The Elliott House, 69 Delafield Place, was built
by Dr. Samuel Mackensie Elliott, 1811-1875, a prominent eye surgeon, in 1840 in
the Livingston section of Staten Island. It is in the early Gothic Revival
sytle of architecture.
His eye clients included General Winfield Scott,
naturalist John J. Audabon, the actress Charlotte Cushman, and poets N.P.
Willis and H.W.Longfellow.
Born in Scotland and commissioned a Brigadier
General by Abraham Lincoln for his efforts in raising troops during the Civil
War.
His Obituary is the second listed in this
article.
We spoke to a lady having a yard sale and who
lived next to this building some years back. She gave us a skinny on the house.
What appears to be the second story is actually
the attic and or servant’s quarters.
The first floor was the original second story of
the structure.
The basement was the first story.
Around 1895, the county started to grade the land
to a certain level in order to build modern streets with sewers and water pipes
etc.
Also of note, there were no windows on the sides
of then first and second stories.
The doctor had a phobia about air traveling from
east to west or some such non-scientific reasons.
Of course a story about a tunnel in the original
basement and going out to the river was included and was supposedly used in the
underground railroad to free slaves before the Civil War. Tunnels on these old
properties when they faced a river were usually the way you got rid of your
trash during high tide.
Sounds like a
bigger than life nineteenth century character who built a lot of Gothic spec
houses now gone in his one time point on the map Elliottville around this
house.
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