About 33 Huguenot families, many of them artisans from La Rochelle in France, founded La Nouvelle-Rochelle in 1688, and Hudson Park marks where they landed. With about 79,700 residents, it is now the seventh-largest city in New York State. Thomas Paine's cottage, from 1793, is a National Historic Landmark, as are Leland Castle and the Lewis Pintard House, so the city's building history runs back further than most in the county.
The city's 2.7-mile shoreline stretches to 9.3 miles of waterfront because of its irregular coast and islands, including Glen Island and Davids Island. Homes on Davenport Neck, Premium Point and Glen Island take salt air, coastal wind and storm surge. The north end, around Wykagyl and Quaker Ridge, is wooded and suburban, where the bigger worries are falling limbs and shaded, slow-drying roofs.
Two early residence parks, a waterfront and a downtown
Residence Park, begun in 1885 by Adrian Iselin Jr., is one of the first planned residential parks in the country, with Queen Anne, Colonial Revival and Tudor homes. The Rochelle Park–Rochelle Heights Historic District, developed from 1885 into the 1920s, has 513 contributing buildings in Queen Anne, Shingle, Tudor Revival, Colonial Revival and Italian Renaissance styles. Gated Premium Point and Davenport Neck hold the waterfront estates.
Downtown is a different city: brownstones, townhomes, red-brick apartment buildings and new mid-rises, many of them with flat roofs behind parapet walls.
What to plan for on a New Rochelle roof
Turrets and intersecting gables
Queen Anne houses in Residence Park and Rochelle Heights often have round or polygonal turrets, steep cross gables and wraparound porch roofs. Conical turret roofs don't take standard shingles flat, so Jersey Roofing's crew cuts them down, uses metal, or works in copper where the original did. Every place a porch roof or dormer meets a wall gets step flashing and counterflashing, not caulk.
Davenport Neck and Premium Point
On the necks and points, roofs face open water. Jersey Roofing's crews use corrosion-resistant nails and flashing, keep copper away from aluminum and galvanized metal, and install with enhanced-wind detailing: starter strips at eaves and rakes, high-wind nailing, and on Owens Corning Duration systems, matching starter and hip and ridge shingles for the 160 mph enhanced wind warranty.
Flat roofs and parapets downtown
Brick apartment buildings and townhomes downtown usually have low-slope roofs below the 2:12 minimum for shingles. Those get a membrane system, and the parapet walls get flashing that runs up the inside face and under the coping. Scuppers and drains need clearing and sizing so a heavy rain doesn't pond behind the parapet and find its way into the top-floor ceilings.
Historic districts and design review
The Rochelle Park–Rochelle Heights Historic District was listed on the National Register in 2005. National Register listing by itself generally doesn't restrict what a private owner puts on a roof, but New Rochelle also has local landmark review. If your house is a designated local landmark, check with the city before choosing a material or color. We can help you find a period-appropriate option, such as a slate-look designer shingle, that suits the house either way.
Roof permits in New Rochelle
- Office
- City of New Rochelle Bureau of Buildings
- Phone
- (914) 654-2032
The bureau is at 515 North Avenue; a full roof replacement generally needs a permit, and Jersey Roofing files it.
The roof systems installed in New Rochelle
Jersey Roofing installs complete GAF and Owens Corning systems: ice and water barrier at the eaves and valleys, synthetic underlayment, starter strips, architectural or designer shingles, matched ridge cap and balanced ventilation. On a qualifying GAF system it can register the Golden Pledge® warranty, and on an Owens Corning system, Platinum Protection. Both include lifetime workmanship coverage. Compare the warranties.
Neighborhoods we serve in and around New Rochelle
- Premium Point
- Davenport Neck
- Residence Park
- Rochelle Heights
- Wykagyl
- Quaker Ridge
- Beechmont
- Sutton Manor
- Bayberry
- Paine Heights
- Larchmont Woods
- Pinebrook
- Glen Island
- Forest Heights
- Ward Acres