SCOUTING
FIELD NOTES

The Saddest House In New York City

07/02/2012

This is the story of a little house in Queens that broke my heart.

A few years ago, I was working on a movie that sent me to Richmond Hill, Queens, to find a beautiful, one-of-a-kind house. If you’ve never visited, Richmond Hill has a number of gorgeous turn-of-the-century Victorians…

…and in fact, chances are you’ve seen at least one or two Richmond Hill houses before in a film or TV show. Productions are always in the neighborhood for this rare look that’s tough to find:

For this particular film, we were looking for something a bit smaller, and it didn’t take long before I stumbled on this gem, built in 1905.

The exterior was gorgeous, and looked to be in pristine condition…

…and I especially loved the two upper floors, with their wonderful ornamentation and two oval windows. It turned out the house was for sale, and I quickly made an appointment for a tour.

As we were walking around the interior, I was equally impressed by the quality and personal touch in each room. It was clear that whoever used to live here cherished this house.

Out of curiosity, I asked what the house’s background was, and was told that its former owner, Nancy Cataldi, a local preservationist, had recently passed away. And suddenly, it all made sense.

Nancy was a major advocate for historical preservation in Richmond Hill, and had worked tirelessly to preserve the neighborhood she called home. She served as the president of the Richmond Hill Historical Society for nearly a decade, and is a major reason why so much beauty can still be found in Richmond Hill today. In fact, the street we were on was given the co-name “Nancy Cataldi Way” following her death.

As we were walking around looking at what remained of her possessions, I suddenly got a very sad feeling in the pit of my stomach. Nancy was gone, but her soul was all around us – in the worn floorboards, the antique furniture, the intricate wallpaper…But it was like I could feel that soul fading.

Ultimately, we didn’t film in the house due to rewrites moving the characters into a Manhattan apartment. Still, I never forgot the place, and when I was asked to find a house a few weeks ago, I immediately headed out to Richmond Hill to see if it might still be an option.

But as I drove by, something was wrong…

Maybe I didn’t have the correct address? I pulled over and double-checked my notes.

And then I realized:

I was at the right address.

Despite all her efforts and the endless amounts of preservation work she did in Richmond Hill, Nancy was never able to get her own street protected; the Landmarks Preservation Commission rejected her proposal in 2001.

According to this 2010 Daily News article, the new homeowners claim they were forced to renovate due to an invasion of carpenter ants.

You know what? Words are kind of failing me, so I’ll just let my pictures speak for themselves.

We ALL benefit from people like Nancy Cataldi long after they pass, and while it’s cute to name streets after preservationists, it’s a lot more important to carry on their legacy. Hopefully, this is a reminder of that.

Rest in peace, Nancy.

-SCOUT

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Chris P.

08/20/2012

What a shame. If the new owners did not like the house ,why buy it in the first place.I’am sure it was not the only house in the neighborhood for sale. But I’am pretty sure it was the only one of its impresive stature.

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Jackson

08/25/2012

Couldn’t they just simply preserve the outside ? The most I would have ever changed about that house is maybe the paint other wise that house is a masterpiece. It’s sad people don’t know houses in NYC exsist

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Marjorie Wilson

08/31/2012

Look in Glen Ridge, NJ. It hangs on the Manhattan side of Montclair. It’s mostly in the National Preservation Registry. You will only find the BEFORE never the AFTER. Many shoots are done there.

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Maria

08/31/2012

I gasped when I saw what had happened to this house…….. what a desecration of her memory & fight…. The owners are liars & obviously have no taste what so ever……. TACKY! Im gutted & kind of at odds with why Nancy did not take to preserving her house as a landmark?

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Elliot

09/19/2012

“Old buildings are not ours. They belong, partly to those who built them, and partly to the generations of mankind who are to follow us.
The dead still have their right in them: That which they labored for … we have no right to obliterate.
What we ourselves have built, we are at liberty to throw down. But what other men gave their strength, and wealth, and life to accomplish, their right over it does not pass away with their death…”

John Ruskin 1849

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Brandon

02/11/2013

What a fucking tragedy. Tasteless fools with no respect for history and heritage destroying a beautiful property. Absolutely tragic.

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Shoteka

03/07/2013

This is such a beautiful Neighborhood,I wish someone could just stop builders from destroying the character of the neighborhood.

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PCL

03/20/2013

The ironic thing here is that in its day, I’m sure that house had its share of critics, but seeing it as a frozen historical artifact makes its garish, “wedding cake” appearance more endearing than degrading. Unfortunately, the new owners had to wreck that aesthetic truce with this all-to-colorful new infusion of bad taste. Also ironic is that this is no worse (actually a lot better) than the average vinyl-siding job houses like this get every day (the house behind it is a good, eh, I mean BAD example!), though such jobs call less attention to themselves. The brick veneer would actually be bearable if it weren’t for all the detail it obliterated, as would the second floor stucco (I hope it’s more than just foam, but it’s probably not) if it were a bit less busy. But the details here are full of devils: the stupid fake-palladian windows, corners of generic rectangular windows tucked under arched frames, trim that looks too much like cladding and the awkwardly-shallow pitched roof of the canopy. Hopefully, sometime in the future, some owner will at least attempt the tone down this ornamental circus and restore a little dignity to the place.

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Chip

06/05/2013

Kimberly, out of the chute, has it right. I’ll add that the renovation could have been way worse and surmise that when the house was originally built, there were plenty of complainers about it’s “special” look. Government out of my bedroom, living room, kitchen, dining room, porch, stoop…

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Justin

06/14/2013

On the bright side, at least they just slapped some brick veneer on the sides instead of tearing it down. It can still be restored by a future owner.

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Patrick

09/25/2013

It IS Staten Island after all…it looks like a giant crypt. I would sell immediately if I lived next door to that monstrosity (and I can’t imagine the people who inhabit it – I would just want to slap them across the face every morning). I can’t imagine what the inside is like. It reminds me of what happened in Jamaica Estates to a lot of the lovely old tudors – it looks like a page out of the Saddam Hussein line of Persian McMansions. Total disaster. Sigh.

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Helen

10/23/2013

Checking in again because yet another movie crew is in Richmond Hill filming this week…Just want to set the record straight, guys. Richmond Hill is in QUEENS NY. Not Staten Island. And yes, it still needs historic district and/or landmarks protection!

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Christine

10/30/2013

This breaks my heart. I was friends with Nancy. She told me that she wanted her home to become the museum for Richmond Hill. I can not believe that her family let this happen when they knew she wanted her home to become a museum and to be preserved. She put many years of her life into this home and spent so much to restore it. She found original leather Victorian wallpaper for the home. She adorned it with most beautiful and unique antiques and pop art. It was gorgeous in that house. The energy was inviting and warm and cozy and homey. I promise you, if I come into significant money, I will buy this house back and restore it as closely as possible to its original glory and make sure it becomes the museum she wanted it to be. Historical homes like this should have protection like they get here in Canada. I have a difficult time believing that she never wrote any kind of will considering she worked at the cemetery in archives and was so invested in preservation and vocalized her dreams to me for how she wanted her ashes sprinkled where her mother’s ashes were spread on water in Italy. She died on this day in 2008 and so I always look online for things to share about her memory. I gave her gifts and she gave me gifts which are now special keepsakes but while this house was something material, there are still so many principles which were ignored in the name of greed. Why didn’t her family at least sell it on the stipulation that the buyer preserve the historical value??? That would have been the dignified and honourable thing to do here. Such a tragedy. I believe she is now an angel watching over me. And I also believe in karma. I miss Nancy and I can assure you, she would be livid at this shameful outcome. And for those who think it’s fine and a new owner can do what they want…. at least do it with taste. All sentiment aside, this new facade is hideous and I’m frightened to imagine how horrid the interior has become. I know they kicked the stained glass windows to the curb. No taste…

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Christine

10/30/2013

I will add. I went for a walk with Nancy in her neighbourhood in ’07 and she was repulsed by this very style of nightmare architecture destroying homes in the neighbourhood like a creepy parasite. She loathed the statues and thick cheesy pillars and yucky gates, tacky steps, poorly thought facades… I can not believe that her house became what she despised and was fighting against. This is such a huge slap in the face to Nancy. It’s like the people who sold her home spat on her. WHY???????????

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Gavin Lang

10/31/2013

I’m speechless! Why not just buy some new piece of shit instead of turning something nice into one? Obviously money can’t buy brains.

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Gavin Lang

10/31/2013

And to follow up on my last comment. Burn it. Build a park instead. That wont lower peoples property values.

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zincink

01/06/2014

Points & laughs at the eagles. I thought it was turned into a dentist’s office before I read it was a home. That porch is like a concrete eyesore. Good grief!

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Sergio Del Pino

04/13/2014

This is typical of the taste level of this particular ethnic group that is moving into these old neighborhoods. But they are not alone, just ride up and down any block in Astoria Queens or Bay Side and see what these people has done to these old neighborhoods. This style of bad taste doesn’t belong exclusively to any particular ethnic group. It just seems that this kind of taste, just belongs to the newly found middle class, who move to these old neighborhoods and put in their style of what they think good taste is. Remember Elvis Presley “mansion” in Tennessee, that was an extravagant, over the top, gaudy palace, he so obviously thought was beautiful. It’s people from lower classes, that once they finally make it to a higher class, haven’t a clue to what good taste is. So they spend all their money on the cr-p they sell in all those “going out of business” store you see in mid town Manhattan. Gaudy, ostentatious. over the top opulence that the middle class thinks is what being rich is all about. Just look at all the cr-p in Michael Jacksons home, it looks like he bought out the contentment of one of these stores to decorate his never land range. Like they say….money doesn’t buy taste!

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Meghan Quigley

04/21/2014

That is a freaking TRAVESTY.

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Lisa

06/17/2014

I just came across this and am literally sitting here with my mouth wide open! That was a waaay unexpected twist in the story. A crappy twist. I have a soft spot in my heart for restored historical properties and this one *was* beautiful. Holy heartbreaking.

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