Henry M. Peck House
HAVERSTRAW, N.Y.



February 18, 2002

    The abandoned Peck mansion in Haverstraw looked the part of the iconic Bates-House haunted mansion. Its S-curved mansard roof and gabled dormer windows were highlighted as features making the house a significant local example of the French Second Empire style of architecture. For that it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in November of 2000. The house was built at the end of the Civil War, when the village was known as Warren.

    The adjacent hospital acquired the mansion in the 1930s, but after serving as a Superintendent's home it was abandoned in the 1970s. The building was boarded up in a professional manner, with air vents allowing the building to "breathe" to stave off decay. Although long-vacant, Helen Hayes Hospital recognized the adaptive-reuse potential for the house and was moving forwards with plans for its restoration. On the afternoon of July3, 2002, the Henry M. Peck house burned to the ground. The cause was believed to have been children playing with fireworks behind the house.


LINK
Preservation Online - Fire Destroys N.Y. Mansion, July 10, 2002.