This two-and-a-half story gable-roofed dwelling features exposed stone on the first story and stucco facing on the second story. It has a slate roof and extended eaves with exposed rafter ends. The full width front porch is similarly constructed of stone, with square stone piers and closed railing. There is an inside end chimney on the north elevation.
The house was built by a stone mason, Hugh Mitchell [see
https://tompkins.historyforge.net/people/189456], who was employed by Cornell around 1913 to do the skilled masonry on University buildings. He built the house for his private residence. According to articles in the Ithaca Daily Journal, in 1911 he bought stone from a restaurant that had been torn down and moved it to the lot near the school house and broke ground in 1913. Mitchell also cut stones for the house at the quarry on Ellis Hollow Road. The house had a food storage room in the basement, with a floor covered with marble slabs with an inch wide space between them. Water was sprinkled on these slabs to provide a large cool, well drained food storage area. There was a large fire place on first floor.
Hugh's brother, William C. Mitchell [see
https://tompkins.historyforge.net/people/189842 ], also lived in Forest Home. Although not employed full-time by the University, William also worked on Cornell building projects. William lived on Judd Falls Road in 1912 in the old Van Natta-McIntyre house, which he moved from its original location, roughly opposite the school house to the lot where the house now stands as 112 Judd Falls Road. Later, William 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.
From 1919 until 1943, this house was occupied by James E. Rice, the first head of the first college poultry department in the country, which was established in the College of Agriculture at Cornell University in 1907. Hugh Mitchell and his wife moved to 237 Forest Home Drive when they sold this house to Rice.
The house originally had two screened sleeping porches. It was remodeled into apartments by Trevor Teele in the 1950s after he acquired the property in 1943, and remodeled again by Andrew McElwee around 1970, when he acquired the property.
Around 1924, a garage was constructed from the former school house, sometimes referred to as
School House #2, built about 1850. The replacement school house was built on land that is now part of the Cornell Botanic Gardens, with street address of 100 Judd Falls Road.
Included in
Forest Home Historic District with USN 10906.000029. 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 year built, follow these
Lookup Instructions.
Other sources:
* Ithaca Daily Journal, 6 May 1911, page 11, column 3, under Forest Home
Hugh Mitchell has bought the stone from the old restaurant, which was recently torn down, and had it drawn on his lot near the school house. Mr. Mitchell intends to build a house there sometime in the near future.
* Ithaca Daily Journal, 5 July 1913, page 6, column 2, under Forest Home
"Hugh Mitchell has broken ground for his new house on his lot near the school house,"