220 Forest Home Dr Ithaca

This long rectangular two-story dwelling has a relatively steep pitched gable roof and returns. There is a one-bay screened porch on the east elevation. A three-bay front porch, facing Forest Home Drive to the south, is supported by four plain square posts. The main part of this house, facing Forest Home Drive, appears to be the oldest section. It is the only section with a full basement with exposed hewn timbers and, according to the owner in 1990, has plank walls. A rear wing, added sometime later, contains the kitchen and a bathroom upstairs. The stucco and shingle exterior finish was probably added early in the 20th century. The front entry porch was remodeled in the late 1940s when spindles and railings were removed and square posts installed. In the 1970s, several one-over-one double hung windows in the dining room were replaced with fixed single-pane windows.

The 28' by 40' board and batten storage barn, situated on the upper part of the property on Warren Road, was restored in 1988. The structure was reinforced with steel cables, and rotted timbers and siding were replaced.

This property is the former location of the Northrup Store. The store was located to the west of the house on the edge of Forest Home Drive. According to local historian Albert Force in Free Hollow: The First One Hundred Years of Forest Home, William Van Valkenberg built the house shortly before the Civil War. The house appears on the 1866 map of Free Hollow from the Atlas of Tompkins County. Wounded during the war, VanValkenberg returned to Free Hollow, where friends built a store for him as a means of livelihood. The store became a village institution. Known as the "Senate," it served as a general store, cobbler shop and informal meeting place for local residents. The Forest Home Post Office moved into the store from the Cole residence at 206 Forest Home Drive in the 1890s. The store was demolished in the 1940s.

Included in Forest Home Historic District with USN 10906.000060. 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 estimated building date, follow these Lookup Instructions.