Located near the intersection of Amboy Road and Gifford’s Lane, this impressive five-bay-wide clapboarded gable-roofed farmhouse is a significant and increasingly rare reminder of Staten Island’s rural past. The present form of the house with its five-bay design featuring a paneled door with sidelights, six-over-six wood sash at the first story, small windows containing three-over-three wood sash at the second story, dentilled cornice and end chimneys is typical of a house from the second-quarter of the nineteenth century (around 1840), however, the irregular spacing of the windows and variations in the size of the second story windows suggest that part of the house, perhaps the eastern three bays, dates from an earlier period.
This house appears on the Dripps’ map of 1850 and the Butler map of 1853 as the home of William Stillwell, who was listed as a farmer in the 1850 census. The 1840 census lists William Stillwell and his wife Lavinia Simonson Stillwell in the same position. The 1820s census suggests William Stillwell’s father, Abraham Stillwell, and his family also lived in the same location. Deeds suggest that the Stillwells were tenants of John Poillon who occupied part of a 75-acre farm across Amboy Road and later of Joseph G. Seguine who purchased the farm from Poillon in 1828. In 1854, Joseph G. Seguine, Jr., sold this house to oysterman James Lewis. Members of the Lewis family continued to occupy the house until the 1910s.