The James and Mary Forsyth House is located on Albany Avenue near uptown Kingston, New York, United States. It is a brick Italian villa-style house designed by Richard Upjohn in the mid-19th century. When it was finished it was celebrated locally for its lavish decor. James Forsyth, as well as another later resident, left the house after being accused of financial wrongdoing. It has been modified slightly since its original construction with trim in the Colonial Revival style.
Along with the Old Dutch Church by Minard Lafever, it is the only extant pre-Civil War building, and the only house from that period, in Kingston designed by a nationally prominent architect. In the 20th century it was used as a Masonic Lodge. Since 1986 it has been the offices of a local construction company that has restored some of Kingston's other historic buildings. In 2003 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Building
The house is at the front of a lot on the north side of Albany Avenue across from Academy Green Park, the triangle formed by Albany, Clinton Avenue and Maiden Lane. On the west is a four-story brick Colonial Revival apartment building, built in the mid-1920s as the Governor Clinton Hotel. To the east are other commercial properties, culminating in the eastern terminus of Interstate 587 and NY 28 at the junction of Albany and Broadway. Behind the house, north of the property, is a parking lot and a small pond.
The building itself is a two-and-a-half-story, three-bay structure of load-bearing brick walls on a raised foundation of tooled limestone in an ashlar pattern. All the exterior trim is in wood. The roof, hipped with a gable crossing the center, is shingled in asphalt, with a molded cornice with large brackets supporting the eaves.
Exterior
On the south (front) facade, the first story has a wooden porch covering all three openings. The porch echoes the house, with a modillioned center gable and hipped roof supported by fluted Ionic columns with turned balusters between them. Behind them the windows have been fitted with French doors.
Windows on the second story have segmental brick arches, wooden hoods and cut stone sills. Above them is a single roundel window in the center gable.
The east profile has similar window treatments to the front on a one-bay projecting gabled section with a similar porch. The two flanking bays have porches for their French doors that cantilever out with perforated woodwork railings and large wood brackets with drop pendants supporting the hoods. By contrast, the central projecting bay's porch is similar to the front one. The center-bay second-story window has a round arch and is slightly recessed, giving it a Palladian feel. On the opposite side, the west elevation is similar with a bump-out at the southwest corner.
On the north side are similar windows and another projection, with a small frame addition. A fire escape runs up the side. There are no French doors on this elevation.
Interior
The main entrance consists of a modern door in front of the original paired glazed doors and a round glass transom. It opens into a small vestibule, which in turn leads through another pair of doors with stained glass lights and transom, possibly depicting scenes from Forsyth family history in a Romantic medieval fashion, into the L-shaped main hall with linoleum flooring. The basement stairs are directly ahead; the main stair is off to the right. A library and parlor are on the east and west respectively. Further to the north are a dining room and drawing room. A small bedroom and dressing room are in the addition on the rear.
Both the front parlor and library retain their original parquet flooring, molded baseboards and plaster cornice. The library also has a paneled wooden door with its original silver hardware, paneled pocket shutters on the French doors to the exterior. A set of wooden cabinets have a cornice with running guilloché frieze. In the parlor is a chimney breast with marble Italianate mantelpiece. A wide opening with Corinthian columns leads into the dining room to the north.
The dining room has similar flooring and walls, as well as another mantelpiece in the same material and style. A bracketed wooden frieze runs around the room at a height of six feet (2 m). The drawing room, the largest space on the first story, has ceilings and many of the same decorative features.
Near the stair to the second floor is a wooden settee. The staircase itself is cantilevered out, and consists of open stringers with carpet on the steps. It is decorated with a turned newel post and balusters. The round arched window on the east profile lights the landing with 19th-century stained glass.