In this Staten Island time capsule of a home, models, murals and Nilla wafers meet

Few New Yorkers may know there’s a 19th-century Italianate villa tucked above the busy commercial strip of Richmond Road in New Dorp, Staten Island.

The former home of Gustav Mayer, the German-born baker who invented the Nilla wafer, stands just four blocks from the New Dorp train station. With its original pine floors and 120-year-old working icebox, the home serves as a largely untouched reminder of Staten Island’s rural past.

From Richmond Road, the house appears part-Gothic novel, part-wedding cake. A wide front porch spans the full building, with carved wooden columns and original wavy glass windows look out on a sloping lawn.

Many of the heirloom plantings date to the 1930s, according to Robert Troiano, the current owner.

The home’s original owner David Ryers was a commander in the New York state militia and the last proprietor of the nearby Rose and Crown Tavern, which, according to the Historical Marker Database, was occupied by the British during the American Revolution and is the site where Gen. William Howe read the Declaration of Independence to his officers on July 9, 1776.

In 1855, according to an NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission report, Ryers tore down the tavern and built this house in its place, inspired by the landscape architect Andrew Jackson Downing.

Mayer, the German-born confectioner, bought the house in 1889 and moved there in 1890. In the basement, he tinkered with recipes and eventually created what became Nabisco's Nilla wafer.

Upstairs, Mayer's daughters Paula and Emilia turned the house into a personal canvas. Both women lived here into their hundreds, never married, and painted Swiss and Italian landscapes from their travels directly onto the walls.

Troiano visited Paula Mayer near the end of her life, when a nurse had moved the two daughters to Maryland.

Troiano grew up nearby and bought the home in 1990 after noticing it for years.

“I was a restorationist and woodworker looking for a project,” he said.

Troiano spent decades rehabbing the structure from the inside out, rebuilding the rooflines, restoring the 19th-century windows, and preserving Paula Mayer’s murals, he said.

“Everything is original,” Troiano said. “The yellow southern pine clapboard is original from 1855. The longleaf southern pine flooring is probably $50 a square foot in salvage yards. I put back any pieces that might’ve been tampered with or missing.”

The utilities are modern, but you won’t see an outlet unless you know where to look.

The house is crowned with a square cupola, which was once used for cooling the home in the summer and taking in ocean views. On clear days, it overlooks Raritan Bay and Sandy Hook, New Jersey.

Over the years, the home became a destination for the fashion and film industries.

The home's controlled decay, complete with peeling paint, sun-bleached shutters and patched plaster, attracted photoshoots for magazines including Vogue, Cosmopolitan and Essence.

Gisele Bündchen, Mary-Kate Olsen and Amber Heard have shot here, Troiano said.

“The first shoot was 'Saturday Night Live' in 1990, for a skit called ‘Fuzzy Memories,’” he recalled.

Troiano stopped renting the space for photo shoots during the pandemic and is now preparing for a move south.

The home, which has only had two owners since 1889, is now on the market, with an asking price of just under $1.5 million.

“The new owner reserves the right to do whatever they want with the house,” Troiano said. “Although I might prefer it was maintained historically, it’s not a criteria by any means.”

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