216 S Geneva St Ithaca

Source: Henry St. John Local Historic District Nomination, Sara Johnson and Kristin Olson, Historic Ithaca, Inc., 2012.
Description:
216 South Geneva Street is located mid-block on the west side of the street. Beginning at 214 South Geneva Street and moving south, the lots are deeper than those to the north. The McGraw House assisted living facility is located across the street to the east. It is a two-story house of frame construction, originally built between 1830 and 1850 in the Greek Revival style, though it appears to have been remodeled in the 1860s with Gothic Revival-style decorative elements.
The house is generally rectangular in plan with a low-pitched front-gabled roof, full-width porch, and hipped roof bays projecting from the middle of the north and south façades. An addition on the west façade projects slightly to the north, but is barely visible from the street.
Walls are clad in clapboard with wood corner boards and the foundation is stone. A brick interior chimney projects from the west end of the roof. Windows are a mix of 2/2 and 1/1, with the notable exception of a paired pentoid window in the gable. The front gable has queen’s post-style trussing and delicately incised and cut-out vergeboards. Simple windows casings have slightly projecting flat lintels supported by small curved brackets.
The full-width porch across the east façade has a shed roof with a small cross gable above the steps leading to the front door. The gable had incised vergeboards and brackets. Square, partially chamfered posts support the porch roof. The low balustrade features a cut-out motif.
A gravel driveway leads to a gable-roofed garage at the southwest corner of the lot. The garage, constructed between 1910-1919, is clad in clapboard and has an overhead garage door and single entry door on the east façade.
Significance:
Contributing. Architecturally significant. Historically significant.
Garage contributing and architecturally significant.
216 South Geneva Street is architecturally significant as an example of a transitional house that coherently combines its original Greek Revival-style massing and roofline with Gothic Revival style decorative wood trim and Queen Anne-style bay windows. It retains a high level of architectural integrity. The automobile garage is architecturally significant as an example of an early automobile garage. It was constructed between 1910 and 1919, earlier than many other garages in the district.
216 South Geneva Street is historically significant for its association with Wait T. Huntington, Edward Hungerford, Oristus Gregory, and the Northrup family. It is on the northeast quarter of lot 27 of the lots laid out south of Green Street by Simeon DeWitt and was one of the earliest properties developed for residential purposes south of Green Street. DeWitt sold the property in 1828 to Elijah Goodwin, who sold it the same year to Oliver Phelps. Both Goodwin and Phelps were involved in the Cayuga Lake steamship industry.
Wait T. Huntington, a major landowner in the area, purchased the property from Phelps in 1829. He had recently purchased the brewery nearby on Six Mile Creek and later purchased other lots in the Henry St. John district. It is likely that the house was constructed in the 1830s for Huntington, who owned the property until 1869. Huntington was Village President in 1834 and 1855 and county clerk in 1837. In 1863, Huntington left Ithaca to enter service in the Pension Department in Washington, D.C. He was later transferred to the War Department and then the New York Post Office.
Edward and Hannah Hungerford owned the property from 1869-1881. Edward Hungerford served as sheriff from 1863-1866. Oristus Gregory, a nephew of Wait T. Huntington, purchased the property in 1881, along with 220 South Geneva Street. Oristus Gregory worked in Lewis Culver’s dry goods store, was a partner in Huntington’s brewery on Six Mile Creek, and operated a restaurant on State Street, the Alhambra House. He also served as a railroad bonding commissioner and a trustee of the Ithaca Savings Bank.
At the time of Gregory’s purchase, the 216 and 220 South Geneva Street lots ran the full depth of the block between South Geneva and South Albany Streets. In 1884, Gregory subdivided the lots and sold the west half of both to Thomas G. Miller, who had 219 South Albany Street constructed on the double lot.
Jennie Northrup later owned 216 South Geneva Street, apparently operating it as a rental property until 1915. She lived with her father John Northrup at 224 South Geneva Street, which was owned by the Northrup family until 1940. The extended Northrup family also owned 116
West Clinton Street. John’s son George Northrup owned and lived at lived at 334 South Geneva Street. John Northrup operated a harness and carriage trimming company and a sewing machine and pattern store. He also served as assessor and tax collector.
Alterations:
With the exception of the north and south two-story bay windows, which were constructed between 1898 and 1904, the east façade of the house is consistent with its depiction on the 1888 Sanborn company map. Small additions to the west façade were constructed between 1904 and 1919.
Sources:
Ithaca directories, 1864-1981. Historic Ithaca, Inc., Ithaca, NY.
Levine, Jeffrey. Building-Structure Inventory Form for 216 South Geneva Street, Ithaca, NY: 1987. Historic Ithaca, Inc., Ithaca, NY.
Photograph of 216 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.

Source of Building Data: 1910 Sanborn Fire Insurance Atlas;
Multi-Family Construction: ; 
Roof of Main Structure: Non-combustible; 
Additional Sections: ; 
Outbuildings: ; 
Porches: Porch 1, front (E), 1 story, non-combustible roof / Porch 2, back (W), 1 story, non-combustible roof; 
Other: Bay 1, right side (N) / Bay 2, left side (S);