(2008)
The little outbuilding on the front lawn is the main event here: a neo-Classical folly that was a garage until 1977 when the ornamentation was added and it was converted to a cottage. The property was owned until 1944 by the artist Nancy Ferguson (1869-1967). It was purchased by Fredric “Fritz” Varady (1908-2002), an artist and magazine illustrator, who brought a smart-set 1950s style to Norman Rockwell-like vignettes. Sylvia Tarvers Weston remembered this about the Varady family: “They parked their Studebaker convertible in that garage and walked all the way up the driveway to the stairs that took them to the tree tops.” It’s been owned by the O’Hara family since 1968.
¶ Last updated on 3 February 2012.
John O’Hara wrote on 3 February 2012: This property including the main house has been owned by the O’Hara family since 1968. The little outbuilding in front was a garage until 1977 when the ornamentation was added and it was converted to a “cottage.”
I actually did not know the Varadys owned that property. I thought they were summer rentals. They parked their Studebaker convertible in that garage and walked all the way up the driveway to the stairs that took them to the tree tops.
Thank you, David, for that bit of information. You do such a fine job. It is wonderful.