file photo of a beautiful Ridgewood home
Historic homes highlighted during Ridgewood walking tour
THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 27, 2012, 4:15 PM
BY LAURA HERZOG
STAFF WRITER
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
If the walls of Ridgewood’s historic homes could talk, historian Elliot Dee has a pretty good idea of what they would say.
The George Pease House on West Ridgewood Avenue, built in 1869 in the gothic revival style.
Some might say that Dee, who moved to the village a year and a half ago, is something of an “architecture whisperer.”
From looking at the varying architecture of Ridgewood’s oldest homes, Dee can tell the story of how the village transitioned from a small Dutch settlement to a country retreat, then a primary residence, of some of New York City’s most affluent businesspeople.
He can also tell what the architectural style of some of Ridgewood’s oldest homes says about their owners – including the great nephew of former New York Governor DeWitt Clinton and Milton Lightner, the past president of Singer Sewing Machine Company whose house once hosted his wife’s college peer, former First Lady of the Republic of China Madame Chiang Kai-shek.
