207 W Green St Ithaca

209 W Green divided into 207 and 209 W Green around 1910. 207 W Green first appeared in the 1911-12 city directory.

Source: Henry St. John Local Historic District Nomination, Sara Johnson and Kristen Olson, Historic Ithaca, Inc., 2012.
Description:
207-209 West Green Street is located at the corner of West Green and South Albany 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. It is a two-story house of frame construction built ca. 1835 in the Greek Revival style. It is asymmetrical in plan, with large additions on the east and south façades.
Walls are clad in clapboard. A narrow cornice with regularly spaced dentils and modillions extends across the west and north façades, connecting the west and east wings at the cornice line.
Windows are a mix of 9/9, 6/6, 6/1 and 1/1. The 9/9 windows are replacements, located on the first story of the west, original, wing. The 6/6 windows are located on the second story of the west wing. 6/1 windows are located in the east bay-front wing and the 1/1 windows are primarily along the east and south façades.
The original wing of the house is the west section. It has a front-gabled roof facing north with a closed gable. It is rectangular in plan, and three bays wide by three bays deep. The primary entrance to the building is located in the east bay.
East of the original wing, a bay-front, hipped roof addition projects north from a cross-gable addition, extending north of the west wing. A pair of double doors with full diamond-light glazing is located on the first story in the center bay. A one-story, flat-roofed porch covers the bay addition and connects to a one-story shed-roofed porch wrapping around the north and west façades of the west wing. All porch posts are tall, narrow Doric-style posts and sit on a low balustrade with rectangular balusters. A long ramp extends from the sidewalk to the north entrance, providing wheelchair accessibility to the building, which houses a funeral home.
South of the bay addition, two-story cross-gabled addition extends to the south. A two-story bay window is located at the north corner of this addition. A lower, one-bay flat roof addition extends south from the gable addition. A group of intersecting small one and-two-story additions projects from the southeast corner of the house with a one-story, shed-roofed garage addition extending east from corner. The garage is one bay wide by three bays deep. A paved driveway, shared with 205 West Green Street, leads from West Green Street to the garage.
On the west façade, the south additions step east from the west wing with a broad paved driveway between the house and the street.
Significance:
Contributing. Architecturally significant. Historically significant.
207-209 West Green Street is architecturally significant as an example of the Greek Revival style with later Italianate and Queen Anne additions and details well-integrated with the original structure. 207-209 West Green Street displays a high level of integrity on the primary façades (north and west), though a group of additions have been made to the southeast section of the house to accommodate its long-term use as a funeral home.
207-209 West Green Street is historically significant for its association with the Mack family and a series of prominent Ithaca merchants and landowners. This parcel was part of a larger lot purchased from Simeon DeWitt by Francais A. Bloodgood in 1827. James C. Hyatt owned the property from 1831-57. A house appears on the 1851 Bevans map of Ithaca, indicating that it was constructed during Hyatt’s ownership. Hyatt conveyed the property to George D. Beers in 1857.
Beers, a partner in the legal firm of Beers & Howard, sold the property to Lucy W. and Horace Mack in 1858. Mack was the son of Horace Mack, the twentieth village president, for whom the stone house at 115 West Green Street was built. Horace and Lucy Mack owned 207-209 West Green Street from 1858-1886 and owned its neighbor to the east, 205 West Green Street, during part of 1863. Mack’s employment was variously listed in Ithaca directories as: real estate agent, accountant, Cornell University Clerk, and assistant in the land office of Cornell University. The extended Mack family also owned 231 South Geneva Street from 1841-1866.
In 1886, the Macks sold the property to John C. Westervelt and his wife Mary St. John Westervelt. John Westervelt was a coal and wood dealer with a coal yard at the foot of Clinton Street near the fairgrounds. Prior to that, he was a partner in the grocery business of Ithaca mayor D.B. Stewart.
John C. Westervelt died in 1888, and Mary Westervelt sold the property to Mary Nevins in 1904. It appears that Nevins, a partner in the millinery firm of G.C. Flybush & Co., never lived in the house. Instead, Edward Nevins and other renters occupied the house. It was sold to Frank and Mary Bangs in 1949 and has since been in use as Bangs Funeral Home.
Alterations:
The current 207-209 West Green Street lot is a subdivision of the lot Hyatt purchased on the southeast corner of West Green and South Albany Streets. The lot was subdivided in 1880, when Horace and Lucy Mack sold the south section of the property to Charles W. Gay, creating a separate lot now known as 211 South Albany Street. The remaining 207-209 West Green Street lot was again subdivided in 1910, when Mary Nevins sold the lot now known as 209 South Albany Street to Charles Gay.
By 1888, the porch had been constructed on the front-gabled west section, which had a two-story and a one-story addition on its south façade. Between 1893 and 1898, the bay window was added on the east façade. Between 1904 and 1910, the bay-front northeast addition and portico were constructed, as well as a two-story addition at the southeast corner. Between 1929 and 1961, the attached concrete block garage was constructed at the southeast corner, most likely after the conversion to funeral home use ca. 1949.
Sources:
Levine, Jeffrey. Building-Structure Inventory Form for 207-209 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.
Tompkins County Department of Assessment. Tompkins County tax assessment photographs, 1954. Historic Ithaca, Inc., Ithaca, NY.
Obituary of John C. Westervelt, s-113-a, p. 51. The History Center In Tompkins County, Ithaca, NY.

Source of Building Data: 1910 Sanborn Fire Insurance Atlas;
Multi-Family Construction: ; 
Roof of Main Structure: Shingle; 
Additional Sections: Section 1, right side (W), 1 story, non-combustible roof / Section 2 back right side (S), 2 stories, shingle roof / Section 3, back left side (S), 2 stories, non-combustible roof; 
Outbuildings: ; 
Porches: Porch 1, wraparound full front and right side (N and W), 1 story, non-combustible roof / Porch 2, back (S), 1 story, non-combustible roof; 
Other: Bay 1, front (N) / Bay 2, left (E) / Sanborn shows as #209 W Green St;