The first house in the future district was built during this period, although not by either of its later eponyms. In 1854, I.F. Wheeler built the house on the west side of Palisade Avenue, overlooking the river. It is likely that he was inspired by the work of Andrew Jackson Downing, an architect based upriver in Newburgh who had, until his death two years earlier, advocated for houses more harmonious with their natural surroundings than those built in the classically-inspired Federal or Greek Revival modes, the architectural styles that had up to then been prevalent in 19th-century America. Two designs in The Architecture of Country Houses, Downing's 1850 pattern book, strongly suggest the house Wheeler built.
