2 The Byway Ithaca

This fine example of Greek Revival cottage architecture is one of the earlier structures built in the Forest Home area. A local mill owner, Isaac Cradit, built it ca.1820-1830 to house mill workers and their families. The house appears on the map of Free Hollow in the 1866 Atlas of Tompkins County, labeled "A. Hasbrouck."  Mills McKinney was Albert Force's great grandfather.The house was purchased in 1869 by William Slocum. The original house was a simple one-and-a-half stories.  William Slocum enlarged the property. The changes made by Slocum were recorded by his grandson, Albert Force, who lived in the house from 1903, at the age of 6, until his death in 1970: "With his growing family he added almost 50% to the size of the house. He raised the roof of the center section, built on a kitchen, and added three bedrooms." From 1929, Force also used the home for his retail antiques business.

This L-shaped, one-and-a-half story dwelling has an open front porch running the width of the side wing. This porch has four Doric columns, probably from the Colonial Revival era. There is also a screened-in porch on the rear of the structure. Windows are primarily six-over-six and nine-over-six double hung sash, and there are several three-pane frieze windows. Two paneled doors have original handcrafted hardware and molded doorway frames with corner blocks. Interior features include some original window glass, wide board pine floors, pine wainscoting in the kitchen, and a chair rail in the living room.

Alan and Ann McAdams, who occupied the house from 1977 to 2017, renovated the kitchen and undertook a program of stabilization and maintenance. Deteriorating lath and plaster walls and ceilings were replaced, three small downstairs rooms made into two (a small bathroom and a larger living room). A small sagging porch to the rear was removed and a larger screened back porch built, making use of Greek Revival style columns. A brick patio was built to the rear, and a small shed was moved closer to the house and stabilized for use as a garden shed.

Included in Forest Home Historic District with USN 10906.000050. To access the Building-Structure Inventory form (sometimes referred to as the "Blue Form"), from which some of the details above are drawn, follow these Lookup Instructions. 

Other sources:
* Ithaca Journal of April 20 1978, page 13.  A full-page spread, incorporating several photographs, titled "Antique dealer's home being refurbished." It describes the work that Ann McAdams, her mother, and her sons had done on 2 The Byway between buying the property in 1975 and moving in as a family in 1977.
* Albert Force (1897-1970). By Wells, Elizabeth Baker Wells. 1974.  Published by The Albert Force Memorial Fund with Free Hollow to Forest Home by Liese Price Bronfenbrenner.
* Free Hollow to Forest Home. By Bronfenbrenner, Liese Price. 1974. Available online at https://www.fhia.org/free-hollow-to-forest-home/