Choate House (New York)

There is a Choate House in Massachusetts, formerly owned by the same Choate family.

Choate House was built in 1867 by shoe manufacturer Samuel Baker in what is now Pleasantville, New York. It later became the residence of Dr. George C.S. Choate. Choate added a wing as a private sanitarium to accommodate patients being treated for mental and nervous disorders. Horace Greeley died in Choate house on November 29, 1872.

After the death of Dr. Choate in 1896 and the closure of the sanitarium ten years later, Dr. Choate's widow had the wing built by her husband moved down the hill to its present location closer to Bedford Road. Her intention was to occupy the house while turning over her original home to her newly married son as a wedding gift. The job of detaching and moving the wing from the original home began on New Year’s Day 1909 and took six or seven months. The building was pulled on logs by teams of horses, inched along past the pond, avoiding the old trees which Mrs. Choate, who wanted to preserve the natural landscape, did not want disturbed.

Mrs. Choate lived in the wing at its new location until her death, aged 95, in 1926. Over the years it had three more private owners; banker Dunham B. Scherer; advertising executive Lewis H. Titterton, and eventually Wayne C. Marks an alumnus and trustee of Pace College, now known as Pace University.

In 1962, Mr. Marks presented his alma mater with an extraordinary gift of giving his estate to Pace, which led to the first property that Pace purchased to expand in Westchester County, New York.^{[clarification needed]} This house today is known as "Marks Hall", the wing that was separated from Choate House.

Eventually, the original house (Choate House) also became part of the campus. In order for Pace to buy and use the land, an agreement was made with the Choate family to maintain the house in its original state and retain its original pink color. To this day, if one passes the Taconic Parkway toward the Pleasantville exit, one can see the pink house known as Choate House.

Choate House today houses the campus office of the president of Pace University, as well as one of the University's art galleries and offices of the University's Dyson College of Arts & Sciences.

External Links

• [1] Choate House today.
• [2] Marks Hall today

† American School & University magazine's Educational Interiors Showcase named Marks Hall as outstanding interior renovation.

References

http://webpage.pace.edu/mweigold/pleasantville.html

Coordinates: 41°07′43″N 73°48′34″W / 41.12861°N 73.80944°W / 41.12861; -73.80944