115 West Green Street
This beautiful stone home, in a transitional Federal-Greek Revival style, was built in 1837. The original owner was Horace Mack (1799-1855), who served as a village president. This is the only surviving house of a row of three Green Street houses owned by early village presidents, formerly known as “Presidential Row.” The home was built by mason Samuel Halliday, who also did work on early Cornell buildings.The house has been occupied by a number of locally prominent families over its nearly 200 years. It now serves as law offices.LISTEN HERE
125 West Green Street
This beautiful brick Italianate home was built in 1869. Notable are the cast-iron hoods and sills around the windows, the scrolled wood brackets of the portico, the dentils (tooth-like ornamentation) of the cornice, and the cupola. It was built for Albert Philips, a tailor and purveyor of men's clothing. Only three years later it was sold to William Wyckoff (1835-1895), a major producer of Remington typewriters and manager of secretarial schools whose son was a developer of the Cornell Heights neighborhood. A third family, that of hardware store and agricultural warehouse owner Clement T. Stephens (1849-1908), owned the building into the 1930s.LISTEN HERE
207-209 West Green Street
This Greek Revival building was constructed around 1835 for James C. Hyatt. After Hyatt, the property was owned by prominent local lawyer George Beer, then by Horace Mack (1867-1932; whose father was the first owner of the stone house at 115 Green Street). Beginning in the early twentieth century the home was rented, before being sold to Frank Bangs (1892-1970) and Mary Bangs (1890-1956) in 1949. Since then it has been used as a funeral home. The orignal portion is the western half (the front-gabled section with the "Bangs Funeral Home" sign). The porch was added by 1888. The eastern half, with its bay front and hipped roof, was added in the first decade of the twentieth century. The original portion is Greek Revival, but later additions draw from the Italianate and Queen Anne styles, integrating them nicely into the original structure.LISTEN HERE
212 South Albany Street
Built around 1883, this Queen Anne home has elaborate Eastlake-style ornamentation. It is cross-gabled, with a slender hip-roofed tower. Note the triangular gabled dormers cutting into the tower roof, the variety of wood cladding on the walls, and the spindlework balconies with fan motif brackets.This building may have been constucted as a rental property from the beginning. Its owner, lumberyard owner Ira C. Rockwell, lived next door at 210 South Albany, and the two houses were on the same parcel until they were subdivided in 1901. Charles Westervelt (1871-1940), president of Forest City Printing Company, bought the property in 1909 and sold it to his own company in 1916. Today it is the showroom of longtime local business Foster Custom Kitchens.LISTEN HERE
219 South Albany Street
This Queen Anne was built around 1884. It is a highly intact example of a Queen Anne from the period, with some elements of the Stick style (denoted by the vertical emphasis of some of the woodwork). It features tripartite windows on the third floor, carved bargeboards, and two shed-roofed porches.The property this house is on changed hands among investors regularly and was divided and combined with neighboring properties several times in the years before the house was built. It was finally sold from investor Ortistus Gregory to local paper industry leader Thomas G. Miller in 1884, but it is unclear whether Gregory built the house as a speculative investment or whether Miller built it after the purchase. The Miller family owned the house until 1987.LISTEN HERE
233 South Albany Street
This circa 1881 home is primarily in the Stick style but incorporates elements of Gothic Revival, Eastlake, and Colonial Revival. The large eaves have exposed rafter tails, and the main façade's gable features a decorative truss and vertical picket siding. The Colonial Revival element is the front porch, with its Doric posts and gable pediment. This house is the first of several owned and occupied by an interrelated group of prominent businessmen and community leaders in the late nineteenth century. The likely builder, William L. Bostwick (1837-1896), was a state legislator and owned a factory (he first made sashes and blinds, then pianos and organs) with Philip Frank Sisson (1839-1918) and Roger B. Williams (1848-1933), who lived just down the street at 315 and 319 South Albany Street. The Bostwicks were large landowners and themselves lived at 318, since demolished for the Beechtree Care Facility. Their son lived in this house until it was sold to drugstore owner Hiram Haskins in 1889.Note that as you continue the walk, you will notice a very similar house at 327 South Albany Street. That home was also owned by the Bostwicks and was probably constructed from the same plans.LISTEN HERE
234 South Albany Street
This unique Gothic Revival house was built in 1881 and maintains a high level of architectural integrity. It is a very late Gothic Revival, with massing and form more like a Queen Anne. This building has a number of interesting details, like the lintels on the first story windows, cross-hipped roofs, and the white stringcourse between the first and second floors. What stands out, however, is the two-sided, two-story bay windows topped with tall, narrow gables with large, ornate bargeboards.This home was built for tobaccanist and cigar maker Clark Selover by local builder Charles Van Order.LISTEN HERE
315 South Albany Street
This 1874 Eastlake or Stick house has a complex L-shaped plan with several bays, projections, and roof shapes. Note the decorative bargeboards, cornice trim and pendants, as well as other details like the decorative brickwork of the chimney and the Neoclassical entranceway, which deviates from the house's other detailing.This house's likely builder was Roger B. Williams (1848-1933), who is associated with other builders along Albany Street, including William L. Bostwick (1837-1896) and Philip Frank Sisson (1839-1918), with whom he co-owned a factory. Williams was also president of the Ithaca Savings Bank and partner in the Williams Brothers foundry. Williams lived in the house until his death in 1933.LISTEN HERE
401 South Albany Street
Built around 1870, this red-painted brick Italianate house has deep eaves with ornate paired scrolled brackets and dentil molding typical of this style. Distinguishing it from other well-maintained but typical Italianates is the rounded wall dormer at the top of the main façade.Charles Titus (1832-1907), the original developer of much of this area, built this house and several others nearby at the same time, around 1870-71. He quickly sold it, and it passed through a few owners before Washington Glass Company owner Benjamin Franklin Slocum bought it in 1885. He owned it until 1902.LISTEN HERE
405 South Albany Street
Another example of the Stick/Eastlake style that was popular during Henry St. John's development, this circa 1870 home is notable for its steeply pitched roofs, lace-like molding around the cornice lines, and the decorative brickwork and corbelling on its north chimney. The property also features a Gothic Revival-style carriage house.Like a number of other houses on this block, 405 South Albany was built by local developer Charles Titus (1832-1907). It was sold to his sister-in-law and her husband, Louisa Sprague (1829-1905) and Joseph Sprague (1826-1878), in 1874. The Spragues did not live at 405 but in the grander house at 412 South Albany. They sold this property in 1881 to grocer Pliny Hall (1811-1899) and William Teeter, a businessman.LISTEN HERE
The Sprague House
The crown jewel of the Henry St. John neighborhood, this palatial Second Empire structure at 304 North Titus Avenue was built in 1871. Known as the Sprague House, it is of wood frame construction with a dressed stone foundation and a complex plan. Note the cast-iron cresting of the central tower and the band of zigzag wood trim between its third and fourth stories. Also of note is the variety of window types (two-over-two, one-over-one, tall, short, arched, dormered, etc.) that nonetheless maintain architectural unity by their ubiquitous wood surrounds, particularly the hoods. The corner-facing entry porch features paneled square posts, decorative bracing, turned balusters, and lattice panels enclosing the space underneath. On the north side (which is a later addition), this detailing is matched on the porch and porte-cochère, which also features a sunburst motif.The Sprague House was built by Charles Titus, the developer who first channeled Six Mile Creek, which is just across the street. Culverting Six Mile allowed for the development of the neighborhood south of Clinton Street, beginning with the Sprague House. Titus quickly sold the house to his sister-in-law, Louisa Sprague, and her husband Joseph. Joseph, despite only living in Ithaca for seven years, was one of the town's most influential citizens, serving first as village trustee, then village president. The Spragues owned a substantial tract of land around the house, which was landscaped and opened to the public. Interestingly, when livestock soon ruined the landscaping, Sprague passed the first ordinance forbidding the free roaming of grazing animals in the city.Joseph died in 1878 at age 52, while traveling for business. Louisa continued to live in the home until her death in 1905, adding the additions on the north side of the house around 1890. The property was sold to a local minister, Edward Sabin (1843-1914), in 1907, then to Hermon Brockway (ca. 1874-1956), a Methodist minister and real estate agent, in 1921. The property was regularly subdivided during this time, with most of the surrounding homes being built between 1910-1930. By 1942 the house contained a few apartments, and in 1969 it was converted to ten rental units. Despite all these changes, it is a remarkably intact building.LISTEN HERE
336 South Geneva Street
While many of the most notable homes in the Henry St. John neighborhood come from the 1870s to 1880s, a large percentage of the homes are from a second growth period in the 1910s and 1920s. Ithaca was growing quickly during that time, and the old estates were slowly divided up for new residential infill development. Many of these, like this 1912 example, were in the Craftsman style, the "architecture for the everyman" popular in the early twentieth century. The home at 336 South Geneva Street features a side-gabled roof with an end-gable dormer that has flaring eaves and a tripartite window. The deep eaves of the main roof have exposed, decorative rafter tails and substantial wood brackets. The walls, porch piers, and balustrades are clad in stucco. Also note the heavy, stuccoed fascia with a wide, low arch over the porch.This house was built, owned, and occupied by Edward Ingalls (1865-1950), who was an employee of the Ithaca Journal and later the manager of the Ithaca Realty Company.LISTEN HERE
328 South Geneva Street
This two-story wood frame house was built between 1888 and 1889 in the Eastlake/Stick style. Notable features include the projecting cross gable on the north façade, the two cross gables on the east (main) façade, and the full-width porch with echoing balcony above.The house has decorative bracing and bargeboards below the substantial eaves, and the porch also has decorative bracing, with sunburst-patterned brackets and balustrades with Chinoiserie elements.In the mid-nineteenth century the property was part of the Charles Titus estate. It, as part of a larger parcel, was sold in 1872 and again in 1874, before being finally subdivided and sold to Eugene and Sarah Barnes in 1888.LISTEN HERE
325 South Geneva Street
Built between 1876 and 1877, this Italianate home is rectangular in plan with projecting bays at the north and south façades, a small porch at the west façade, a two-story rear wing, and a rear addition with a first-story porch and second-story balcony. The roof has a very low slope, with very deep eaves held up by scrolled wooden brackets with pendants. This style of bracket is also found supporting the entryway overhang. This house retains nearly all of its original exterior features.After being purchased from Charles Titus, this lot was sold twice more before the home was built by Isaac Frazier (1813-1898) and Dorothy Frazier (1815-1898). Isaac was apparently a farmer, or at least in agriculture in some respect. The Fraziers sold the property to John D. Fish (1829-1892) and Eunice Fish (1836-1925) in 1888, and after John's death in 1892, Eunice held onto it until 1922.LISTEN HERE
The Henry St. John Building
The Henry St. John building at 301 South Geneva Street, named for Ithaca's third mayor, was a product of the second building boom of this neighborhood. Ithaca grew substantially in the 1910s and 1920s, and a new school was needed as a result. Built in 1925, the building was an elementary school for nearly 60 years. It was converted into apartments and offices in 1983, when the city's school-age population had shrunk due to suburbanization.The style is Collegiate Gothic, a very popular look for institutional buildings at the time. Sage Hall, on Cornell's campus, is an earlier (and more ornate) example of this style. This building is cast concrete and brick. It has a thin limestone cornice and a brick parapet, in turn capped with a limestone coping. The main entrance on the west façade includes an open vestibule with a brick Tudor arch with a limestone keystone. The vestibule opening is flanked by stone pilasters surmounted by a limestone panel with relief sculpture and Gothic detailing. Many of these details are reflected in the building's other entrances. Most of the windows are aluminum replacements as part of the extensive remodeling work. All of the building’s ground floor and second floor windows have limestone sills. At each façade, the brick is laid in running bond. A decorative soldier course topped with a rowlock course extends across all four façades just under the limestone cornice separating the wall from the parapet and across the west, north, and south façades, forming a lintel for the ground floor and second floor windows of the west, north, and south façades. Identical courses of soldiers and rowlocks top the foundation, just below the water table at each façade.The architect was Arthur N. Gibb (1868-1949), an 1890 graduate of Cornell's architecture program who practiced in Ithaca for more than 50 years. Gibb, along with William H. Miller (1848-1922; for whom he worked) and Clinton Vivian (1861-1930; with whom he had an office), is responsible for an enormous percentage of Ithaca's landmark buildings. LISTEN HERE
224 South Geneva Street
This two-and-a-half-story house of frame construction was built prior to 1851 in the Greek Revival style. It is rectangular in plan, with two additions to the west and a small shed-roofed addition on the south façade. It has a wide cornice with returns on the primary façade. The ornate entryway stands out, with its eared molding, deeply recessed door, and fluted Ionic columns.The property was bought by John Northrup (1821-1909) in 1852. The house may have been built for him shortly beofre the purchase. Northrup was a businessman who owned Northrup & Sons, which sold a variety of items including mattresses and sewing machines. The family owned a number of properties in this area.LISTEN HERE
209-211 South Geneva Street
This home is notable for for its two distinct phases of contruction. It is a two-and-a-half-story wood frame house originally built circa 1845 in the Greek Revival style but radically expanded and remodeled in 1885 in the Stick style. The cross-gabled roof is slate, with a high gable dormer. All gables are decoratively trussed with open stickwork and incised Eastlake-style bargeboards. Note that one of the south-facing gables extends down only to the top of the first story, where it is supported by decorative brackets.The shed-roofed one-story porch has a small reflecting balcony above it. The door surrounds are one of the few surviving Greek Revival elements, though the sidelights have been replaced with stained glass. The carriage house in the rear features original embossed metal shingles and triangular gable dormers.This property was part of a tract owned by the Treman family, who were one of the most important families in the early settlement and development of this region, and who lent their name to Robert H. Treman State Park, Allan H. Treman State Marine Park, and the Village of Trumansburg. This property was sold to Levi Newman, a boat builder, and his wife Mary in 1864, though they were already living in the house at the time. Jared T. Newman (1855-1937; whose mother was a Treman) lived with his relatives in the house while a Cornell student in the 1870s. Jared would go on to help develop the Cayuga Heights neighborhood and become mayor of Ithaca.In 1885 Levi and Mary sold the house to Jared's parents, Isaac Newman (1823-1893; a railroad bonding commissioner and town assessor) and Cornelia Newman (1829-1881). It was they who hired a builder to expand the existing house. The house was passed on to Jared, who sold it in 1897.LISTEN HERE
