The Maples is a historic house located on 108 Montgomery Street in Rhinebeck, New York. It was built in the 1830s in the Greek Revival style. Three decades later, its exterior was remodeled, adding decoration in the picturesque mode.
For decades, The Maples was used as medical offices. When the medical offices closed, the building was listed for sale, but remained empty for three years, falling into despair. In 2017, new owners purchased The Maples and began an extensive renovation, transforming the building into professional office suites.
In 1987, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Property
The Maples is located on a grassy lot with tall shade trees in the northern portion of the village, just across from the hospital complex. A shed is in the rear, and a stone wall runs along the front. Both are considered contributing resources to its listing on the National Register.
Design
The main house is a two-story, five-bay frame building on a raised fieldstone foundation. The gabled metallic roof has cornice returns and is pierced by four chimneys at the corners. The eastern (front) facade has a full-length flat-roofed veranda with cornice bracketry and scroll-sawn segmentally-arched knee braces. Small Palladian windows are located in the gable apexes on the north and south, with two quarter-round attic windows on either side.
On the west is a large two-story wing that was added later. It has a gabled roof of lower pitch than the main block, and bracketed cornices on the north and south elevations. A small one-story shed-roofed wing projects from the north.
The main entrance is a centrally located, recessed and paneled door flanked by fluted pilasters with Doric capitals. It leads to a center hallway where some original trim remains, including a late Federal mantelpiece in the southeast parlor and original woodwork on the windows. A curving staircase, also original, leads to the second story. Most of the interior has been remodeled into office space and examining rooms.
Outside, the shed to the southwest is a flushboard and clapboard-sided one-story frame building. Its gabled roof is trimmed with a scalloped pattern. The stone wall in front with central gate posts is an original feature.
History
Little in the historical record describes the house's builders and original owners. Local tradition has it that a farmhouse stood there in the early 19th century when it was sold to a Jeffrey H. Champlin. The house's construction date is established by its cornerstone. In 1850, a map of Rhinebeck shows Champlin still owning the house.
In 1867, H. E. Welcher was listed as the owner. It is believed that he was responsible for the exterior renovations, a common trend in Rhinebeck at the time. Among the documented later owners was William Backhouse Astor Jr., father of John Jacob Astor IV.
William Backhouse Astor Jr. purchased the 110 acre parcel containing The Maples from Griffen Hoffman in 1889, adding it to the land holdings of his Ferncliff estate. His son John Jacob Astor IV inherited the estate, including The Maples, in 1892. In 1901 John Jacob Astor renovated The Maples according to plans drawn up by Ferncliff estate superintendent Herbert Pinkham, CE to convert the house into a motor lodge for fellow automobile enthusiasts travelling the Old Post Road between New York and Albany. The house was put at the disposal of John Jacob Astor IV's fellow members of the Automobile Club of America. Facilities on the ground floor included a large kitchen and laundry, three parlors, one bedroom, full bath, and two wings with bay windows on the north and south sides of the house containing a billiard room and a library. The second floor contained 8 more bedrooms and full bath for lodgers, and a second floor balcony above the front porch. In the attic a water tank was installed. These renovations are further documented by a photograph in the archives of the Museum of Rhinebeck History.
The property still appeared as part of the Astor's Ferncliff estate on a 1909 survey map. John Jacob Astor IV perished in the Titanic disaster in 1912 and his son William Vincent Astor inherited Ferncliff. In 1914, a small parcel containing The Maples house was sold off from the estate by Vincent Astor to W.H.B. Obre, and the owner was subsequently listed on surveys as Herbert Decker. For unknown reasons, sometime after John Jacob Astor IV's renovations to The Maples in 1901, the wings on the north and south end of the house and the second floor balcony were removed.
A circa 1833 Greek Revival building listed on National Register is located in Rhinebeck village.