205 W Green St Ithaca

Street Address History:
Earlier street address 29 W Green St.
The city renumbered its streets in 1899 using the hundred block system (see Crandall City Engineering Map, 1893, revised 1902).

Source of Building Data: 1910 Sanborn Fire Insurance Atlas;
Multi-Family Construction: ; 
Roof of Main Structure: Non-combustible; 
Additional Sections: ; 
Outbuildings: Stable 1, 2 stories, shingle roof (#205 1/2 W Green St) / Outbuilding 1, 1 story, shingle roof; 
Porches: Porch 1, front (N), 1 story, non-combustible roof / Porch 2, left side (E), 1 story, shingle roof / Porch 3, back (S), 1 story, non-combustible roof; 
Other: Bay 1, right side (W);

Source: Henry St. John Local Historic District Nomination, Sara Johnson and Kristen Olson, Historic Ithaca, Inc., 2012.
Description: 
205 West Green Street is located on a deep lot mid-block on the south side of West Green Street. It is a two-story wood frame house built ca. 1845 in the Greek Revival style. 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 house is rectangular in plan, with a two-story wing and one-story addition on the south façade, small one-story addition on the east façade, and a two-story bay window on the west façade.
The house has a front-gabled roof with a closed gable featuring dentil trim, and slightly overhanging eaves with a dentil-topped cornice. Walls are generally clad in clapboard, but the primary (north) façade is clad in horizontal flushboard. Windows are a mix of 6/1and 1/1. The foundation is stone, with brick facing on the north façade. A large brick chimney projects from the center of the roof.
The three-bay north façade features full-height Doric-style pilasters at the corners and between each bay. The primary entryway is in the east bay. The door is flanked by fluted Ionic-style pilasters and topped with a fanlight. The glazed single door is not original and is sheltered by an aluminum storm door. A one-story, full-width porch extends across the north façade. It has a flat-roofed Colonial Revival-style portico over the entrance with a front-facing shed roof across the rest of the façade. Paired Doric-style porch posts on paneled piers are evenly spaced around the porch. Balustrades with simple rectangular balusters extend between piers.
A two-story, hipped-roof bay window projects from the west façade. Its second story slightly overhangs its first story. Immediately south of the bay window, the two-story wing projects to the west. It has a flat or very low-pitched roof. The second story is enclosed and the first story is an open porch sheltering a side entrance. The porch posts and balustrades are the same style as those on the north façade. A one-story shed-roofed addition extends along the north façade of the wing.
A wide paved driveway separate the house from its neighbor, 207-209 West Green Street, and extends into a parking lot filling the north section of the lot. A wide, front-gabled garage is located in the southwest corner of the lot. It is clad in T1-11 style wood siding. The building currently has a commercial use as the location of Bang’s Ambulance Service offices.
Significance: 
Contributing. Architecturally significant. Historically significant. Garage non-contributing.
205 West Green Street is architecturally significant as an example of a high-style Greek Revival style residence, its design incorporating a greater number of decorative elements than most Greek Revival houses in the district. It retains most original exterior features, including the fanlight-topped door framed by fluted Ionic pilasters, flushboard front façade with full-height Doric pilasters, and wide cornice with dentils. It retains a high level of architectural integrity. The garage is non-contributing. It appears have been constructed after 1961, replacing two garages built between 1919 and 1929. Its size and materials are inconsistent with the contributing garages in the district.
205 West Green Street is historically significant for its association with a series of prominent Ithaca merchants and landowners and the Mack family. This lot was part of the large three chain by three chain property that Francais A. Bloodgood purchased from Simeon DeWitt in 1827. 205 West Green Street was most likely built between 1845 and 1851 for Henry L. Wilgus, who purchased the property from the Tompkins County Sheriff in 1845; records do not indicate whether the house was extant at the time of purchase. A structure appears on this lot on the 1851 Bevans map of Ithaca.
Henry L. Wilgus was a partner in the firm of Wilgus Bros. & Co., a general mercantile business and the proprietors of the Antheneum public hall on East State Street. He was also part of a group of Ithacans who formed a corporation in 1868 to create a water supply company for Ithaca, although this plan was not executed. Charles M. Titus, John L. Whiton, and Abel Burritt, all property owners in the Henry St. John district, were also part of this proposed water company.27
In 1863, Horace Mack, who owned and lived at 207-209 West Green Street (the neighboring property to the west), owned this property for less than a year. Mack’s employment was variously listed as: real estate agent, accountant, Cornell University Clerk, and assistant in the land office of Cornell University.
Mack sold 205 West Green Street to Martin S. Delano, a partner in the grocery firm of Winton, Delano & Co., located at 9-11 Cayuga Street. Delano owned the property from 1863 to 1867, when he sold it to James M. Spencer, a furniture manufacturer in the firm of Howard & Spencer, located at 3 W. State Street. Spencer owned the property from 1867-1873. Later owners included Joseph S. Sturdevant (owner from 1896-1902), the owner of Sturdevant Shoe Co. at 15 East State Street, and George C. Hassan (owner from 1911-1927), Vice President and General Manager of Ithaca Ice and Coal Company.
Alterations: 
The 1888 Sanborn company map depicted the house as a main two-story north section with a two-story south addition projecting slightly east and a small one-story addition on its south. Between 1893 and 1898, the open Colonial Revival-style front porch was added, as well as a small open porch on the east and a bay window on the west. It also appears that the south additions were expanded. The footprint remained essentially the same through the 1961 Sanborn company map.
Two automobile garages were constructed in the southwest corner of the property between 1919 and 1929, replacing an outbuilding that had previously been located in that corner. After 1961, these garages were removed and the existing garage was constructed.
27 Selkreg, Landmarks of Tompkins County, 159.
Sources: 
Bevans, John. 1851 Map of Ithaca, Tompkins Co., N.Y. New York: John Bevans, 1851. The History Center In Tompkins County, Ithaca, NY. 
Levine, Jeffrey. Building-Structure Inventory Form for 205 West Green Street. Ithaca, NY: 1987. Historic Ithaca, Ithaca, Inc., NY. 
Sanborn Map Company. Ithaca, NY fire insurance maps, 1888-1961.The History Center In Tompkins County, Ithaca, NY. 
Selkreg, John H. Landmarks of Tompkins County, N.Y. Syracuse: D. Mason & Company, 1894. 
Deed records, Office of the Tompkins County Clerk, 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.