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

Patrick Clark has spent the last 22 years bringing the house back to life, preserving it for its next century.

- By Wendy Goodman

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.”

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.

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.”