233 S Albany St Ithaca

Source: Henry St. John Local Historic District Nomination, Sara Johnson and Kristin Olson, Historic Ithaca, Inc., 2012.
Description: 
233 South Albany Street is located on a double-width lot at the northeast corner of South Albany and West Clinton streets. It is a two-story wood frame house built ca. 1881 in the Eastlake or Stick style with Gothic Revival elements and a Colonial Revival-style front porch. It is rectangular in plan with a deep full-width porch across the west façade.
The main roof is hipped with a cross gable running east-west at the center of the house. Upper roofs are steeply pitched while the porch roof has a low pitch; all are clad in asphalt shingle. The substantial eaves feature decorative bracing and brackets in the gable ends and exposed rafter tails throughout. The foundation is of local stone. A brick interior chimney is located at the north façade.
Walls are clad in clapboard with wood corner boards. The west façade gable features a decorative truss and vertical picket siding in the gable end. Vertical picket siding also appears in a band separating the first and second stories. The shed-roofed porch has a centered gable pediment. A classical door surround flanks the front door, stylistically related to the Colonial Revival-style porch, which features Doric posts on a low, slatted balustrade. Bay windows are on each side of the front door.
Windows appear in singles and in pairs and are generally 1/1 with tall proportions. Windows are symmetrically arranged on each façade. The double entry doors are topped with a 6-light transom. A bay window projects from the north façade, overhanging the raised basement story. The east façade features a tall rectangular bay window and a small, open-sided, shed-roofed porch.
A gravel driveway leads along the north façade to a two-story, side-gabled carriage house. The carriage house has a small, decorative trussed cross gable in the center of the west façade. Walls are clad in clapboard with wood corner boards. A wide expanse of lawn occupies the north half of the lot.
Significance: 
Contributing. Architecturally significant. Historically significant. 
Carriage house contributing and architecturally significant.
233 South Albany Street is architecturally significant as a highly intact example of a substantial Stick style residence. It has a high level of integrity, retaining all of its original exterior features and finishes. It is very similar in design to the house one block south near the intersection of South Albany and Center streets. The carriage house is architecturally significant as an intact example of a 19th century carriage house with Stick style detailing.
233 South Albany Street is historically significant as part of a grouping of grand residences on South Albany Street whose builders and early owners shared business and family connections. This group of South Albany Street houses also includes numbers 315, 319, 323, 327, 401, 405, and 412. The house’s likely builder, William Bostwick, was co-owner, along with Philip Frank Sisson and Roger B. Williams, of a sash and blind factory later converted to an organ and piano factory. Bostwick was earlier in partnership with developer Charles M. Titus in the Foster Hixson machine shops, where Frank Sisson was an employee. Roger B. Williams at 315 South Albany Street from 1875 to 1933, while Frank and Eliza Sisson lived at 319 South Albany Street from 1874 to 1895.

The Bostwick family were large landholders in the neighborhood, with their impressive residence on a large lot at 318 South Albany Street. Demolished to make way for the Beechtree Care Center, it became the Reconstruction Home for Infantile Paralysis in 1920. The Bostwicks also owned 323 and 327 South Albany Street. William L. Bostwick was elected to the state legislature in 1874 and was involved in passing the first compulsory education law. He served as County Assemblyman in 1875 and as Town Supervisor in 1867. In 1876 he was elected to the Board of Regents of the State University of New York. In 1861 he married Fannie H. Skidmore; their son Edward Bostwick, who owned 327 South Albany Street, was City Judge and served as Alderman.
Fannie A. Bostwick purchased the 66’ x 75’ corner lot from George and Mary Beardsley in 1881. Fannie and William L. Bostwick sold the property to their son William Herbert Bostwick in December1881 and the house was constructed by 1882. The house is nearly identical to the house one block south at 327 South Albany Street, which was also owned by the Bostwicks and likely constructed from the same plans. In 1889, Hiram Haskins purchased the property. Haskins, owner of the property until 1906, owned the West End Drug Store.
Alterations:
The house and a carriage house appear on the 1888 Sanborn company map of Ithaca. A partial-width front porch appeared on the 1893 map and the 1898 map shows bay windows flanking the small porch as well as two shallow bays on the east side. It is likely that the existing full-width porch was added between 1904 and 1910. It does not appear that there have been any significant alterations after 1910.
Sources:
Ithaca directories, 1864-1981.Historic Ithaca, Inc., Ithaca, NY.
Sanborn Map Company. Ithaca, NY fire insurance maps, 1888-1961.The History Center In Tompkins County, Ithaca, NY.
Sullivan, Colleen, Building-Structure Inventory Form for 233 South Albany Street, Ithaca, NY: 1987. Historic Ithaca, Inc., 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: Non-combustible; 
Additional Sections: ; 
Outbuildings: Wood house 1, 2 stories, shingle roof (#233 1/2 S Albany St); 
Porches: Porch 1, front (W), 1 story, non-combustible roof; 
Other: Bay 1, front (W) right side / Bay 2, front (W) left side;