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Now we do indeed have a puzzle.
Since the 1907 postcard of "Frontier House" claims to show the house where Cooper wrote "The Spy" (which was at Heathcoate Manor, per the James Fenimore Cooper Society), my first impression would be that this was indeed the house that was known or thought (in 1907) to be the house. I would assume that the tradition was well established that this was the house where he wrote "The Spy," but maybe it was simply established that this was the manor house on the estate where he wrote it, and he wrote it in another house. The two histories of Westchester County mentioning the estate were published in 1881 and 1886.
It certainly was an impressive Colonial building. And cetainly this must have been the manor house. From the 1907 photo, I can tell it is brick by the large chimneys. It seems it would have been very unlikely that a brick house would have been moved, doesn't it? Maybe the house wasn't destroyed in the Revolution after all? (Or not completely?) Maybe that's when it was leased to the Angevines, and John Peter DeLancey built the frame home nearby on the estate?
One version says that the James Fenimore Cooper house was moved in 1900 and another version says that the house was moved in 1930 for a gas station. I think 1930 seems more likely for a gas station. It was also a restaurant, and still a restaurant in the 1970s, as you mentioned when you had dinner there. And is that house still standing? Perhaps the owners or some local historian can clear up some of the mystery. When you get your scanner working, or get another one, I would be grateful if you could send me a copy of the pictures you have.
Maybe two buildings were moved, in 1900 and 1930, but it still seems unlikely to me. More likely two sources have been confused. I wonder if the frame building, rebuilt around the Revoluion, might have been bricked up later, then the brick removed about 1930 and the house moved and the siding replaced, and that's the house still standing in the 1970s?
Or possibly there were two houses on the estate where J.F. Cooper stayed? (Although the J.F.C. Society information says he only lived in one house there.) Perhaps later research proved that the frame house was where he actually lived when writing "The Spy" and not the brick house. But the brick house certainly looks like the manor house to me, the main house on the estate. Some confusion may be due to the fact that the Angevines leased the estate for so long, while the Delanceys actually owned it but didn't live there. The two histories of Westchester County from 1881 and 1886 state that the Angevines & Secors were among the prominent residents of Scarsdale and indicate that their residence was the manor house on the estate, not a secondary tenant house, although one naturally wonders now whether theirs was the frame house that J.F. Cooper may have lived. If Mrs. Cooper's father John Peter deLancey is known to have built the frame house on the estate AND to have lived in it (periodically), it seems reasonable that she and JFC would have lived there from time to time.
I suppose all these different stories need to be looked at again more carefully.
It seems to me as though the brick manor house was a restaurant or tavern known as "Frontier House" in 1907. This would most likely be Heathcoate Manor, and most likely it never was moved. Was it demolished?
The frame house may have been moved to preserve it because Cooper lived there while staying on the deLancey estate. Indeed, if he ever stayed there in 1811, as the JFC Society says, and IF the Angevines were still there until around 1820 as another says, then it seems logical that he and his wife stayed in the frame house. Then when the Angevine lease expired, the Delancey family obviously resumed residency of the property.
I've probably jumbled up the puzzle pieces even further. I think I've even confused myself now. I don't even know what I think about all of this now.
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