Morgan-Manning House, Brockport New York
Fire has Severely Damaged this Brockport NY Mansion Turned Museum
- Categories:
- New York
- Italianate
- House

This Brockport New York Mansion, owned by the Western Monroe Historical Society was severely damaged by fire on Tuesday January 14th, 2025. The second floor of the structure collapsed, it took firefighters four hours to bring the blaze under control.
The Morgan-Manning house is a distinguished example of Italianate-style residential architecture in the village of Brockport, Monroe County. Built in 1854, the two-story brick residence exhibits characteristics associated with the style including simple square massing with symmetrical fenestration, a low-hipped roof surmounted by a cupola, broad overhanging eaves and a full front porch. The building is distinguished by an outstanding interior that retains virtually complete integrity from its construction. The interior is highlighted by ornate wooden moldings, paneling, wainscotting, doors, architraves and parquet flooring. In addition, several intact marble mantles and brass lighting fixtures remain intact. The property is historically significant as the home of D.S. Morgan, a manufacturer of the McCormick reaper. With mechanical improvements to the original machine made throughout the latter Nineteenth century, the McCormick reapers produced by Morgan achieved national success. The residence is a distinguished example of its type and period, and remains one of Brockport's most notable architectural landmarks.
The section of western New York west of the Genesee River that contained the town of Sweden was originally part of the Phelps and Gorham Purchase of 1788. The town is within what became known as the "Triangular Tract," which was sold by Robert Morris in 1801 to Herman LeRoy, William Bayard and James McEvers, three New York City merchants. In 1802, the partners opened the Lake Road, a turnpike following the old Indian trail which ran on a north-south axis through their property. In 1810, the Ridge Road opened to facilitate east-west travel between the Genesee and Niagara Rivers. Murray Corners (now Clarkson) was an important transportation center located at the junction of Lake Road and Ridge Road. In 1817, Hiel Brockway moved to a site south of Murray Corners, seeking to take advantage of economic opportunities engendered by the Erie Canal. Once the canal route was established one mile south of Murray Corners, Brockway began buying all the available land along Lake Road. This area became the village of Brockport, incorporated on April 6th, 1829.
Economic foundations within Brockport developed along agricultural lines similar to the economies of adjacent communities within the region. Most settlers paid for their land with cash down payments and promises to pay the balance within a specified number of years. To meet their financial obligations, the settlers needed a commodity easily grown and marketed. The crop in western New York that fit those specifications was grain, provided it could be ground, barreled and transported with economy. The Genesee provided a major transportation corridor to Lake Ontario and Canadian markets, while the Erie Canal served interior portions of New York State. Those who invested in land and mills prospered; towns fortunate to be located along the Erie Canal took advantage of transportation and freight handling opportunities. Brockport, ideally situated along the Erie Canal, flourished within the new agricultural economy.
The Italianate style, inspired by the picturesque and romantic qualities of vernacular Italian farmhouses and villas, was a product of the Picturesque Movement and to some extent paralleled the development and popularization of other romantically-inspired styles, particularly the Gothic Revival. Beginning in England during the first decades of the Nineteenth century, the style was introduced in the United States and popularized by leading architects such as A. J. Davis beginning in the late 1830s. In residential applications, the style tended to be expressed in one of two principal modes: the informal and asymmetrical Italian Villa, often incorporating round-arched windows and a tower, and a more Indigenous house type consisting of a traditional center or side entrance plan, simple rectangular massing, a low-pitched hipped roof, a central cupola, and occasionally vestigial classical details. This later house type, exemplified by the Morgan-Manning house, was built in large numbers throughout central and western New York State during the second half of the Nineteenth century, particularly in expanding canal towns such as Brockport, which prospered from trade and manufacturing.
Built in 1854 for John C. Ostrom, the Morgan-Manning House exhibits numerous distinctive features associated with this style, including a typical five-bay main block capped by a hipped roof and cupola. The center entrance front facade has a full-width porch with chamfered columns and bracketed eaves. The molded window lintels are also bracketed. According to an 1877 engraving, the overhanging roof eaves also contained paired brackets subsequently removed sometime during the Twentieth century. The house evokes a balanced sense of horizontal massing with closely set windows and wide, overhanging eaves.
The interior of the Morgan-Manning House retains many original features, including trim, doors, mantels, window glass, flooring and structural members. Original elements such as doors, hardware and wood paneling reflecting the period when the house was the center of a wealthy, thriving family of the region.
Morgan purchased the residence from James O. Guild on September 9th, 1867 and occupied it until his death on April 9th, 1890. The career of D.S. Morgan symbolized the opportunities available to industrious young men able to capitalize on new technologies and the shifts in economic fortune during the Nineteenth century. Born in 1819, Dayton Samuel Morgan was a sixth-generation descendant of an early Connecticut family. Samuel Morgan, Dayton's father, was a prosperous farmer who had settled in Ogden (now Spencerport). Having lost heavily in the Panic of 1837, Samuel Morgan moved on to Ohio and left Dayton behind with an aunt in Brockport. After a succession of minor jobs, Dayton and his partners, William H. Seymour and Thomas R. Roby, established the Globe Iron Works in 1843 to manufacture farm equipment and stoves. In 1844, D.S. Morgan purchased Roby's interest and the firm became known as "Seymour and Morgan."
The 1840s were a time of exciting industrial change in communities throughout western New York. Jacksonian prosperity exemplified by railroads and the burgeoning industrial revolution offered tremendous opportunities for men of enterprise. Rochester became a leader in the nursery, machinery, clothing and shoe industries while Syracuse excelled in the manufacture of differential gears, alkali, steel, typewriters and wax products. Seneca Falls produced pumps, fire engines and stove parts. In Brockport, an important industry that took hold in 1846 was the manufacture of the McCormick reaper.
Although precise details are unclear, local legend indicates that Congressman Elias B. Holmes introduced Cyrus McCormick to William H. Seymour and Dayton S. Morgan. Holmes had evidently met McCormick in Washington where the latter gentleman was securing patents for his new mechanical reaper. McCormick, after conferring in Brockport with the two partners, allowed Seymour and Morgan to manufacture one hundred reapers in time for the harvest of 1846. These early reapers were not entirely successful since the machines exhibited mechanical imperfections. After McCormick went west, Seymour and Morgan successfully experimented with other parts which improved overall performance of the reaper. Seymour and Morgan discontinued payment of patent fees to McCormick, who promptly brought suit against the firm for patent infringements. The lawsuit dragged on for years with neither side prevailing.
The firm of Seymour and Morgan continued to sell the improved reaper, a model called the "New Yorker." In 1851, five hundred New Yorkers were sold. George H. Allen joined the firm in 1852, and the business was duly renamed "Seymour, Morgan and Allen." During this period, the firm sponsored an invention that became known as the quadrant platform, a device that mechanically swept grain from the cutter to facilitate stacking at the side of the reaper. The quadrant platform, originally design by Stephen Gc. Williams and Aaron Palmer of Brockport and improved by Seymour and Morgan, was an important addition to the mechanization of agriculture. In 1873, the company began production of a new reaper called the "Triumph" which enjoyed great commercial success.
In 1882, the business incorporated as "D.S. Morgan and Company" with subsidiary offices in Chicago, Illinois and Jackson, Michigan. As the agricultural revolution swept westward, Morgan and Company soon followed. With reaper production at four thousand a year, D.S. Morgan invested in real estate and railroads. He purchased stock in the Central Crosstown Street Railroad in New York City, serving for many years as a vice-president of the company. In addition to business activities, Morgan helped bring the State Normal School to Brockport and served as President of the Local Board of Managers for the institution (now the State University College at Brockport). Dayton S. Morgan died of typhoid pneumonia on April 9th, 1890. In 1894, his heirs sold the reaper patents and production of those implements ceased at Brockport.
Fire causes second floor to collapse at historic Victorian mansion in Brockport Cause revealed in damaging fire at Brockport's historic Morgan-Manning House
Building Description
The Morgan-Manning House (1854), an elegant Italianate-style masonry residence, is situated on the east side of Main Street in the village of Brockport, a large rural college community located in the town of Sweden twenty miles west of Rochester, Monroe County. Formerly an agrarian village with some light industry, Brockport is today a bustling suburban community characterized by a mixture of nineteenth and twentieth-century development including residential, commercial and industrial buildings. The central business district (CBD) is intact, with most modern commercial development occurring north and south of the district. The Morgan-Manning House fronts on Main Street and is located on a 1.1-acre tract historically associated with the property. The lot is situated south of the CBD at the northeast corner of Main and South Streets. The central business district to the north contains an impressive collection of mid- to late-nineteenth-century commercial buildings relatively free of modern intrusions. The northern boundary of the business district is formed by the New York State Barge Canal, which closely follows the old Erie Canal bed. The area south of the property contains mixed residential and commercial development, while the area to the east contains primarily residential. Further west across Main Street is the State University College at Brockport, which is not visible from the house.
A grassy lawn dotted with mature shade trees and shrubs surrounds the house while a brick carriage house is located next to the lot line. St. Luke's Episcopal Church is located two blocks north on the same side of Main Street.
The Morgan-Manning House, built in 1854, is constructed with brick bearing walls laid in American common bond atop a coursed limestone foundation. The massing consists of a two-story rectangular block surmounted by a hipped roof and cupola. This portion of the building includes a five-bay facade at the west side with a single-story porch spanning the facade. A two-story hipped roof wing extends from the rear (east) elevation of the residence. This, in turn, is followed by a smaller two-story brick hipped roof appendage extending eastward, thus producing a stepped or telescoping configuration both in plan and profile. All three units appear to date from the original 1854 date of construction.
The main block is distinguished by a red brick facade and a smooth limestone water table. This section is four bays deep. The front of the main block is further enhanced by a full-width porch that rests on brick piers. The porch is composed of chamfered piers on plinths with molded capitals and paired scroll-sawn brackets. The central front entrance features a double-leaf door with large glass panels. Windows on both levels of the main block are symmetrically spaced, with double-hung sash containing single lights. All windows feature smooth stone sills and molded lintels. At the roof line the broad overhanging eaves were once supported by paired scroll-sawn brackets. These brackets were removed in the mid-twentieth century.
The north and south elevations of the residence are similar and characterized by symmetrically spaced windows, with double-hung sash containing single lights identical to those of the principal (west) facade. The northern elevation is distinguished by a projecting three-sided bay window at the first story at the rear of the main block. The eastern (rear) elevation is dominated by a two-story brick, hipped roof wing. A smaller two-story brick wing extends from the rear elevation of the previous wing. The wings are characterized by an asymmetrical placement of doors and double-hung sash windows containing six-over-six and one-over-one lights.
The hipped roofs of all three blocks of the house are currently covered with asphalt shingles. The center of the main block of the house is dominated by a large wooden cupola containing fixed sash and a bracketed hipped roof surmounted by a turned wooden finial.
The interior of the house is divided axially at the first-floor level by a center hall. Two parlors flank the center hall on the south side; a reception room and library are situated north of the hall. The rooms are divided by elaborate wooden arches supported by Ionic columns with carved capitals. Fourteen-foot ceilings, oak and cherry woodwork, hardwood floors, plaster moldings and ornate wood moldings survive intact throughout the residence. Windows and doors feature shouldered architraves. The central hall incorporates a vestibule immediately inside the front doors with a stained-glass transom and wooden leaf doors containing large glass panels. Extending from the hallway to the second floor is a double-run stair with carved oak newel and rail. To the rear of the main block in the wing is a dining room, a kitchen and a butler's pantry. The rear wing extension originally included a summer kitchen and laundry. The second story of the residence is characterized by a series of bed chambers. The interior of the residence retains an outstanding degree of integrity. Ornate wood moldings, wainscotting, beams, paneling, architraves, doors, archways, mantels, plaster moldings, medallions and ornate carved marble mantels remain intact.

West and South elevations (1991)

West and North elevations (1991)

East and North elevations (1991)

East and South elevations (1991)

Carriage House (1991)

Dining Room (1991)

Main Hallway and Stairs First floor (1991)

Front Parlor First Floor (1991)
