built in 1876, restored in 2018
In it’s 140+ year history Ferndale has only be owned by 3 other families, and we are luck enough to be in contact with two of them. They have shared so much with us about the lives that have lived here. Because of that, we are lucky to have a unique, detailed look into the past of the property and house itself. Here is what we know:
The first record of sale was from Edmund Salls, who bought the property—and the home on it—in 1862 from Charles Haight. According to a 1873 map of New Lebanon, Salls lived in a "frame house worth $100", which means Ferndale wasn’t the original house on the property. Edmund Salls then sold that home and it’s accompanying 29.5 acres on January 20, 1876 to Edward and Margaret Gallagher for $1,652. The Gallagher family lived nearby, but used the farm to feed their family: they had one horse, 2 pigs, 3 cows and 22 chickens. The town records show the current house built in 1905, presumably by Edward Gallagher. They called it Ferndale. Edward sold the property to his son Hugh for $10 in 1910. Hugh Gallagher was the head farmer at nearby Shaker village in Hancock, MA (they called him ‘Boss Farmer’), and famously fell in love with a Shaker girl (which was forbidden in the Shaker religion), and lived with her in this house.
In May 1921, Hugh Gallagher sold the property to Peter and Anna Neagoe. Peter was both a writer and a painter—who found himself in New Lebanon making illustrations for books for the Lebanon Shaker Society—most famously known for his book on the life of Brâncuși, The Saint of Montparnasse. He also published a book on American expats living in Paris in the 20s, titled Americans Abroad, with writings and works on everyone from Henry Miller to Ernest Hemmingway. Other books included Winning a Wife, There is My Heart, and What is Surrealism, most of which we’ve tracked down first editions of. Anna was a celebrated abstract expressionist painter who studied at Cooper Union, showed alongside De Kooning, and whose work is in permanent collections both at MoMA and Brooklyn Museum. Fun fact: we found one of her oil brushes in the basement.
They used the house as a summer retreat for writing and painting, until they sold the property to an Estella T. Weeks in the 1930s. According to the local paper, Estella planted all the evergreens in front of the house, and was also living in town writing a book on the Lebanon Shakers. She only owned it briefly, and eventually the Neagoes got it back through court order in 1935 for $1.
In 1938, the Neagoes sold the property to Joseph Vital and Elizabeth DePorte. Their son Michael, was also an accomplished writer and artist, most notably known for 1974’s Nightmares and Hobbyhorses. Michael’s daughter, Rebecca Deporte, sold it to us on June 1, 2014. She left us copies of her grandmother's notebook, which amazingly had a full account of every renovation, tree planted, and big event on the property from 1935 until she died in the late 1990s.
Archie and Emily Coates purchased the house in the winter of 2014 and the rest is history.
Present day: 2014-2018
When we bought Ferndale in 2014, we had no idea what lay in store for us. Touch up a few walls, maybe some new cabinets? In the end, we restored the entire house (because we’re crazy). To learn more about what we did, view the renovation details, and see some ‘before’ photos below.
