Cobblestone Foundations in the 'Late' Cobblestone Era

Building cobblestone houses ended around 1860 when it became too expensive to build them. However, it continued to be popular to build cellar walls with cobblestone designs for another 30 years. Most of the homes in Cortland with cobblestone cellar walls are located in the Second Ward on Grant and Union Streets, and Arthur and Lincoln Avenues. Others are spread throughout the city.

IMG_0939.jpg       Many homes in Cortland and Homer have cobblestone foundations, including this one at the Cortland County Historical Society Suggest House on Homer Avenue in Cortland. Photography courtesy Richard Palmer.

With few exceptions, cobblestone foundations are the same design Dalton employed when he did the masonry work on James Suggett's addition in 1882. Dalton was Suggett's brother-in-law. In 1887, Dalton resided at 171 North Main Street, and by 1890 at 173 Homer Avenue. Prior to his death, Dalton lived in McLean.

A visual survey made by the author found more than 40 houses with cobblestone-design foundation walls in Homer and 27 in Cortland - all similar to the design of the Suggett House foundation walls. However, this does not imply Dalton built all of these foundations, which was a wide-spread technique popular in the latter days of the 19th century. For instance, two such foundations were recently discovered under the houses at 80 and 84 Main Street in the village of Owego. These houses were built in the 1890s. Undoubtedly, there are more, but many foundation walls have long since been stucco covered.

A number of homes in Homer are Victorian or Queen Anne-style popular in North America in the mid and last half of the 19th century through the 1900-1910 eras. Wooden plaques noting the dates of construction on some of these Homer homes state they were built as early as the 1840s; however, the latter architectural aesthetics date to at least the late 1860s. These earlier dates suggest that facade changes were made to keep with popular architectural styles of the times. The author's survey found the following examples: ten on Elm Avenue, six on Clinton Street, four on James Street, and several others throughout the village, and out side the village limits.

The foundations reflect the "piping" technique of construction that was in vogue at the time. The mortar was applied using a tool made from a piece of pipe cut lengthwise and bent slightly. Foundation stones were laid up using a plain gray mortar. Then a wide, flat, band of grayish-colored mortar was applied to highlight and accentuate the joints between the stones. The band was about an inch to an inch and a half wide. Centered on top of that is a raised half-round "piped" joint in the mortar, about half or three-quarter inches wide. It was a beautiful effect, but would have been very time-consuming to create.

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¹ Photography courtesy Richard Palmer.

List of Houses with Cobblestone Foundations
Compiled by Richard F. Palmer ^*

City of Cortland

25 Homer Avenue ("Suggett House." home of Cortland County Historical Society)
118, 136 North Main Street
15, 17, 26 Madison Street
15, 18, 23, 25, 32, 40 Lincoln Avenue
12, 18, 19, 22 Grant Street
54 Grant Street ("traditional" cobblestone construction)
18 Washington Street ("traditional" cobblestone construction)
16, 26 North Greenbush Street
55 South Greenbush Street
42 North Church Street
28 Owego Street
15 27, 30, 47, 51 Union Street

Village of Harford

367, 369 Route 38

Village of Homer

11 Franklin Street
19 Cayuga Street
19, 21, 25 Cortland Street
33 Cortland Street ("traditional" cobblestone construction)
13 Copeland Avenue
102, 112 South Main Street
1, 3, 8, 31, 52, 56 Clinton Street
8, 10, 11, 11 13, 14, 15, 18, 25, 25 Elm Avenue
3 Maple Avenue
50, 58, 62, 95 James Street
6, 8, 12, 40 Grove Street
17, 19 North West St.
Outside village of Homer
5045 Route 281
5224 Route 11

^* This is a cursory visual field survey and does not imply being a complete list. Also many old house foundations have been stucco covered. It does not include houses with ordinary stone foundations.

Sources:

James Suggett and His "Handsome Dwelling" booklet by Leslie C. O'Malley and Bruce R. Buckley.
Cortland County Historical Society, 1984.
Obituary of Robert Dalton. Cortland Standard, April 16. 1892. (He died on April 14, 1892)
Notes of Glenn Hinchey of Syracuse. N.Y. on cobblestone construction techniques.
Suggett family files at Cortland County Historical Society

NOTE

The above article by Richard F. Palmer was published in the "Bulletin" of the Cortland County Historical Society, August, 2018. Paragraphs 4 and 5 are revised and differ from the same article in Richard Palmer's blog.

Additional Structures with Cobblestone Foundations

Ven-3 Young Octagon House, 2599 Route 34B, West Side, Poplar Ridge