Gansevoort-East Steuben Streets Historic District
The Gansevoort/East Steuben Streets Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. Portions of the content on this web page were adapted from a copy of the original nomination document. [1]
Description
The Gansevoort/East Steuben Streets Historic District is the only intact, nineteenth-century middle-class residential neighborhood in the village of Bath. The enclave contains a significant concentration of Greek Revival, Italianate and Queen Anne style dwellings. The substantially intact houses, dating from c. 1830 to 1908, reflect the development of one of Bath's more fashionable middle-class residential areas. Many of the dwellings in the neighborhood are historically associated with locally prominent merchants and businessmen.
East Steuben and Gansevoort Streets were two of the earliest streets laid out when the village was planned in the late eighteenth century. Distinctive examples of the Greek Revival style, typical of Bath's earliest extant buildings, include the Ten Eyck Gansevoort House (10 Gansevoort Street), the Lewis Biles House (13 Gansevoort Street), the C. H. Young House (103 East Steuben Street), and the McMaster/Parkhurst House (101 East Steuben Street). The Ten Eyck Gansevoort House has a prominent two-story pedimented portico, a feature associated with the more elegant variations of the Greek Revival style. The Lewis Biles and the C. H. Young Houses represent vernacular adaptations of the style. The former, a modest frame structure, is distinguished by a pedimented gable and oriented towards the street, an L-shaped configuration and a wide frieze, features typical of the style. The three-bay, side-hall configuration and gable roof with prominent returns of the C. H. Young House distinguish it as a Greek Revival style structure. The McMaster/Parkurst House, elegant and distinctive in the district for its masonry construction, is characterized by a pedimented gable end oriented towards the street and a three-bay, side-hall configuration. These four dwellings date from the 1830"s and 1840"s as do most other Greek Revival structures in the village. They reflect Bath's earliest prosperity as a riverfront commercial center on the Cohocton River at the headwaters of the Susquehanna River transportation route. Prominent local citizens associated with the dwellings of the district's earliest period of significance include Ten Eyck Gansevoort, an early settler of Bath who came from Albany in the early 1800"s, Lewis Biles, in the tin ware and stove making business, C. H. Young, a produce dealer, and Guy H. McMaster, a lawyer and noted county judge.
Distinctive examples of Italianate style residential architecture, reflecting Bath's second period of prosperity brought on by the railroad industry, are also included in the district. Features characteristic of the period and style, including low-pitched hipped roofs with bracketed eaves, cupolas and projecting bay windows with bracketed cornices, are exhibited by the district's Italianate style dwellings at 11 Gansevoort Street, 122 East Steuben Street, 115 East Steuben Street (the west portion of the Steuben County Offices) and 105 East Steuben Street (the James F. Howell House). Prominent local citizens historically associated with the dwelling of this period include David McMaster (11 Gansevoort Street), who operated a carriage manufacturing business with his neighbors, the Loomis family, and Austin Otis (122 East Steuben Street), a bookkeeper.
Although substantially altered when converted into office space, 117 East Steuben Street (the east portion of the Steuben County Offices) was once a unique and distinctive example of the mid-nineteenth century Octagonmode. The structure retains its prominent octagonal cupola as well as a suggestion of its original octagonal configuration.
The East Steuben and Gansevoort Streets neighborhood continued to develop as a fashionable middle-class enclave after 1880. Significant examples of the Queen Anne style include the Moses Davison House (5 Gansevoort Street), owned by a partner in H. W. Perine's department store who was also the director of the Bath Savings and Loan Association, the George Parker House (7 Gansevoort Street) owned by a station express agent for the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, and the dwelling at 111 East Steuben Street. The three are characterized by picturesque asymmetry, multi-gabled roofs, corbelled brick chimneys, ornamental woodwork and sweeping verandahs, typical features of the period and style. Late nineteenth century eclectic dwellings exhibit a variety of distinctive ornamental features, including turned and scroll-sawn woodwork embellishing porches and gale ends.
The one early twentieth century dwelling (6 Gansevoort Street), reflecting the influence of the Colonial Revival style, complements the architecture of the district by the use of similar scale, form, and materials, and contributes to the distinctive architectural quality of the district. Stylistic features include a denticulated cornice, a large hipped roof which also serves as the front (west) porch, and tripartite windows on the first story and in the hipped roof dormers which are separated by engaged columns.
- Gansevoort-East Steuben Streets Historic District, nomination document, 1983, National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places, Washington, D.C.
Nearby Neighborhoods
Street Names
Gansevoort Street • Steuben Street East
