224 S Albany St Ithaca

Source: Henry St. John Local Historic District Nomination, Sara Johnson and Kristin Olson, Historic Ithaca, Inc., 2012.
Description:
224 South Albany Street is located mid-block on the west side of the street, one of four adjacent mid-block lots that extend further west than other lots on the block. It is an asymmetrical two-and-a-half story house of frame construction, rectangular in plan with a two-story projecting bay at the southeast corner and a projecting wing on the west. It is likely that the house was expanded and remodeled in the Queen Anne style beginning in the 1880 or 1890s, though subsequent additions have obscured some elements of that design. A house was located on the lot by 1851, but it is not known whether that structure was incorporated in the late 1800s expansion campaigns.
Walls are clad in clapboard and the foundation is parged. Windows are generally 1/1, with casement windows in part of the second story porch. A gable dormer projects on the primary, east, façade. It has carved vergeboards and features an oval stained glass window above a broken pediment molding. Below the dormer, an enclosed porch projects to the east and covers most of the second story. The south half of the porch sits above an open, partial-width first story porch. The porch has classical posts and a simple balustrade.
A sidewalk runs along the north wall and a driveway runs along the south side of the house. A hipped-roof, clapboard-clad, double-bay, automobile garage is located the southwest corner of the property. The garage is of slightly larger proportions than the others in the district and records suggest that it was constructed after 1961. It does not appear on the Sanborn company maps.
Significance:
Contributing. Architecturally significant. Garage non-contributing.
224 South Albany Street is architecturally significant as an example of a Queen Anne style residence, retaining its original massing and some exterior details. It has lost some integrity due to the enclosure and extension of the second story porch. The garage is non-contributing because evidence suggests that it was constructed after the end of the district’s period of significance.
The 1851 Bevans map of Ithaca indicates that a house was located on the lot. The house now located on the lot was most likely constructed or expanded on the earlier structure during the property’s ownership by Susan Morgan, who owned the property from 1882-1890. Edward J. Morgan, Jr. resided in the house during its ownership by Susan Morgan. He was a physician who worked with his father in the medical practice of Morgan & Morgan.
From 1890 to 1920, the family of another physician, Martin Besemer, owned and resided in the house. Henrietta Pell-Clarke, listed as a “deaconess” in Ithaca city directories, owned and resided in the house from 1920 to 1933.
Alterations:
The house had undergone a series of additions through its history, resulting in a current configuration that generally dates to 1904. The 1888 Sanborn company map indicates that the house was a two-story structure, rectangular in plan with a slight projection at the east corner of the south façade and a porch on the south half of the east façade. Between 1888 and 1893, a one-and-a-half-story addition was constructed on the north façade. The 1898 map shows another small addition on the north. Between 1898 and 1904, the north addition was increased to two stories, the southeast corner bay was constructed and the west addition was expanded. The plan remained essentially the same through the 1961 Sanborn map. The south second story porch was enclosed by 1954, and between 1954 and 1975 it was extended to the north.
Sources:
Ithaca directories, 1864-1981. Historic Ithaca, Inc., Ithaca, NY.
Photograph of 224 South Albany Street, July 1975. 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.

Source of Building Data: 1910 Sanborn Fire Insurance Atlas;
Multi-Family Construction: ; 
Roof of Main Structure: Shingle; 
Additional Sections: Section 1, back (W), 1.5 stories, shingle roof / Section 2 left (S) of Section 1, 1 story, non-combustible roof; 
Porches: Porch 1, front (E), 1 story, shingle roof; 
Outbuildings: Stable 1, 2 stories, shingle roof / Stable 2, left side of Stable 1 (S), 2 stories, shingle roof / Section 1, back of Stable 1 (W), 1 story, shingle roof (#223 1/2 S Albany St); 
Other: Bay 1, left (S) / Bay 2, back of Section 1 (W);