This house is situated close to a narrow, winding section of Forest Home Drive. It sits on a flat, narrow lawn, tucked between a steep wooded hill to the northwest and Fall Creek to the southeast. Stone steps lead through flower gardens down to the creek. It is one of several houses in this area built by Eugene Preswick, an instructor of chemistry at Cornell University who began building houses in Forest Home at the beginning of the 20th century. He is listed in city directories between 1913-14 and 1921 as a farmer, and later a yardman. The description in the 1991 Building-Structure Inventory form includes: "This is a two-story rectangular residence with a steeply pitched gable roof lacking returns. It is clad in clapboard, has a rock faced concrete block foundation, and has windows with one- over-one double hung sash. There are two sets of decorative three-sided bay windows, on the first and second story, at the southern corner of the house facing Forest Home Drive. The three-bay front porch features Colonial Revival columns and one turned post which may be a survivor from an earlier, turn-of-the-century porch. ... Architecturally, this building is representative of vernacular housing at the turn of the century, but also incorporates a decorative Queen Anne element in its multi-sided bay windows."
At one time, a roadway ran along the northwest edge of the creek, starting at the driveway to this home. A slaughter house (no longer extant) was located here, just upstream of the present dwelling. This slaughter house supplied the meat market (no longer extant) which was located on Forest Home Drive, near the downstream bridge. Both of these establishments were later destroyed by fire, with rival meat dealers from Ithaca being suspected of arson.
Included in
Forest Home Historic District with USN 10906.000066. To access the Building-Structure Inventory Form (sometimes referred to as the "Blue Form"), from which most of the details above are drawn, including the estimated date built, follow these
Lookup Instructions.