{"nrhp_refnum":"99001682","name":"Dove, Arthur-Torr, Helen, Cottage","other_names":["Benham House"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"30 Centershore Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Centerport","county":"Suffolk County","state":"NY","lat":40.88794272700005,"lon":-73.37210259499994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2000-01-28","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Art","Commerce","Politics/Government"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A modest one-story, gable-roofed wood-frame cottage at 30 Centershore Road in Centerport, Suffolk County, New York, built about 1880 beside a tidal mill pond, originally as a general store and post office.","why_significant":"It is significant as the home of pioneer American abstract painter Arthur G. Dove from 1938 until his death in 1946, a period when his surroundings inspired much of his late work. It is also significant as an example of late 19th-century commercial life in sparsely settled Centerport, where it served as the Benham general store and post office.","narrative":"Beside a tidal mill pond on Centershore Road in Centerport, Long Island, this small one-story wood cottage was built around 1880. It first served the community as the Benham general store and, for part of the 1880s and 1890s, as the village post office, with William Benham serving as postmaster at times. In 1938 the painter Arthur Dove and his wife, the artist Helen Torr, bought it from Captain John Benham. Dove, a pioneer of American abstraction, lived there until his death in 1946. Poor health limited his travel, and he drew inspiration from the cottage, its willows, the pond, the nearby inn, roads and weather, producing a productive late phase of work. After a hurricane flooded the cottage in 1938, the couple raised the floor a foot and enclosed the east porch. Later changes include removal of cement-asbestos siding and alterations around 1994. The property is recognized for its commercial history and its close link to Dove's art.","period_of_significance":"c1880-1946","architect_builder":"Built by local resident William Benham (per the form; construction date and original owner not yet confirmed)","architectural_style":"Late Victorian","criteria":["A","B"],"status_note":"Survives relatively intact from the Dove/Torr period; currently used as a single dwelling, with interior alterations from about 1994.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:51:50.972101-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/99001682.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/99001682/12756589d7-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/99001682/12756589d7-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"DanTD","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Arthur_Dove-Helen_Torr_Cottage.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">DanTD</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Arthur_Dove-Helen_Torr_Cottage.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75322090","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q137302103"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/suffolk-county/dove-arthur-torr-helen-cottage-99001682/"}