BILLIOU STILLWELL PERINE HOUSE
1476 Richmond Road
1679; additions 1700, 1750, 1790, 1830
This picturesque one-and-one-half-story farmhouse is an interesting example of a late-17th-century rough-cut fieldstone structure, combined with later stone and frame additions built around 1750, 1790, and 1830, respectively.
The oldest wing has a steep medieval-style roof, with a massive Dutch fireplace and a chimney head supported on two wooden posts. It is located to the rear portion of the farmhouse, while later additions were built closer to the road. The two stone structures are built of undressed fieldstone, known as “Dutch construction”. The original house had eight rooms on the first floor and seven on the second floor, with a panelled fireplace.
It was built by Captain Thomas Stillwell, a prominent Staten Island citizen, who was granted the property in 1677. He passed it on to his son-in-law Nicholas Britton, who kept it in his family until 1915, when it was sold to the Antiquarian Society, now the Staten Island Historical Society. The organization furnished the house and opened it to the public.