The text below is a reprint of the nomination
for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places prepared
by Olaf W. Shelgren Jr. and Francis
R. Kowsky
The farmhouse
consists of three sections:
- a three-bay wide, two-and-a-half story main block;
- a three-bay, one-and-a-half-story wing adjoining the
south side of the main block;
- and a single-story wooden wing extending from the southern
side of this lower portion of the building.
The main block and the one-and-a-half-story
wing are built of red bricks that tradition holds
were made from clay taken from the banks of nearby Cattaraugus Creek. Cornices and
other wooden trim are painted white. The brick is laid in common bond, with a bond
course of headers every eighth course.
The roofs
of the all three sections are of the simple, low-pitched saddleback type covered
with asphalt shingles.
Louvered shutters, stone lintels and sills occur at every window and door in the
brick portions.
An L-shaped porch
supported by four wooden Doric columns runs across the east and south sides of the lower brick
wing. This porch retains the original wooden benches against the wall of the house
where farm hands could rest.
A number of simple, wooden decorative features dignify the farm house exterior.
- The handsome horizontal raking cornices on all sides of the brick portions are adaptations of Plate 15
in Asher Benjamin's 1839 builder's manual, "The Architect, or Practical House
Carpenter." (The farmhouse cornices omit Benjamin's ovolo molding.)
- Likewise, the entablature running along the porch on the brick wing was inspired by Plate
6 of Benjamin's book. (The triglyphs are omitted in favor of a blank frieze, but
the mutules with guttae of Benjamin's design are present.)
Windows throughout
the house are double hung, with six-over-six lights on the two-and-a-half story part
and nine-over-nine on the one-and-a-half-story section.
The two exterior doors
on the front have six panels. Another door, on the north wall at the northeast corner,
once led from the dining room into a one-story, ten-square-foot wooden addition This
addition was added in the 1880s and remained attached until c. 1920 when it was removed
The Doric-columned porch
at the main door dates only from 1989 and was designed by architect O. William Shelgren
who based the details on Asher Benjamin's work. The wooden entrance porch stands
on stone steps that are original to the house
Interior
Inside, the living spaces of the main part of the house are arranged around a central
stairhall. The second floor has three bedrooms.
The house has had few changes on the inside where most of the original woodwork is in tact. Asher
Benjamin's "The Architect, or Practical House Carpenter" and his "Practice
of Architecture" (1833) are the sources for most of the interior trim.
- The stair rail, for example, has a circular handrail supported on two spindles
at each tread, as shown in Benjamin's books.
- Each upward tapering spindle is round at the top and square at the base.
- The parlor has cornerblock, Benjamin-inspired casings [the finished, often
decorative framework around a door or window opening] at doors and windows.
Doors throughout
the house are the six-panel type and patterned after the upper right illustration
in Plate XXXIV of Benjamin's "Practice of Architecture." The important
doors on the first floor have a raised field on the panels as shown in Plate XXXIV,
while the rest omit the raised area.
Wing
The north section of the one-story wooden south wing (painted white) is believed
to have been moved from a neighboring farm around 1920. The date of its original
construction is probably c. 1890. It is of balloon frame construction with a plastered
interior and once served as the summer kitchen. The fact that it was a preexisting
structure explains the awkward location of the door under the roof of the farmhouse's
side porch. the south half of this wing has a study post and beam frame, which indicates
an earlier date of construction. The function of this portion and its original location
are not known.
