nurse had moved the 2 daughters to Maryland.
Paula Mayer painted murals all through the second and third flooring and ornamental parts on tilework and cupboards all through the home.
Ryan Kailath / Gothamist
Ryan Kailath / Gothamist
Troiano grew up close by and purchased the house in 1990 after noticing it for years.
“I used to be a restorationist and woodworker in search of a mission,” he stated.
Troiano spent many years rehabbing the construction from the within out, rebuilding the rooflines, restoring the Nineteenth-century home windows, and preserving Paula Mayer’s murals, he stated.
“All the pieces is unique,” Troiano stated. “The yellow southern pine clapboard is unique from 1855. The longleaf southern pine flooring might be $50 a sq. foot in salvage yards. I put again any items which may’ve been tampered with or lacking.”
Robert Troiano rented the home out for photograph shoots for years, however stopped a number of years in the past. He is now planning to promote it.
Ryan Kailath / Gothamist
The third ground has extra bedrooms that function photograph backdrops.
Ryan Kailath / Gothamist
Ryan Kailath / Gothamist
The utilities are fashionable, however you received’t see an outlet until you understand the place to look.
The home is topped with a sq. cupola, which was as soon as used for cooling the house in the summertime and taking in ocean views. On clear days, it overlooks Raritan Bay and Sandy Hook, New Jersey.
The cupola atop the home has views of Raritan Bay and Sandy Hook.
Ryan Kailath / Gothamist
Paula Mayer’s paint nonetheless stains an unique desk
Ryan Kailath / Gothamist
Over time, the house turned a vacation spot for the style and movie industries.
The house’s managed decay, full with peeling paint, sun-bleached shutters and patched plaster, attracted photoshoots for magazines together with Vogue, Cosmopolitan and Essence.
Gisele Bündchen, Mary-Kate Olsen and Amber Heard have shot right here, Troiano stated.
“The primary shoot was ‘Saturday Evening Stay’ in 1990, for a skit known as ‘Fuzzy Reminiscences,’” he recalled.
Paula Mayer’s decorations seem all through the home.
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Designs for Gustave Mayer’s biscuits.
Ryan Kailath / Gothamist
Robert Troiano is barely the second proprietor of the house since 1889.
Ryan Kailath / Gothamist
Troiano stopped renting the house for photograph shoots through the pandemic and is now getting ready for a transfer south.
The house, which has solely had two house owners since 1889, is now in the marketplace, with an asking value of slightly below $1.5 million.
“The brand new proprietor reserves the suitable to do no matter they need with the home,” Troiano stated. “Though I’d desire it was maintained traditionally, it’s not a standards by any means.”
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The inside of a lounge.
Ryan Kailath / Gothamist