103 Caldwell Rd Ithaca

This house was present and labeled with the name Preswick in early maps of Free Hollow, the name of the hamlet before it became Forest Home in 1876.  For example, two buildings are labeled H. Preswick at lower right in the map of Free Hollow in the 1866 Tompkins County Atlas [digital image ©2006 William Hecht, accessible at https://www.cayuga.nygenweb.net/maps/1866tompkins/16310small.jpg ].  103 Caldwell Road was the Preswick building further from Fall Creek. 

In 1903, the house was still occupied by Henry Preswick.  It was positioned between Caldwell Road and Cornell's new Water Filtration Plant, when the plant, funded by Andrew Carnegie, went into operation in May 1903 [see Ithaca Daily Journal, 1 May 1903, p.2, near bottom of col. 4 -- https://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/lccn/sn83031157/1903-05-01/ed-1/seq-2/ ].  Cornell was buying up land in the area.  The Ithaca Journal reported on July 3, 1903 on page 6, near the middle of column 5 under the heading "Campus Gleanings," that "The University last week purchased from Henry Preswick fifty acres of land lying between the University property and the former Mitchell farm, which was bought by the University some months ago" [see https://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/lccn/sn83031157/1903-07-13/ed-1/seq-6/ ].  But in deed 159/294, dated 7/11/1903, recorded by the Tompkins County Clerk, Henry Preswick reserved an interest in "the use of 5 or 6 acres of land and the buildings situated thereon in the NE corner of the farm." 

Henry Preswick, who was born in October 1926, died on Sept 11, 1904, having lived his entire life in this house. His son Eugene and daughter-in-law Cornelia conveyed that additional patch of land to Cornell in 1914. In 1950 this building was occupied by the superintendent of the Filtration Plant, Frederic Georgia.   

The house was empty in the 1959 city directory and in early 1960, advertisements for recycled lumber (2x4s; 2x8s; 2x12s) under the caption "Wrecking Preswick house in Forest Home" appeared repeatedly, e.g., from Ithaca Journal, 23 Jan 1960, p.11, middle of col.3.

Vehicle access from Caldwell Road to the Filtration Plant changed after the house was demolished and again in 2022 when a fence was built to enclose the plant and its filtration pools to comply with new regulations for infrastructure security.