The house, now demolished at 3890 E. 93rd, is a si...

2011-11-18T12:46:40.868-05:00

The house, now demolished at 3890 E. 93rd, is a significant subject. Questions remain as to the builder and the build date. Some answers may be found in tracing the title transactions for Cleveland 100-acre lot 456, in which the house sat. Land transactions will be as important as census schedules for understanding the age of this house and Alonzo Carters relationship to it. The 1852 Blackmore Cuyahoga County Map has A. Carter owning 56 acres in the northern part of the lot. The Blackmore map often indicates the first individual owners in these lots—those owning significantly before 1852. Alonzo had half the lot in 1852. He may have bought it significantly earlier than 1852. Maybe not.

Newburg was a settlement center from the Western Reserve’s earliest days. The first gristmill opened on Mill Creek in 1798. Stone quarries and mill-related industries were in place by the early 1820s. In these early years, Newburg residents had the resources with which to build substantial dwellings. I predict that when a build date can be estimated from hard evidence, it will be closer to 1800 than to 1850. My prediction is based on the following:

The E. 93rd house has two complete stories, a full complement of windows, and stylish eave moldings and doorway ornamentation. Nevertheless, while the house looks large in the photo, its individual features suggest a diminutive scale of building. For example, the windows are small and the moldings are narrow. It is as if the house was scaled to fit the small size of available resources. The approach is typical of trying to reproduce New England on the frontier before large glass panes were available and Greek Revival fashions arrived (1830s). There are three houses that help put the E. 93rd St house in perspective.

Peter Hitchcock house, Burton Township, built, apparently, 1813. http://www.flickr.com/photos/mshiffphotography/6259518441/in/photostream/
Like the E. 93rd house, the Hitchcock house is a New England “large” house built on a diminutive scale.

Leonard Case house, built near Public Square, ~1816. http://www.clevelandareahistory.com/2009/11/leonard-case-house.html
The E. 93rd house ornamentation, a kind of vernacular Federal, resembles the case house. Both houses have narrow decorative moldings in the Federal tradition.

Newburg early cape. http://www.clevelandareahistory.com/2010/09/mystery-photo-for-september-23-2010.html
On Sept. 23, 2009, Christopher posted a photo of an unknown house in the Newburg area. With its eaves down upon the window lentils, this is an old style New England “cape.” The configuration did not lend itself to late Federal/early Greek Revival cues, and so is rarely seen in the Western Reserve. I’ll speculate that the Newburg cape was built in the 1810s or 1820s. In basic plan (footprint), the E. 93rd house resembles the Newburg cape.

Good work, Craig! The photo is misidentified in C...

2011-11-14T15:07:56.868-05:00

Good work, Craig! The photo is misidentified in Cleveland Memory, I see this morning, as the verso of the print clearly says "Alonzo Carter" and the streets are listed as "Lauren" and "East 93rd." There is a minor correction to "Alonzo" with "Lorenzo" on the verso, which may explain that part of the problem, but I apologize for our putting Lorain instead of Lauren and 93rd without the "East" addition. Things would have been much simpler if we'd identified it properly in the first place. So Craig's research and conclusions are mostly born out by the photo, the Lauren/Loren part being someone else's interpretation.

Comments on Cleveland Area History: Cleveland's Oldest House - Identified

The house, now demolished at 3890 E. 93rd, is a si...

Good work, Craig! The photo is misidentified in C...