200 Forest Home Dr Ithaca

This is a two-story L-shaped dwelling with roof returns. There are eave brackets and dentils around the roof line of the entire building and porches. The brackets are very ornate, with pendants, ball ornaments, and scrolling. Windows are two-over-two double hung sash, with operating shutters. The front entryway is a recessed double door with a large rectangular window in each door. The two front porches feature tall square posts with capitals and an extended deck with a balustrade featuring turned balusters and short square posts. There are also brackets and dentils in the porch eaves.

The southeastern wing of the house was built before 1850.  According to Albert Force in Free Hollow: The First One Hundred Years of Forest Home [https://www.fhia.org/free-hollow/] David McKinney built the original house for his daughter, Mrs. Alfred Hasbrouck. The house appears on the map of Free Hollow in the 1866 Tompkins County Atlas, labeled, "D. McKinney." It was part of a large farm, with barns located to the rear, at the top of the hill.

In addition to being a farmer, Alfred Hasbrouck operated a leather finishing shop (no longer extant), which was located half way up Pleasant Grove hill, on the opposite side of the street. This shop tanned and finished calf hides and kid skins, primarily for use in ladies' shoes and book bindings. The larger (northwest) wing was added to the building, probably prior to 1880.  The height of the older (southeast) wing was raised at a later date; it is likely that the Italianate design elements were added at that time.  According to Albert Hazen Wright, some members of the newly-formed Gamma Alpha graduate scientific fraternity lived in a part of the house between 1898 and 1900.

Alfred's son, Charles A. Hasbrouck (1864-1910), inherited the property in 1902 and acquired parcels of land that comprise the Forest Home Park in 1907 and 1908. He died in 1910 and willed the property to Cornell University to benefit female students, in memory of his wife, the former Mary Fobes. The house was rechristened Hasbrouck Lodge and provided housing, mainly to young Cornell couples, for many years.

In 1943, Cornell separated the house from the farmland. The house was sold to Donald and Helen Moyer in 1946 with 1.2 acres.  The farmland, including barns located behind the house, at the top of the hill, was retained by Cornell, and initially used as a poultry farm and orchard. Part of this land was integrated into Cornell University Golf Course as an extension.   Beginning in 1960, the Hasbrouck Apartments complex (for graduate student housing) was constructed on part of the land adjacent to Pleasant Grove Road. 

In 1946, Donald and Helen Moyer undertook major renovations. The kitchen was enlarged, a hallway added, a fireplace built on the southeast elevation, and a rear screened porch constructed. In 1960, the home was purchased by Burnham and Jean Kelly who built an extension on the front porch and eliminated the separate stairway on the south wing porch. Later, the Kellys added a small wing to the rear of the building to allow enlarging the kitchen and changing the interior circulation. 

A two-story, gable-roofed barn is located just to the northwest of the house. It features a frieze band with cornice returns, and board and batten siding. It was used as a carriage house. Since 1999, vehicle access to the property has been through the barn. Remains of stalls for horses are visible inside.  A metal roof was installed (date unknown).

A second barn is situated behind the house at the top of the steep hill, on what was once the farmland associated with this property. It now serves as a storage facility for the Cornell University Golf Course.

Included in Forest Home Historic District with USN 10906.000052. To access the Building-Structure Inventory Form (sometimes referred to as the "Blue Form"), from which many of the details above are drawn, including the approximate date built, follow these Lookup Instructions.  Also available is a separate Building Inventory Form for the Golf Course Barn #2.

Other Sources:
Wright, Albert Hazen, Pre-Cornell and Early Cornell XI (Gamma Alpha Graduate Scientific Fraternity – Its Beginning), Studies in History no. 26, Ithaca, NY, 1965.
Brittain, Bruce, Timeline for Forest Home Park and Hasbrouck Bench. [https://www.fhia.org/wp-content/uploads/Highlights/HasbrouckBenchHistoryTimeline.pdf]