Latest Structures Page 161

Amon Bronson House, Rochester New York

Amon Bronson House, Rochester New York

Amon Bronson established the first lumber yard in Rochester in 1832, He was an active leader in the politics of the historic Third Ward, Prior to the Civil War, this prominent Democrat was a Third Ward Alderman, and Ward Supervisor, 1859-1867. As a Republican, he was defeated for the United States Senate in 1865. This house was owned by Bronson heirs until 1915. Architectural character: This fine bow-fronted house illustrates refinements in exterior and interior detailing which became part of the later development of the Greek Revival style. Overall dimensions: Forty-five feet by seventy feet; three bay front by twelve bays; two stories; rectangular with two stepped rear sections. At some point this home was converted into 11 apartments.

New York Life Insurance Company Building, St. Paul Minnesota

New York Life Insurance Company Building, St. Paul Minnesota

One of the most impressive and costliest of multi-story commercial structures built in St. Paul in the late nineteenth century. The sculpted eagle above the entrance is very like that done for the same company by Augustus St. Gaudens for the New York Life Building, Kansas City, MO, 1887-90. Main entrance hall of marble, cherry woodwork throughout the building, mosiac floors in main entrance hall and corridors (the main hall remodeled in colored marble and terrazzo in the late 1890's). In the late 1890's an additional bay was erected on the south side of the building, the interior was remodeled (date unknown) with colored marbles, lowered ceiling and terrazzo floors.

Powers Building, Rochester New York

Powers Building, Rochester New York

The Powers Building, architecturally innovative for its day due to its scale and metal structural system, has been the keystone of Rochester's downtown commercial area since its construction in 1869-70. It was acclaimed as the first fire-proof structure in Rochester and at, the time the only building west of New York City equipped with elevators. The building stands as a monument to the Horatio Alger character of its owner, Daniel Powers. Its multiple mansard roofs and tower raised twice in four years reflect Power's determination to own Rochester's tallest building, the dream of his life. In 1850, Daniel Powers first opened the Powers Banking Office in the Eagle Block, the same site of the present Powers Building. He was a director

B. E. Boynton House, Rochester New York

B. E. Boynton House, Rochester New York

This well-preserved typical example of Frank Lloyd Wright's famous prairie house is unique in its completeness of an interior room. The dining room perhaps summarizes the architect's rather radical concept of interior space in 1908. Edward Boynton was a very successful salesman and later partner in the Ham Lantern Company of Rochester. He first heard of Wright through Warren MacArthur, a business partner in the lantern company. Wright had built one of his earliest houses for MacArthur in the Kenwood district of Chicago in 1892. The Boyntons, Edward and his daughter, Beulah, selected Wright as the architect of their home after giving brief consideration to the work of Claude Bragdon, Rochester's leading modern architect. Wright participated in the choice of the

Frank B. Kellogg House, St. Paul Minnesota

Frank B. Kellogg House, St. Paul Minnesota

Built for Frank B. Kellogg, while he was an attorney with Davis, Kellogg & Severance; later served as U.S. senator, Secretary of State under Calvin Coolidge. Kellogg negotiated the Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928, agreement signed by 62 nations to renounce war as an instrument of national policy, bring him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1929. Kellogg died in the house in 1937. President Calvin Coolidge visited here in 1923. Trained as a lawyer, Kellogg became a leading figure in Minnesota Republican politics. In 1916 he became Minnesota's first popularly elected U.S. Senator. Two and a half stories, rectangular, double gabled roof, polygonal dormers, interior end chimney, side entrance, 3 story semicircular central bay with conical roof. There was a 1920's remodeling

Charles Bissell House (Rochester Methodist Home), Rochester New York

Charles Bissell House (Rochester Methodist Home), Rochester New York

Josiah Bissell, brother of Charles P. Bissell, is credited with changing the name of the street from East Main Street to East Avenue. He had approached the Common Council to officially change the name. Being unsuccessful, he and a friend took matters into their own hands, by hanging hand-painted East Avenue signs at every comer. Thus, the name was changed from East Main Street. Julia Bissell was a woman of presumed independent means as she purchased other extensive property at the time of the purchase of 666 East Avenue. The third owner, Schnyler Colfax, was the son of the Vice-President. He was associated with the Artura Photo Paper Company, Columbia, Ohio. When Eastman Kodak purchased the company, Colfax came to Rochester

James J. Hill House, St Paul Minnesota

James J. Hill House, St Paul Minnesota

Constructed in 1889 and said to have cost $200,000, this 32-room house was the home of James Jerome Hill. One of the show places of St. Paul, the mansion was his home until his death in 1916. Mrs. Hill maintained the house after Hill's death in 1916 until her own death five years later. In 1925, family members purchased the mansion from the estate and presented it to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul. For the next half century the structure served as an office building, school, and residence for the church until it was acquired by the Minnesota Historical Society in 1978. Hill was not only one of the nation's great railroad builders but was a financial leader as

The Genesee Lighthouse (Charlotte Lighthouse), Rochester New York

The Genesee Lighthouse (Charlotte Lighthouse), Rochester New York

The building is locally known as the Charlotte Lighthouse, being located in the former village of Charlotte, now a part of Rochester. It is located at Latitude 43°36'37.10 and Longitude 77°36'39.10 on the west bank of the Genesee River, a considerable distance back from the present shore of lake Ontario, on a rising piece of ground. It once served as a lake coast and harbor light. The Albany Gazette of February 21, 1821 has an account of a proposal to erect a lighthouse on the east shore of the river, and called for the purchase of six acres of land. On February 21, 1821 Monroe county was set aside from part of Ontario County. A year later the building was erected

Bates-Ryder House, Rochester New York

Bates-Ryder House, Rochester New York

Col. Thomas C. Bates was a canal forwarder and railroad contractor who had married Maria Blossom. The Blossom family was one of the earliest to settle in the town of Brighton. Thomas Leighton, to whom Bates sold the property in 1875, was the owner of the Leighton Bridge and Iron Works, which he had moved to Rochester from Buffalo in 1873. This $1,000,000.00 a year business employed 200 people and specialized in railroad and highway bridges made of American Riveted Lattice. Leighton was a director of the Rochester City Hospital and president of the City Bank of Rochester. Thomas B. Ryder was a prominent citizen and drygoods merchant associated with Sibley, Lindsay and Carr, the largest department store in Rochester. Over-all

German Presbyterian Bethlehem Church (Little Bethlehem Church), St Paul Minnesota

German Presbyterian Bethlehem Church (Little Bethlehem Church), St Paul Minnesota

German-speaking immigrants established the congregation in 1887. In 1890 the land was purchased from Gov. Ramsey for $3,000. Ramsey donated one-third of the price. The church, built of rough yellow quarry stone, cost $8,000.00. Gilbert designed the church to recall the picturesque idiom of the vernacular architecture of Germany and Switzerland. Since the congregation disbanded in 1916, the building has been the headquarters of theatre groups, architectural groups and lately a funeral home.

Orringh Stone Tavern, Rochester New York

Orringh Stone Tavern, Rochester New York

The Orringh Stone Tavern, known as the oldest building in this vicinity, is located on the north side of East Avenue, opposite Council Rock Avenue, it is now occupied (1934) by Miss Ellen A. Tolan, whose father John A. Tolan, purchased the property December 17, 1860. Orringh Stone, the original owner and for whom the Tavern was named, erected the building in 1790, Here he and his family made their home until death took him away on April 2, 1839. The property then reverted to the heirs; his wife and children, in whose custody it continued to remain until 1849. Transfers were made by Bronson and Elizabeth (Stone) Hatch, to Charles D. and Harriet (Stone) West in 1844, then to Samuel

Church of the Assumption (Roman Catholic), St. Paul Minnesota

Church of the Assumption (Roman Catholic), St. Paul Minnesota

The congregation of the first distinctive German Catholic Church of St. Paul was organized in 1854. Plans for a new church were formulated and the comer stone was laid on August 15, 1855. The Fathers of the Order of St. Benedict came to the Church of the Assumption in 1858 and remained there until 1912. The congregation grew rapidly, and plans for the present church were begun. Completed in 1874, the building is operated by the Assumption Parish Corporation (incorporated in 1906). The building is rectangular in plan (on the north-south axis) with two large square towers (210' high) flanking the narthex, an elongated nave with clerestory and side aisles, and semicircular apse. The structure is 185' (8 bays) long and

Joseph Morse House (Stone House), Eaton Village New York

Joseph Morse House (Stone House), Eaton Village New York

In 1796 Joseph Morse and his wife, Eunice Bigelow Morse, came from Sherburne, Massachusetts, largely by blazed trail, and settled on approximately two hundred acres in what is now Eaton, on the Indian trail that extended from the Susquehanna River at its headwaters in Cooperstown to nearby Stockbridge. A settlement first called Log City grew up here. In 1806 Log City became Eaton and the half-dozen log cabins were called one of the cities of the new country. Soon after completion of the house in 1802, a fire house for the estate and a brick office with iron vault for administration were built. A grist and saw mill was built on Eaton Brook, an orchard laid out, and farming, cattle raising,

James R. Clark House (Tavern), Caledonia New York

James R. Clark House (Tavern), Caledonia New York

Identity of the builder seems to have been lost to the memories of at least two generations. Three men over ninety now living, besides many others including kin of Clark who have spent their lives in the vicinity, have had no knowledge of who built the tavern. Although Clark moved elsewhere in the 1850's, and its use as a tavern ended about 1860, it is notably peculiar that the name of a man once prominent in the community should, in its annals, have been separated so completely from a piece of architecture which has for years attracted the attention and the inquiries of strangers, has been pictured in public prints, and must have occupied a prominent place in post-pioneer affairs. Not

James C. Burbank House (Livingston-Griggs House), St. Paul Minnesota

James C. Burbank House (Livingston-Griggs House), St. Paul Minnesota

An American Victorian rendering of an Italian villa, the house was designed by Otis E. Wheelock of Chicago. The style, which became popular in this country during the 1840s and 1850s, is sometimes called American Bracketed because of the ornamentation at the cornice. The house was built between 1862 and 1865 by James C. Burbank, a Vermont-born pioneer who came to Minnesota in 1850. Burbank was a significant figure in early Minnesota transportation, controlling a large part of stage-coach and riverboat traffic in the 1860s. Burbank died in 1876, leaving the house to his widow, who resided in the house until 1884. Between 1884 and 1887 two families owned the mansion. George R. Finch, a partner of St. Paul's largest dry-goods

Plymouth Church, Brooklyn New York

Plymouth Church, Brooklyn New York

Plymouth Church, on Orange Street near Hicks Street in Brooklyn, New York, was built in 1849. According to Noyes L. Thompson's History of Plymouth Church, the plot on which it was built measured 88 feet by 200 feet, and was made up of 7 lots which extended from Orange Street to Cranberry Street and which originally were a part of the Hick's Estate. There were church buildings on this property prior to the erection of Plymouth Church. In the Life and Work of Henry Ward Beecher, by Thomas W. Knox, 1887, page 134, we find this passage: A blessing in disguise was the destruction by fire of the original church buildings in January 1849, as it enabled the society to rebuild

Dr. James Tillary House, Brooklyn New York

Dr. James Tillary House, Brooklyn New York

The City of New York bought the house and demolished it in 1935-36 for the purpose of opening the area for the Brooklyn Bridge plaza approach. The house was originally located on ground owned by a Mary Duff, who sold the land to Dr. James Tillary and his wife, Brigetta, on the 26^th of March, 1813. No mention of a building of any kind is made in the deed recorded in the Brooklyn Hal of Records, Record of Conveyances, Liber 10, Page 502. Shortly after the execution of this conveyance a two story house was built upon the property by Dr. James Tillary, who owned the property for years. In more recent years a family by the name of Cutting owned

Schenck-Crooke House, Brooklyn New York

Schenck-Crooke House, Brooklyn New York

This old homestead, built in 1655, is reputed to be the oldest house in New York State. Located originally on Mill Island, which is now Bergen Beach, Long Island, its story of early exploration and international commerce is an intriguing revelation. This story begins with one Jan Martense Schenck Van Nydeck, of noble lineage, who was born in Amersfoort, Holland, emigrated to New Netherland, and in 1656 built this house. His family line has been traced back without a break to the fourteenth century. They were Lords of Afferden. General Peter Schenck Van Nydeck was born at Gosh in 1547. His son Martin, born in 1584, was the father of the above mentioned founder of the family in America, whose name

Timothy Brown House (Brown's Temple or the Spirit House), Georgetown New York

Timothy Brown House (Brown's Temple or the Spirit House), Georgetown New York

Timothy Brown was born in Vermont in 1815 and moved from the town of Newburn, in Orange County, Vermont, to Georgetown, N.Y. in 1847 with his wife, Sarah, and their children. Apparently he was trained as a carpenter by the spirits, which he kept in dark closets, assisted him in all his work. The present Spirit House was the second house he built in Georgetown. The Browns lived in part of the house and used the rest for meetings and allowed theatrical and touring groups to entertain there. Brown died in 1885 and his widow in 1906. In 1874 the rear portion of the house was removed and the former Presbyterian Church building was added to the rear. In 1906 the

First Presbyterian Church, Cairo New York

First Presbyterian Church, Cairo New York

Placed back from the main highway some 75 feet, surrounded by lawn and trees, this white building with its long green shutters has quiet dignity and great charm. A double row of trees lines the walk leading straight to the main door, their branches forming a frame for the tower and doorway. The records of the church have been three times destroyed by fire; first, in the house of Daniel Sayre, Jan. 28, 1808; second, in the house of Jason Stevens, Sept. 1, 1862; and last, in the house of Ezra M. Stevens, April 19, 1864. Nevertheless, a few historical items taken from other old records, and a few supplied from the recollections of Jason Stevens who was clerk fifty years

Book Title Abandoned: Hauntingly Beautiful Deserted Theme Parks

Abandoned: Hauntingly Beautiful Deserted Theme Parks

Book Title Abandoned Industrial Places: Factories, laboratories, mills and mines that the world left behind (Abandoned Places)

Abandoned Industrial Places: Factories, laboratories, mills and mines that the world left behind (Abandoned Places)

Book Title The Atlas of Abandoned Places: A Journey Through The World's Forgotten Wonders

The Atlas of Abandoned Places: A Journey Through The World's Forgotten Wonders

Book Title Abandoned America: Then & Now: A Fun & Fascinating Look Revisiting America's Abandoned Places of the Past

Abandoned America: Then & Now: A Fun & Fascinating Look Revisiting America's Abandoned Places of the Past

Note: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.