Tuttle Apartments
A decade after the construction of the elegant Greystone mansion across the street, this French Chateau-style apartment building located at 107 Cayuga Heights Road was designed by a Cornell-trained architect. It became known as Tuttle Apartments, and Cornell professors and their spouses were the first tenants. The development was the inspiration of Cornell law student Elbert Parr Tuttle (1897-1996), who would later become a federal judge touted as "a true judicial hero" by President Jimmy Carter when Tuttle was awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom.To learn more about the history of the Tuttle Apartments, visit The Cayuga Heights History Project website.LISTEN HERE
Greystone
Greystone at 106 Cayuga Heights Road is known for its second owners, Irene Castle, dancer and silent film star, and Robert E. Treman, scion of the prominent family in Ithaca's early business community. In 1918, the home was featured in the silent film, A Romance of the Air. Castle was often photographed at Greystone in such magazines as Vanity Fair, Vogue, and Town and Country. Having been the scene of a true "Roaring Twenties" lifestyle, the lavish mansion was sold in 1924 to Cornell's Sigma Chi fraternity.For more on the home's history, visit The Cayuga Heights History Project website.LISTEN HERE
Sunset Park
Cayuga Heights developer Jared T. Newman (1855-1937) carved out this small pocket park on the crest of a sandbank in the "Western Slope" section of the neighborhood, located on Sunset Park Drive. Newman and his wife Jane Williams Newman (1857-1950) donated the land to the village for use as a public park in 1928. The Newmans gave the parkland to the village with the stipulation that the view would never be obstructed, and so it has remained. The site provides panoramic views of Cayuga Lake and the City of Ithaca in the valley below and is a prime spot for Ithacans to view the July 4th fireworks over Cayuga Lake.For more on this site, visit The Cayuga Heights History Project website.LISTEN HERE
Cayuga Circle
This busy intersection where Hanshaw, Highland, and Upland roads meet was originally known as Cayuga Circle. The Ithaca Street Railway ran a trolley line to Cayuga Heights in 1906. Known as the "Great Northern," the streetcar line was a selling point for the young neighborhood, linking the Heights to Cornell University and downtown. By 1919, the tracks extended along Highland Road to Cayuga Circle. The Cayuga Heights streetcar system was short-lived, however, eliminating service in 1929.To read more about the site, visit The Cayuga Heights History Project website. LISTEN HERE
Hitchcock Hall (demolished in 1968)
Named for its beloved first principal, Martha Hitchcock (1869-1966), Hitchcock Hall was the forerunner of the Cayuga Heights Elementary School, located at 110 East Upland Road. It was a beautiful, rambling Tudor-style building in a park-like setting. Sadly, the era of urban renewal brought its demolition in 1968. The Ithaca City School District replaced it with the current building designed by Levatich & Miller, which has been added on to since.To learn more about the school's history, visit The Cayuga Heights History Project.LISTEN HERE
Kline Farmhouse
The Warren Real Estate building located at 832 Hanshaw Road (with Tompkins Financial Corporation as its current tenant) across the street from the Corners Community Center was originally the farmhouse of the Kline family. Philip (1781-1874) and Elizabeth Winters (1787-1854) Kline migrated from New Jersey to Tompkins County by 1817. In that year they purchased 42.67 acres in Military Lot 90 from John Sharpe. After Benjamin Cradit's death in 1823, the Klines bought part of the Cradit lands north of their original lot. The red brick Kline farmhouse was built on the former Cradit lands.In 1920, Eunice Cornell Taylor (1862-1942; a granddaughter of Ezra Cornell) and her husband Charles Taylor acquired the Kline farmhouse from Eunice's brother, Franklin C. Cornell (1866-1934). The Taylors bought cows and ran a dairy business, which was not a great success. A cement garden, called "The Mall," was built in 1928 for the Taylors. Later, widowed and without funds, Eunice was cared for by the farm manager and his wife. After she died in 1942, the house was inhabited by a series of residents, thereby acquiring its infamous name, "Bedbug House." Some may remember the house as the Peggy Cornwall women's clothing shop before Warren Real Estate moved in and accomplished renovations to the Federal-style facade.For more about the house, visit The Cayuga Heights History Project website.LISTEN HERE
Marcham Hall
For forty years before it became the municipal building of the Village of Cayuga Heights, Marcham Hall at 836 Hanshaw Road was a private residence. It was built in the late 1920s by Dorothy Cornell (1875-1942), the youngest granddaughter of Ezra Cornell. Dorothy's sister and brother-in-law, Eunice C. and Charles Taylor, lived next door at 830 Hanshaw Road. Complete with a slate roof, a chandelier or two from the Hotel Martinique (a hotel the Taylors had run in New York City), a picket fence imported from France, fine ironwork hinges and handles on the doors and windows, a greenhouse, and a charming sundial on the outside wall, Stonecroft was Dorothy's dream house.Read more about the architecture and history of Marcham Hall at The Cayuga Heights History Project.LISTEN HERE
Kline Schoolhouse
Now a dentist office, this building at 1001 Hanshaw Road housed the first school in Cayuga Heights. The original house was built in the early- to mid-1800s, on land from the Cradit farm family. Today, evidence of the house's original use can be seen in the two doors that flank the chimney--one entrance for girls; one for boys. The schoolhouse bell remains in the office, a reminder of schooldays past.For more information about the history of the site, visit The Cayuga Heights History Project website. LISTEN HERE
Pleasant Grove Cemetery
This bucolic community cemetery located at 184 Pleasant Grove Road, formerly known as the Kline cemetery, contains graves dating to the early 1800s. A charming Gothic Revival chapel, built in 1888, sits on the southern edge of the site. Noted interments include Revolutionary War veterans; 19th-century schoolgirl and diarist Carrie Manning (1856-1875); and intellectual and artistic luminaries, including Elements of Style author William Strunk Jr. (1869-1946), Nobel laureate chemist Peter Debye (1884-1966), historian Carl Becker (1873-1945), historian Michael Kammen (1936-2013), astrophysicist Thomas Gold (1920-2004), architect Alexander Kira (1928-2005), and more.To learn more about the history of this once rural cemetery, visit The Cayuga Heights History Project. LISTEN HERE
Cradit-Moore House
The Cradit-Moore House located at 172 Pleasant Grove Road, now a private residence, gives us a glimpse of Ithaca's early agricultural heritage. The oldest section of the home, its northern wing, dates to 1817, when it was constructed by prominent landowner and Fall Creek mill owner Isaac Cradit. Its distinctive Greek Revival characteristics include pilasters, a cornice line with full entablature, a pediment-shaped door surround, and elaborate window molding. Around 1860-61, the southern wing was added after it was sold to Peter Kline, who owned much farmland in the area. In 1938, Dr. Norman Moore (1901-1995) and Bernice Moore (1900-1993) purchased the home and oversaw many changes. Dr. Moore was the first Director of Cornell University's health care system. In 1948, the Moores sold the house to Cornell but retained lifetime residency. In 2000, Cornell's expansion blueprint for the North Campus included plans to demolish the building, and Historic Ithaca stepped in to save the almost 200-year-old structure. The house was moved about three-tenths of a mile north of its original location at 128 Pleasant Grove Road to its current lot.To learn more about extant 19th-century farmhouses in the village, visit The Cayuga Heights History Project.LISTEN HERE
