234 S Albany St Ithaca

Year built 1866 from Tompkins County Department of Assessment.

Source: Henry St. John Local Historic District Nomination, Sara Johnson and Kristin Olson, Historic Ithaca, Inc., 2012.
Description:
234 South Albany Street is located at the northwest corner of South Albany and West Clinton streets. It is a two-and-a-half story frame house built in 1881 in a late transitional Gothic Revival style. It is rectangular in plan with a main hipped roof oriented east-west and a cross hipped roof. The house is clad in clapboard with wood corner boards and a stringcourse between the first and second stories. Windows are generally 1/1, with peaked Gothic Revival-style lintels on the first story and simple frames on the second story. The foundation is stone with concrete under the later additions.
The center of the east façade and the cross projections have unique two-sided, two-story bay windows topped with very steep double gables. These narrow gables have wide, scrolling vergeboards. The walls of the bays are clad in diagonal flush board with vertical flushboards and a triangle in each gable. Each side of the bays has one window on each story.
A one-story, open-sided porch is located along the southeast corner on the south façade. A two-story addition projects from the northeast corner and a one-story addition with an open-sided porch projects from the west façade. A tall brick chimney runs along the north façade at the east corner. A driveway enters the west end of the property from West Clinton Street.
Significance:
Contributing. Architecturally significant.
233 South Albany Street is architecturally significant as a unique example of a late, transitional Gothic Revival style house that incorporates Queen Anne style massing and form. It retains most of its original details and has a high level of architectural integrity.
The house was built in 1881 for Clark Selover, a partner in Livingston & Selover, tobacconists and cigar makers. Charles Van Order was reported to be the builder and the provider of plans for the house. When Selover purchased the property in 1879, a house was already on the lot. The earlier house was constructed by 1853, and prominent landowner Charles E. Hardy owned the property from 1853-1866.
Alterations:
The house was shown on the 1888 Sanborn company map with a porch in the southeast corner in the location of the current porch. The small two-story addition near the northeast corner was added between 1898 and 1904. The west addition was constructed between 1910 and 1919, with the open-sided porch on the south side of the west addition constructed between 1919 and 1929.
Few alterations appear to have occurred since the last addition. Prior to 1954, the southeast porch was screened in, but the enclosure was removed by 1975.
Sources:
Diaz, Roberto, Building-Structure Inventory Form for 233 South Albany Street, Ithaca, NY: 1987. Historic Ithaca, Inc., Ithaca, NY
Ithaca Daily Journal, May 13, 1881 and June 22, 1881.
Ithaca directories, 1864-1981. Historic Ithaca, Inc., Ithaca, NY.
Photograph of 234 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: Non-combustible; 
Additional Sections: Section 1, right (N), 2 stories, non-combustible roof; 
Porches: Porch 1, front left side (ES), 1 story, non-combustible roof; 
Outbuildings: ; 
Other: ;