William Maris: Cintra

Hot on the history trail of William Maris's mill on North Sugan Road in New Hope (it's for sale!), I learned about another Maris enormity, referred to as "Cintra."

I poked around and found this 1917 article from The American Magazine of Art. Check it out:

The American Magazine of Art, June 1917 (PDF)

I also realized that "Cintra" is the building on 202 where Joseph Stanley had his "English Antiques" business for many years. Remember the faded wooden sign that hung out front?

A lot of Stanley's possessions were sold last year at an auction in Lambertville.

From Rago's auction website:

In the mid 1980s, Joseph Stanley, a noted New Hope, PA antique dealer, closed his shop. The mansion known as Cintra, where he lived and worked, was shuttered to the public, though its expansive rooms,twelve foot high walls and parquet floors were still fitted out with centuries of art, antiques and rugs. In earliertimes, he and his partner had hosted many parties there, traveled widely on buying trips and guided antiques toursin England. Now the sign on York Road reads “Closed”. Mr. Stanley lived quite privately there until his death in late 2008. The rooms of his living quarters and shop remained filled, the last shipments still in crates. All of the property from Cintra will auction at Rago’s over the course of 2009.

The mansion known as Cintra was built by William Maris, who arrived in New Hope soon after the War of 1812. He built the "yellow pebble-dashed house on the York Road” in 1816 from plans purchased after an 1814 visit to the Portuguese castle of Cintra. He took from these plans a wing which particularly attracted his admiration for its thick walls, coffered passageways and windows, its double doors with massive locks, its octagonal hall flanked by large rooms in the wings on either side. Cintra was purchased by Richard Randolph in 1830, who sold it to his brother-in-law, Elias Ely in 1884. (The Ely family has resided in New Hope since the 17th century, granted land by William Penn.) Cintra remained in the Ely family into the 20th century.