{"nrhp_refnum":"93000699","name":"By-the-Harbor","other_names":["Prescott Hall Butler and Cornelia Smith Butler Estate"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Moriches Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Nissequogue","county":"Suffolk County","state":"NY","lat":40.891861841000036,"lon":-73.18063028534237,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1993-08-09","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Entertainment/Recreation","Architecture","Social History"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"By-the-Harbor is a 27-acre country estate on Moriches Road in Nissequogue, Suffolk County, New York, with a shingled house dating to about 1878, designed by Charles F. McKim for lawyer Prescott Hall Butler and his wife Cornelia Smith Butler. It includes a casino and entrance gates.","why_significant":"The nomination argues it was the first of the country houses built on Stony Brook Harbor between 1878 and 1930. It is also an early, precedent-setting example of what became known as the Shingle Style, and one of McKim's earliest projects. It marks the first of several Smith family projects that reshaped the harbor shoreline.","narrative":"By-the-Harbor is a 27-acre hilltop estate in Nissequogue, on Long Island, built around 1878 for lawyer Prescott Hall Butler and his wife Cornelia Smith Butler. Charles F. McKim, a friend of Butler since college, designed the long, narrow, shingled house, which is dominated by a large asymmetrical front gable and laid out along an east-west axis to take in views of Stony Brook Harbor. The nomination treats it as an early and influential example of the style later called Shingle Style, and as one of McKim's earliest commissions. It was also the first of the harbor country houses, built as the Smith family, heirs to the A.T. Stewart fortune, began transforming the shoreline. The listing includes the original iron entrance gates and a Colonial Revival casino designed by McKim, Mead and White in the 1890s, with a ballroom wing by Stanford White added in 1905. A recent fire caused losses, but the house retains its siting, scale and most of its design.","period_of_significance":"c1872-1905","architect_builder":"Charles F. McKim; Stanford White (McKim, Mead and White)","architectural_style":"Shingle Style","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"The house is in residential use. It retains relatively high integrity despite a recent fire that damaged some original materials and interior detailing, and the casino has recently been restored.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:51:50.86583-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/93000699.pdf"},"photo":null,"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75314991","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/By-the-Harbor","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5003751"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/suffolk-county/by-the-harbor-93000699/"}