The Delavan Terrace Historic District is located along the street of that name in Northwest Yonkers, New York, United States.

[3] Originally it was home to affluent residents, such as local business executives at the Otis Elevator Company and the Alexander Smith Carpet Mills.

Actress Billie Burke, an early silent film star who later played Glinda the Good Witch in The Wizard of Oz, lived on Delavan Terrace in the 1920s after her marriage to Florenz Ziegfeld, when she was concentrating on her stage career on Broadway.

The district is essentially rectangular in shape, covering both sides of Delavan Terrace and the lots at the corners on Palisade and Park Avenues.

[3] The future Delavan Terrace was part of the original land grant to Frederick Philipse from the British crown during the colonial era.

Lemuel Wells, who eventually obtained that parcel as part of his 320-acre (130 ha) estate, was averse to selling or subdividing any of his real property, so it remained undeveloped when he died in 1842.

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.

[3] In 1873, after the population of Yonkers had more than quadrupled, Wheeler's land and house were sold and became part of the estate of Alexander Smith, founder of the carpet mills that bear his name, also today listed on the Register.

Property tax records show that the assessed valuation of Smith's new purchase almost tripled, suggesting either that a new structure was built there or, as seems more likely, the existing house was substantially renovated.

Both homes have their main entrances located in towers with belvederes, similar consoles, balustraded porches and Eastlake interiors.

Its use of the then-popular Shingle Style, exemplified by not only that face on its exterior but its overhanging roof and generally large form, made it markedly different from its neighbor.

The following year it was in turn sold to William Delavan Baldwin, an executive with the Otis Elevator Company, another one of Yonkers' industrial concerns.

Like their predecessors, the houses reflected the latest architectural trends, largely built in the Tudor Revival or Queen Anne styles.

The house at 10 Delavan, built by Reuben Borland, who had worked his way to the presidency of the Smith Mills from his start as a bobbin boy, is an excellent example of a typical middle-class home from this period.

[3] In the years after World War I, due to the growth in automobile ownership, suburban neighborhoods like Delavan Terrace multiplied.

[3] One famous resident for the time, actress Billie Burke, best known to modern audiences for her later role as Glinda the Good Witch in The Wizard of Oz, found the lifestyle offered by Delavan Terrace to her liking.

A reporter who visited the house to interview her described it as "a homey one and a half story red granite and wood structure built upon a still green terrace ... About it hangs an air of quaintness and quiet."

She preferred simple interior decoration, eschewing pictures of herself in favor of modest furniture, paintings and Native American handicraft.

The Doty House's signature features of that style are its symmetrical facade, Adamesque interior detailing, and balustraded deck atop its hipped roof.

Like the other revival-styled houses on the street, it testifies to its owners' quest for stability and legitimacy regardless of the geographical or historical appropriateness of the style.