Alice Austen House

The Alice Austen House, also known as Clear Comfort, is located at 2 Hylan Boulevard in the Rosebank section of Staten Island, New York City, New York.[5] It was home of Alice Austen, a photographer, for most of her lifetime, and is now a museum and a member of the Historic House Trust.[6]

Elizabeth Alice Austen House –
Clear Comfort[1]
Location2 Hylan Boulevard
Staten Island
New York City, New York
Coordinates40°36′53.7″N 74°3′49″W
Built1690[2]
Architectural styleDutch Colonial, later Gothic Revival[3]
NRHP reference No.70000925
Significant dates
Added to NRHPJuly 28, 1970[2]
Designated NHLApril 19, 1993[4]
Designated NYCLAugust 2, 1967

Home
View of the house from the beach
View over New York Bay

Clear Comfort, now a National Historic Landmark, was purchased in 1844 by Alice Austen’s grandfather, John Haggerty Austen, a well-to-do businessman, whose wife gave the house its name. Located at the entrance to New York Harbor, Clear Comfort stands today as a reminder of the picturesque suburban “cottages” that dotted the shore and hills of 19th-century Staten Island.

John Austen’s original purchase encompassed an 18th-century farmhouse in a serious state of disrepair on a half-acre lot. Two subsequent purchases increased the grounds to approximately one acre. The tumbledown farmhouse had originally been a one-room structure. Built in the 1690s, it included what became the middle parlor and entry hall. About 1725, the room that became the present parlor was added, and at mid-century, the dining room/kitchen wing was constructed. Over a period of 25 years John Austen undertook an extensive restoration and renovation of the house and its surroundings. He transformed the original structure into a Carpenter Gothic cottage set on carefully landscaped grounds.

John Austen’s original intent was to use Clear Comfort as a summer home, but in 1852, following the illnesses and deaths of two infant sons, Austen moved his family from Manhattan to permanent residency on Staten Island. In the late 1860s, Clear Comfort’s most famous resident, Alice Austen (1866-1952), and her mother, Alice Cornell Austen, also moved into the family home after they had been abandoned by Alice’s father. The other members of the household included the younger Alice’s maternal grandparents, John and Elizabeth Austen; her mother’s younger siblings, Peter and Mary (often called Aunt Minn); and Aunt Minn’s husband, Oswald Muller.

John Austen’s architectural transformation of his home from a simple 18th-century Dutch farmhouse into a Victorian Gothic cottage was extensive. On the roof, he added dormer windows embellished with Victorian bargeboards and birdhouse finials. Decorative cresting and octagonal chimney pots added to the picturesque silhouette. Austen created the covered porch (or piazza as it was called in the 19th century) by extending the eaves with a flare at the bottom, enhanced by a scalloped valance. Full-length windows, flanked by louvered shutters, provided direct access to the front rooms. The piazza was well shaded by five varieties of vines, including Japanese wisteria, that romantically graced the house in the 19th-century ideal. Photographs show that the piazza functioned as an outdoor room where Alice and other family members would read, watch passing ships through Grandpa’s telescope, or visit with friends and play the banjo on warm spring and summer nights.

[2]

Museum

In the 1960s, realizing the likelihood that high-rise apartment buildings might replace Clear Comfort, a group of concerned citizens mounted a serious effort to save the house and grounds. Hearings on the status of the Austen house were begun, local and city-wide government officials were contacted, and an all-out effort was made to raise funds for the restoration of house and grounds. The sum of $1,050,000 was obtained from the City’s capital budget. Restoration was begun in January 1984 and completed in April 1985. Because of its historic significance, the Alice Austen House was included in the National Register of Historic Places in 1970, and was designated a New York City Landmark in 1971, and a National Historic Landmark in 1993.

Alice’s own photographs of the interior and exterior of the house and grounds made an exact restoration possible-from the rustic post gate to the 1879 Statue of Liberty on the parlor mantelpiece (given by the American Committee for contributing to construction costs of the statue’s base).

The Friends of Alice Austen House, Inc, begun in the 1960s and incorporated in 1979, continue to promote Clear Comfort and the accomplishments of Alice Austen. In agreement with the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, they operate the house and garden as an historic house museum and continue the restoration.

Opened in May, 2019, the exhibition “New Eyes on Alice Austen” represents a multi-year project to update the presentation of Austen’s core story. Incorporating current scholarship, the re-envisioned permanent installation comprehensively demonstrates Austen’s contributions to photographic, immigration, women’s, and LGBTQ history. The installation fully and truthfully interprets Austen’s life and work for visitors, students and scholars to understand and access. Significantly, the new permanent exhibition places her long and loving relationship with Gertrude Tate in its proper context, highlighting the 2017 designation of the house as a national site of LGBTQ significance.

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See also

References
  1. National Park Service (March 31, 2017), Weekly List of Actions Taken on Properties: 3/20/2017 through 3/24/2017, archived from the original on April 4, 2017, retrieved April 4, 2017. The house was originally entered on the National Register as the "Elizabeth Alice Austen House". Its National Historic Landmark designation uses the name "Alice Austen House". Its National Register listing name was subsequently updated to "Elizabeth Alice Austen House – Clear Comfort" in 2017.
  2. "Alice Austen House Museum and Park". Statenislandusa.com. Archived from the original on 2008-08-03. Retrieved 2008-08-05. The Alice Austen House was built in 1690. In 1844 it was purchased by John Haggerty Austen, Alice Austen's grandfather, a well-to-do businessman, whose wife gave the house the name Clear Comfort. ... Restoration was begun in January 1984 and completed in April 1985. Because of its historic significance, the Alice Austen House was included in the National Register of Historic Places in 1970, was designated a New York City Landmark in 1971, and a National Historic Landmark in 1993.
  3. Dolkart, Andrew S. & Postal, Matthew A.; Guide to New York City Landmarks, 3rd Edition; New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission; John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2004. ISBN 0-471-36900-4; p.342.
  4. "Alice Austen House". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. 2007-09-14. Archived from the original on 2007-12-14. Retrieved 2008-08-06. For 78 years, this was the home Elizabeth Alice Austen (1866-1952), a remarkable photographer whose work predates in subject matter and technique the photographs of other giants in the field. Austen began her career in the 1870s, and, although she used subjects as other women photographers of her time, her pictures have a realistic and natural edge rather than the blurry romantic view advocated by magazines of the time. Austen also veered away from the conventional studio poses; instead she took pictures of people during the course of their normal activities.
  5. Wilson, Claire. "Living In Rosebank, Staten Island: A Quiet Slice of New York Waterfront", The New York Times, March 12, 2006. Accessed November 3, 2007. "In July, the same group holds a picnic and concert with an 18-piece band on the grounds of Clear Comfort, the former home, now a museum, of Alice Austen, a native Staten Islander who was a pioneering female photographer."
  6. "Alice Austen House". Places Where Women Made History. National Park Service. 2007-01-23. For 78 years, this was the home Elizabeth Alice Austen (1866-1952), a remarkable photographer whose work predates in subject matter and technique the photographs of other giants in the field.
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