"The four-story building at 501 N. Tioga St. that burned Tuesday was constructed in 1908 and designed by Ithaca architect Clinton L. Vivian, according to Mary Tomlan, an architectural historian who did a survey of Ithaca rental housing for a DeWitt Historical Society exhibit in the 1980s.
Its first owner was Isaac LaBarr, who had a grocery store on the first level and lived above, Tomlan said.
'The years prior to World War I were a popular time to be building apartments buildings like that,' Tomlan said. 'The building was essentially railroad flats, rooms that were one behind the other with a center hallway.'
Surrounded by single-family homes, the building probably served as the neighborhood grocery, Tomlan said.
'As a free-standing apartment building in a noncommercial district, it's fairly unique.' she said."