4 The Byway Ithaca

This house is one of a group of dwellings from around 1830 in the section of Forest Home now called The Byway. Most were built as housing for workers employed in mills on Fall Creek. The former Mill Lane previously ran between these houses and the creek.

Circa 1954, local historian Albert Force  recalled the building's appearance prior to Victorian-era changes: "The house...until the early 1890s was a story-and-a-half house of great charm, having a latticed Dutch stoop with benches on either side. There was a cellar kitchen with a bed-sink, a recessed alcove for a bed with curtains which could be drawn during day-time or on an especially cold night."  The house appears on the map of Free Hollow in the 1866 Atlas of Tompkins County, labeled "M. McKinney."  Mills McKinney was Albert Force's great-grandfather.

This building was the first house in Forest Home to have a telephone, bathroom and running water. In the 1890s, running water to service the house was brought by ram pumps via the basement of the Empire Grist Mill, approximately one block away, near the bridge, and stored in a tank in the attic.

In 1938, a rear two-story porch was enclosed. Screens and storm windows were installed on the front and side facades. Since 1978, extensive interior alterations have been made.

Included in Forest Home Historic District with USN 10906.000048. To access the Building-Structure Inventory form (sometimes referred to as the "Blue Form"), follow these Lookup Instructions.  This is the source of most details above.

Other sources:
The First One Hundred Years of Forest Home. By Albert W. Force, c. 1954 -- https://www.fhia.org/free-hollow/