Clear Comfort, now a National Historic Landmark, was purchased in 1844 by Alice Austen’s grandfather, John Haggerty Austen, a well-to-do businessman, whose wife gave the house its name. Located at the entrance to New York Harbor, Clear Comfort stands today as a reminder of the picturesque suburban “cottages” that dotted the shore and hills of 19th-century Staten Island.

John Austen’s original purchase encompassed an 18th-century farmhouse in a serious state of disrepair on a half-acre lot. Two subsequent purchases increased the grounds to approximately one acre. The tumbledown farmhouse had originally been a one-room structure. Built in the 1690s, it included what became the middle parlor and entry hall. About 1725, the room that became the present parlor was added, and at mid-century, the dining room/kitchen wing was constructed. Over a period of 25 years John Austen undertook an extensive restoration and renovation of the house and its surroundings. He transformed the original structure into a Carpenter Gothic cottage set on carefully landscaped grounds.

John Austen’s original intent was to use Clear Comfort as a summer home, but in 1852, following the illnesses and deaths of two infant sons, Austen moved his family from Manhattan to permanent residency on Staten Island. In the late 1860s, Clear Comfort’s most famous resident, Alice Austen (1866-1952), and her mother, Alice Cornell Austen, also moved into the family home after they had been abandoned by Alice’s father. The other members of the household included the younger Alice’s maternal grandparents, John and Elizabeth Austen; her mother’s younger siblings, Peter and Mary (often called Aunt Minn); and Aunt Minn’s husband, Oswald Muller. 

John Austen’s architectural transformation of his home from a simple 18th-century Dutch farmhouse into a Victorian Gothic cottage was extensive. On the roof, he added dormer windows embellished with Victorian bargeboards and birdhouse finials. Decorative cresting and octagonal chimney pots added to the picturesque silhouette. Austen created the covered porch (or piazza as it was called in the 19th century) by extending the eaves with a flare at the bottom, enhanced by a scalloped valance. Full-length windows, flanked by louvered shutters, provided direct access to the front rooms. The piazza was well shaded by five varieties of vines, including Japanese wisteria, that romantically graced the house in the 19th-century ideal. Photographs show that the piazza functioned as an outdoor room where Alice and other family members would read, watch passing ships through Grandpa’s telescope, or visit with friends and play the banjo on warm spring and summer nights.