This small two-story cottage was designed in 1851 by Howard Daniels (1815-1863), architect of Dale Cemetery, as living quarters for Dale's first Superintendent, James McDuffie. It cost $1,250 to build. Daniels, a finalist in the Central Park design competition, featured it in his article in The Rural Annual and Horticultural Directory (1857). A year earlier this house was an example of a “Cheap Suburban Cottage” in Genesee Farmer (1856). Dale's founders instead promoted it as a Gothic lodge at the right of the entrance, admired for its architectural beauty and propriety. The 7-room structure had an L-shaped plan with a diagonally set front entrance covered by a hexagonal porch roof. Its original exterior used millworked pine floorboards set horizontally, and its standing-seam tin roof extended out two feet. In the late 20th century, the exterior was updated with stucco and modern windows, and the interior was remodeled to place an office on the basement floor and an apartment for custodial staff on the upper floors. Despite these changes, the cottage's footprint has remained the same. Its foundation, like many structures and monuments at Dale, was built of Sing Sing marble quarried at the prison of the same name. In 2017, efforts began to restore the Superintendent's Cottage to its former simple elegance.