212 S Geneva St Ithaca

Street Address History:
Earlier street address 28 S Geneva 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: Shingle;
Additional Sections: Section 1, back left side (W), 1 story, non-combustible roof / Section 2, back right side (W), 1 story, shingle roof;
Outbuildings: ;
Porches: Porch 1, right side (N), 1 story, non-combustible roof;
Other: ;

Source: Henry St. John Local Historic District Nomination, Sara Johnson and Kristin Olson, Historic Ithaca, Inc., 2012.
Description: 
212 South Geneva Street is located mid-block on a small lot on the west side of the street. The houses on this block of South Geneva Street are closely spaced on lots that are generally smaller than those south of West Clinton Street, and the house covers most of the lot. It is a two-story house of frame construction, built ca. 1851 in the Greek Revival style. Roughly rectangular in plan, it has a two-story wing extending to the west and a series of small one and two-story additions projecting north and west along the west half of the north façade.
The house has a low-pitched, front-gabled roof with a wide, unornamented cornice with returns on the east, primary, façade. Walls are clad in clapboard with wood corner boards. The foundation is stone. A brick interior chimney projects from the roof between the east and west sections of the house. Windows are generally 6/1 on the first story and 1/1 replacements on the second story.
The three-bay east façade has a recessed entryway in the north corner. The door surround has sidelights, a top light, and decorative moldings on the walls of the recess. A small shed-roofed portico shelters the entryway. Windows on the east façade have original wide casings with slightly pedimented crowns.
The south façade has a two-bay, two-story addition projecting to the west, extending the wall of the south façade. Second story windows on the south façade extend down through the wide cornice. These may have originally been frieze windows that were later enlarged.
Additions to the north façade begin approximately halfway along the wall. A shallow, one-story enclosed flat-roofed porch projects to the north and is topped by another sallow shed-roofed porch. To the west of these additions, a one-story shed-roofed addition projects to the north, extending west and connecting with the west wing of the house.
A paved driveway runs along the south side of the house. The garage behind 211 South Albany Street marks the west boundary of this shallow lot.
Significance: 
Contributing. Architecturally significant.
212 South Geneva Street is architecturally significant as a good example of a front-gabled Greek Revival style residence. It was built during the 1836-1865 residential construction boom south of Green Street and west of Cayuga Street, after Francais A. Bloodgood purchased and subdivided much of Simeon Dewitt’s property south of Green Street. The house retains many of its original exterior details, especially on the primary façade.
The house is in the southeast corner of the 3 chain x 3 chain lot that Francais A. Bloodgood purchased from Simeon DeWitt in 1827 and was later subdivided by Henry D. Taber. It is likely that the house was constructed between 1851 and 1853, when the property was owned by Henry W. Clinton, who owned the property from 1851 to 1863.
From 1865-68, Albert Philips owned the property. Albert H. Philips and his son of the same name were partners in a tailor shop, Philips & Son. The elder Philips had the brick house at 125 West Green Street built in 1869, after purchasing that lot in 1868.
Alterations: 
Most of the additions to the property were constructed during its ownership by Amanda Hollister, from 1889 to 1919. The house is first shown on a Sanborn company map in 1888. At that point, the house had a primary two-story east section and a one-story west wing, with a small porch on the north façade and a full-width porch on the south façade of the west wing. 
Between 1893 and 1898, the north porch was extended, wrapping around the northeast corner of the east section. The porch on the south façade of the west wing may have been removed. The northeast porch was altered between 1898 and 1904, when a full-width porch across the east façade was constructed and a one-story addition was added on the south corner of the west façade, continuing the south line of the house directly west. Between 1910 and 1919, the last one-story addition was raised to two stories. By 1929, the small porch on the north façade had become two stories. After 1929, the only major change to the house was the removal of the fullwidth east porch and the addition of the portico over the entryway, a change that occurred between 1961 and 1975.
Sources: 
Ithaca directories, 1864-1981. Historic Ithaca, Inc., Ithaca, NY. 
Levine, Jeffrey. Building-Structure Inventory Form for 212 South Geneva Street, Ithaca, NY: 1987. Historic Ithaca, Inc., Ithaca, NY. 
Photograph of 212 South Geneva 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.