PENROSE STOUT Penrose Stout lived and did most of his work on Bronxville from 1919 until he died suddenly of a heart attack in 1934 at the age of 47. He was born in Montgomery, Alabama and graduated from Alabama Polytechnic Institute, now Auburn University in 1909 with a degree in architecture. He worked in Florida and New York before enlisting in the Air Corps in 1917. He saw service in France during World War I and was awarded a Distinguished Service Cross for bravery. Following his 1919 discharge, Stout moved to Bronxville to Crow's Nest, the home of his cousin Frank Chambers. In 1921 he married Lucia Meigs, granddaughter of William Lawrence. For a time Stout worked in New York for Harry Lindeberg, a prominent architect of country estates. His first commissions in Bronxville were from his wife's aunt, Anna Lawrence Bisland. Working for the Lawrence family, Stout began extensive renovations on the Manor House and gardens at 8 Prescott Avenue, the 1850s, Italianate-style home on Prescott Farm that Lawrence purchased and used originally as temporary living quarters for people whose homes were being built in the Park. Another house in the heart of the original Lawrence Park on which Stout made a major mark is at 29 Prescott Avenue, originally designed around 1894 by William Bates. In 1929 the interior was gutted and completely redesigned by Stout. Floors were added, rooms were rearranged, a new front entrance with stonework was built and a stone terrace was added. Exterior balconies on the second floor were removed to enlarge the bedrooms. It virtually became a new home. In 1924, Stout designed Merestone Terrace, eleven English-style townhouses within Lawrence Park on Prescott Avenue, opposite the driveway entrance to the Hotel Gramatan. Around this time Stout also designed, Park Avenue Terrace, a Mediterranean style residence community with straight walled exteriors and red tiled roofs. Two years later Stout substantially enlarged the Gate House at the foot of Valley Road, which since 1912 had been used to manage the Lawrence family businesses. And, sometime in the early 1930's Stout designed Meadow Gardens, a group of colonial style, seven room, three bath units. Stout went on to design many distinctive houses, including his own home on Midland Avenue near the Bronxville Women's Club, also his work. Perhaps the best Bronxville example of his work is the Germantown Colonial Style house he designed for Arthur and Virginia Lawrence in Lawrence Park West; it now belongs to Sarah Lawrence College and is known as Andrews House. <<Previous • Chapter List • Next>>