Few domestic building types have experienced as much popularity and longevity in America as the picturesque cottage, a simple, small, inexpensive dwelling type that was developed during the mid-19th centvry. Intended for rural locations, cottage architecture is seldom found in urban areas, and the H.F. Spaulding coachman’s house at 4970 Independence Avenue in Riverdale, the Bronx, is one of only a few of the type known to exist in New York City. Its location, Riverdale, however, is not unexpected, as it was built in 1880 when the area was a private community of country estates. The Spaulding cottage also reflects the development in the 1870s of Stick Style architecture, which used crossed exterior sticks and brackets to express the underlying wood construction.
