Cass Gilbert would be pleased that his Carriage Barn attracts present-day artists as a preferred setting for exhibiting their work. (Visit keelertavernmuseum.org for the current schedule.) It had a more workaday start, however, beginning around 1910 as a home for horses and the carriages they pulled, a structure the architect created not long after he purchased the historic Keeler Tavern property as a summer home.
Only a few years later, livestock gave up their stalls to a luxury Pierce-Arrow and chauffeur; Mr. Gilbert never did learn to drive. Both coachman and car saw frequent service. Mr. Gilbert was a regular Sunday golfer across the New York border in Waccabuc, while he maintained an active architectural practice in Manhattan.
A granddaughter recalls a typical schedule that might include weekdays of work in New York City, ending with Gilbert’s Friday pickup of his grandchildren. The party would be transported to Ridgefield, with a stop in Armonk for a treat of warm, freshly made doughnuts.
Mr. Gilbert’s relationships with his drivers are lost to history; given his generally aloof and formal bearing with employees, real life at the Cannon Ball House probably bore little resemblance to the fictional relationship between Hoke and Miss Daisy. The renowned architect Cass Gilbert was driven largely by ambition; country squire Cass Gilbert was driven largely by anonymous others.