An 1880 Artist’s Cottage in the Rockaways That Feels Like a Ship

The Great Room: “The daybed and all the woodwork upstairs is original and built in,” Clark says, speculating that the house was made by a shipbuilder. He found artist Richard Mott’s portfolio inside the drawers when he moved in, untouched. The wall panels feature Mott’s original paintings. Photo: Annie Schlechter

The house sits on one of the lowest elevations in the Rockaways,” says Patrick Clark, who bought the 19th-century shingled cottage in 1998. He soon realized, among other things, that it had to be raised in order to avoid being flooded every month with the new moon, which sends about 16 inches of water from the bay across the street.

The artist’s cottage.

Clark is a stained-glass artisan, and he has scrupulously restored and preserved the house, which bears a discreet plaque on one side that reads THE RICHARD MOTT HOUSE C. 1880 A HISTORIC ARTIST’S COTTAGE IN THE BOROUGH OF QUEENS, NEW YORK CITY. Inside, it feels like you’re in a 19th-century seafaring vessel.

The previous owner had been something of a hoarder, and the house was a wreck when he bought it. The wood on the ground floor was completely gone, and only cracked concrete slabs remained. “I had to open the walls, cut out rotted studs, and laminate/sandwich studs with new support studs,” he says. Since the ceiling was so low on the first floor, “I decided to add ten inches to its height.”

Clark not only repaired the interior damage but also raised the building eight feet off the ground in 2001, shoring up a new foundation and then raising the lot’s ground level three feet. “It took 30 semi-truckloads of dirt fill to get the yard up out of the high-tide water,” Clark says. The complex renovation went on for years, all done with the help of his meticulous stained-glass crew.

The Stove: Owner Patrick Clark restored this cottage, once owned by the artist Richard Mott, in part by using pieces from Mott’s other house, circa 1860, also in the Rockaways, which was demolished. “I made a new hearth under the coal stove with blue tiles I had salvaged from the Mott Mansion. I also got matching white tiles there to repair the white porcelain tiles behind the stove.” Photo: Annie Schlechter

The Closets: His restoration of the house included raising the ceiling of this room ten inches, which explains the gap between the floor and the bottom of the doors. Photo: Annie Schlechter

Clark’s father, a nuclear engineer who worked on the Manhattan Project, was stationed in Vienna in 1968. This had a great influence on his son, who roamed the Austrian countryside with his friends, exploring abandoned mansions with stained-glass windows and other neglected treasures.

In time, Clark learned the art of making stained glass. By 1986, he was in New York, creating and repairing stained-glass windows for clients — including St. Patrick’s Cathedral. The brother of one client first introduced Clark to this house and to its owner, whom he would visit on a regular basis. Then, in 1998, circumstances conspired to enable him to buy the property that he says he felt “had been waiting for me.”

The Entrance: Because of flood damage, “all the ground-floor coverings were long gone,” says Clark. The downstairs floors are new and made from “hundred-year-old pine salvaged from villas in Italy by Amighini Architectural in Jersey City that I bought in 2005 and installed by hand.” The stair is original. Clark’s dog, Cooper, has the run of the house. Photo: Annie Schlechter

The entrance hall opens to the original stair, and a small room with the original coal-burning stove is off to one side. The dining room beyond is furnished with a large table Clark made from turn-of-the-last-century oak pews from Holy Name of Jesus Church’s lower chapel, on Amsterdam and 96th Street, where he worked restoring the stained-glass windows in 1998. The medieval-looking chairs are reincarnated designs Clark made from the circa-1914 oak pews of St. Jean Baptiste Church at Lexington and 76th Street, from which he salvaged the full-length pews when the altar area was expanded.

Mott actually lived elsewhere, in an 1850s mansion on 25th Street in Bayswater, Queens, but it, like “many other great historic homes in the area, has been demolished in the last 20 years for new crap construction,” Clark says. Which makes his restored cottage among the only historic houses left.

The Dining Room: Clark made the dining table and chairs from salvaged oak pews, sourced from two different Manhattan churches. Photo: Annie Schlechter

The Stained Glass: “The round medallion of flowers was the panel that led me to learn stained glass right after college so I could repair it.” Clark says of this remnant he found in 1968 when his family lived in Vienna and he would go exploring the abandoned villas in the countryside with his friends. Photo: Annie Schlechter

The Bedroom: “I made no changes in the bedroom except painting,” Clark says. The built-in furniture — bed, dressers, and end tables — is all original, as is the stained-glass skylight. Photo: Annie Schlechter

The Breakfast Room: “The table and bar stools are made from reclaimed 19th century rustic antique ox yoke and wagon wheel hubs from Mexico,” Clark says. “The tabletop is a solid wood wheel that had a steel band wrap around at one time. I bought the set from a catalogue around 2006 and had them shipped up.” Photo: Annie Schlechter

The Window Seat: Clark found this photograph of three young women in the same drawer he found original sketches of artist Richard Mott. They are pictured in the photograph in the exact same spot their photograph sits on the window seat, which is still the same as it was then. Photo: Annie Schlechter

*A version of this article appears in the December 7, 2020, issue of New York Magazine. Subscribe Now!