119 W Green St Ithaca

Street Address History:
Earlier street address 17 W Green St.
The city renumbered its streets in 1899 using the hundred block system (see Crandall City Engineering Map, 1899).

Source: Henry St. John Local Historic District Nomination, Sara Johnson and Kristen Olson, Historic Ithaca, Inc., 2012.
Description: 
   119 West Green Street is located on the south side of the street, two lots east of the corner of West Green and South Geneva Streets. This property is one of a series of houses along West Green Street that mark the transition from Ithaca’s commercial core to the primarily residential neighborhood of the Henry St. John district south of Green Street. The two-story wood frame house was built ca. 1848 in the Greek Revival style. It is rectangular in plan with a one-and-a-half-story wing on the south, a bay window and one story addition on the east, and a small one-story addition on the west.
   The house has a low-pitched front-gabled roof with a wide cornice and cornice returns on the north façade. The main gabled roof is clad in metal. A painted brick chimney projects from the roof near the south façade of the north wing. The foundation is stone, with tooled ashlar on the north façade and coursed rubble on the east and west façades. Windows are 1/1 and typically appear singly. They have Greek Revival-style eared architraves on the primary façade but simple narrow trim on the rest of the house.
   The three-bay primary (north) façade has a recessed entryway in the west bay with an eared architrave surround, panels on the walls of the recess, sidelights and a top light. The door is not original. A group of three 1/1 windows with an eared architrave surrounding the group is east of the door. This window assembly replaced was originally two individual window openings. The three windows across the second story are replacements, but the trim appears to be original and the openings unaltered.
   On the east façade, the one-and-a-half-story wing projects to the south, flush with the wall of the east façade. It has a very low-pitched gable roof oriented north-south. A one-story bay window with a flat roof projects east from the addition and a small one-story, gable-roofed addition is at the southeast corner.
   On the west façade, a single-bay, one-story addition projects from the south corner of the primary wing. It has a side gable roof with cornice returns on the west and a single 1/1 window on the north. A gravel driveway and parking area fill the rest of the lot to the west and south of the house.
Significance: 
Contributing. Architecturally significant.
   119 West Green Street is architecturally significant as an example of a modest front-gabled Greek Revival style residence. It retains its original form and massing, clapboard siding, deep cornice, eared architraves around doors and windows, and recessed door surround with sidelights and top light. It retains its architectural integrity despite the addition of a group of triple windows on the first story and replacement windows.
   The house was likely constructed between 1848 and 1851, between the time of William S. Cowles’ 1848 purchase of the lot from the Bank of Ithaca and the appearance of the structure on the 1851 Bevans map of Ithaca. William S. Cowles was a liveryman and resided in the house with his wife Caroline Cowles and daughter Caroline Seymour Cowles. William S. Cowles died in 1883 and the property remained in the Cowles family until 1946.
Alterations: 
   Additions to the house have been mostly confined to its south façade. The 1851 Bevans map of Ithaca depicts the house as a rectangle with two wings stepping south from the southeast corner of the house. On the 1872 map of Ithaca, a small addition is shown near the south corner of the west façade. This configuration of the house remains consistent on the 1888 and 1893 Sanborn company maps. Between 1893 and 1898, a porch was added across the north façade of the house.
   Between 1898 and 1904, a small bay window was added to the east façade and a one-story addition was constructed on the south façade. The house remains in the configuration shown in 1904, with the exception of the addition of the triple window and the removal of the north porch, both of which occurred sometime after 1968.
Sources: 
Bevans, John. 1851 Map of Ithaca, Tompkins Co., N.Y. New York: John Bevans, 1851. The History Center In Tompkins County, Ithaca, NY. 
Field Inventory Form for 119 West Green Street, April 1968. Historic Ithaca, Inc., Ithaca, NY. 
Sanborn Map Company. Ithaca, NY fire insurance maps, 1888-1961.The History Center In Tompkins County, Ithaca, NY. 
Tompkins County Department of Assessment. Tompkins County tax assessment photographs, 1954. Historic Ithaca, Inc., Ithaca, NY. 
Tompkins County, NY. Deeds and survey maps, 1850-2010. Office of the Tompkins County Clerk, Ithaca, NY.