The Pumpkin House

Differing accounts exist of the origin of this unique three-story brick townhouse, known as the Pumpkin House. The AIA Guide to New York City (3rd ed., p.466) states that it was the guest house of the former Paterno estate. However, according to a New York Times report (12/5/99 Real Estate p.7), the land on which this house stands was in the estate of James Gordon Bennett, the original publisher of the NY Herald. Bennett is said to have sold the tract in 1923 to a Cleveland Walcutt, who had the house designed by Franklin Pagan and Harold Verna. Construction on the house, its the steel-framed base cantilevered far over the Henry Hudson Parkway, finished in 1925.
The windows of the west façade, reflecting the orange light of the setting sun, bring to mind a jack-o-lantern. The house offers breathtaking views, from the Manhattan skyline to the south, across the Hudson RIver to the Palisades to the west and the Tappan Zee Bridge to the north.