{"nrhp_refnum":"12000982","name":"Perry, Stuart and William Swezey Houses","other_names":["Riverview","The Three Islands","Green Tea Cup Inn","Villa Newlife"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"7541 & 7551 Main St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Newport","county":"Herkimer County","state":"NY","lat":43.19245263700003,"lon":-75.01877830699993,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2012-11-28","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Commerce","Invention","Community Planning and Development"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Two adjacent limestone Italian villa houses at 7541 and 7551 Main Street in Newport, Herkimer County, New York, on the east bank of West Canada Creek. They were built in the later 1840s to plans by New York City architect Alexander Jackson Davis.","why_significant":"The houses are presented as a well-preserved pair of mid-19th-century Italian villas designed contemporaneously by a major antebellum architect, A.J. Davis. Their related design, plan and finish let each be interpreted as originally built, and they retain original interior features such as curving skylit staircases. They are argued to be a noteworthy example of mid-19th-century domestic architecture in the Mohawk Valley.","narrative":"Two limestone villas stand side by side on Main Street in Newport, Herkimer County, overlooking West Canada Creek. Built in the later 1840s for Stuart Perry and William Swezey, they follow plans by New York City architect Alexander Jackson Davis. Each combines gable and hipped-roof blocks with a three-story entrance tower, broad bracketed eaves, bay windows and porches. Walls are rough-hewn local limestone laid in random ashlar. Inside, asymmetrical plans centre on a stair hall with an elegant curving staircase lit by a skylight, along with plaster cornices, marble mantels and original paneled shutters. The Swezey house is slightly larger, with an extra hipped-roof block. Because the two were built together and closely resemble each other, changes to one can be understood by studying the other. Both later served as restaurants, and some lost porch details have been restored. The houses retain a high degree of integrity and are valued as a notable pair of mid-nineteenth-century villas by a leading architect of the period.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Alexander Jackson Davis (architect)","architectural_style":"Mid-19th Century: Italian Villa","criteria":[],"status_note":"Both houses are described as single dwellings; the Perry and Swezey houses were operated as restaurants in the 1920s, and a small limestone building behind the Swezey house is now used as a guest house.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:50:48.205885-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/12000982.pdf"},"photo":null,"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75318176","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuart_Perry_and_William_Swezey_Houses","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q23091995"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/herkimer-county/perry-stuart-and-william-swezey-houses-12000982/"}