The Peekskill Museum was presented to the Field Library by Mrs. Ida M. Adams by deed dated January 3, 1944. It is one of Peekskill's most famous Victorian houses. Built by Dwight Stiles Herrick, a prominent lawyer in Peekskill in the last century as his private home. His wife Sarah was the oldest daughter of another prominent Peekskillian John Simpson.
The house was designed by the famous architectural firm of McKim, Mead, and Bigelow. Mr. Herrick was a classmate of William Rutherford Mead at Amherst College, Mass, class of 1867. Mr. Herrick later became a lawyer and Mr. Mead an architect. They continued their college friendship and Mr. Herrick asked Mead to design his house. It is a fine example of a "well to do" Victorian home. With a spacious staircase, library, parlor and a fireplace with Dutch 'Delft' tiles depicting Biblical scenes.
The house was built around 1873 to 1878, then occupied by the Herrick family until approximately 1912. Dwight Herrick's picture, presented to the Museum by Jennie Mabie in 1948, hangs on the wall in the front foyer, ready to greet visitors as Mr. Herrick would have done.
Mr. Mead later became a part of the firm of McKim, Mead and White. A very prestigious firm also responsible for creating such nationally important structures as the Boston Public Library, the Rhode Island Capitol, The Pennsylvania Station in New York City, the Vanderbilt Mansion in Hyde Park, and the Reed Castle.
The authoritative work on Westchester architecture by Frank E. Sanchis says that William Rutherford Mead working independently designed it and gives the date of construction as 1878.
The partnership of McKim, Mead and Bigelow was formed in 1878 and lasted only about a year (thus making it difficult for the firm to design a house on which construction started in 1873). William B. Bigelow was a classmate of McKim's from the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. Bigelow's sister, Annie, married Charles Follen McKim in Newport, R.I., on Oct. 1, 1874. They had one daughter, born in 1875. Annie separated from him in 1878, taking the daughter, and later marrying the Rev. John William Day, pastor of the Channing Memorial Church in Newport. They had three sons.
Bigelow withdrew from the partnership in 1879, and Stanford White, who returned from an extended stay in Europe in Sept. of 1879, joined the firm that became McKim, Mead and White. One might suspect that her abandonment of McKim might have made for a certain frostiness in the relationship between him and Bigelow and could account for his withdrawal from the firm.
Nevertheless, Sanchis says that Rutherford alone was the architect. He is usually reliable-although someone switched the captions identifying the Peekskill and Ardsley railroad stations in his book.
The house itself was published in the best architectural journal of its day, "The American Architect and Building News" (June 2, 1877). More recently, the house has been mentioned by Vincent Scully, in his book "The Shingle Style". Mr Scully's title reflects his specialty, which was art expressed in architecture. His title was "Sterling Professor of the History of Art in Architecture" at Yale.
Mr. Herrick came to Peekskill as an instructor for the Peekskill Military Academy. He later became a lawyer creating the office of Herrick and Lent, Attorneys, which was located over the present Arthur Weeks and Sons jewelry store at the corner of South and South Division Streets.
While Mr. and Mrs. Herrick lived there, the house was given to great hospitality and social gatherings. Mrs. Herrick's sister, Jennie Simpson, built a house across the street where the Guardian School play area now is. Mr. Herrick was an accomplished amateur singer and musician. He also was friendly with Henry Ward Beecher, a famous minister, whose sister Harriet Beecher Stowe was also a famous writer. Her most noteworthy novel being Uncle Tom's Cabin. The Beecher house is across from the Beach Shopping Center and is now a part of the Society Hill complex on Main Street (Route 6).
Other sources recollect some memories which include that the Beecher house was constructed of wood. The house we refer to as the Beecher house is constructed of red brick and is of much later construction, Since Mr Beecher died in 1887, the brick house was probably constructed in the 20th century.
Dwight Stiles Herrick is last mentioned in the village directory in 1907. Widow Sarah Herrick, 124 Union Avenue, mentioned until 1909. Miss Ruth Herrick, we believe to the be daughter, is mentioned in 1910. The house remained in the Herrick family for some time. A Mrs. Bertha Herrick Lloyd lived there after she was widowed, sister to Ruth. After, the latter married Mr. Douglas Macduff and lived in the house up to 1912 and their daughter Ruth Nelson Macduff was born there.
The house was purchased by Miss Mary Strang. Her nephew and nieces from Yorktown lived with her while attending Drum Hill High School.
She took other paying guests as late as 1921, perhaps longer. Upon her death in 1937, we believe a mortgage foreclosure brought it to Mr. Adams,
who had been a cemetery superintendent. Mr. Chester Smith secured the house. It then became the property of Mrs. Ida Adams. The house had become in
disrepair & wishing to free it from its tax debts, Mrs. Adams presented the house to the Field Library in 1944 as the site for a museum.
