This house was moved to the present location circa 1912 by William C. Mitchell. The structure is believed to be the oldest extant residence in Forest Home. It may date from as early as 1800 according to local historians; the Federal style of the house makes it likely that it was constructed in the early nineteenth century. Sometimes called the Van Natta-McIntyre house, this home was once part of the Van Natta farm, and was originally built for the family of a Mr. McIntyre.
This five-by-two bay, two-story house conforms to the plan of the typical Federal style house of the early 1800s, with a gable roof, wide frieze board, corner pilasters and center entrance. The doorway is sheltered by a projecting vestibule. The vestibule features narrow pilasters, free standing square columns, sidelights and balustrade facing a second-story center doorway. The residence has two inside end chimneys and two-over-two double hung windows.
The original location was on the same block, somewhere between 128 and 136 Judd Falls Road. It took an entire summer to move the house, during which time the Mitchell family continued to live in it. The location of the house before its move is shown, labeled "A. McIntyre" in the map of Free Hollow in the 1866 Atlas Of Tompkins County [
https://www.fhia.org/historic-maps-of-forest-home/#1866]. William C. Mitchell [see
https://tompkins.historyforge.net/people/189842 ] later built three stone houses on Forest Home Drive at the eastern end of the hamlet, beyond the upstream bridge. See
https://tompkins.historyforge.net/buildings/8321 for 336 Forest Home Drive.
Included in
Forest Home Historic District with USN 10906.000017. To access the Building-Structure Inventory form (sometimes referred to as the "Blue Form"), follow these
Lookup Instructions. This is the source of many of the details above, including the approximate Build date.
Other sources:
1. For the move of the house:
Ithaca Daily Journal, March 11, 1912, p. 6. bottom of col. 5 --
https://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/lccn/sn83031157/1912-03-11/ed-1/seq-6/