|
110 Corson Place
Date Built: 1931-1932 Architect: LeRoy Burnham Builder: Andrew H. McPherson Style: English Cottage Revival |
Construction began on the house at 110 Corson Place in 1930, and it was first occupied by Charles Cecil Semple (1881-1946) and his wife Margaret F. Semple (1884-1972). It was designed by the notable architect LeRoy P. Burnham in an English Cottage Revival style and built by Andrew McPherson (1878-1945), the contractor of many distinguished homes in Cayuga Heights and Ithaca.
The village assessment roll in 1931 describes the house as incomplete and finished by 1933.[1] This dream house came at a cost to C.C. Semple, a mechanical engineer at Morse Chain Works. Semple and his wife planned to purchase a lot from Cayuga Heights Land Corporation in 1930. It appears Semple had selected Lot 4 and probably had a sketch from Burnham for that site. In order to make the deal go through, Jared Newman gained approval from Charles V.P. Young, the owner of Lot 5, for a modification of his deed to provide 10 additional feet to Lot 4’s building envelope. With Young’s modified deed, Semple bought Lot 4 on 29 October 1930.
The Semple’s tenure at the home was relatively short. On 15 July 1935, they bought 300 Iroquois Road, a 1922 Colonial Revival house in the White Park subdivision that was owned by John and Mary MacDonald, and the MacDonalds bought 110 Corson Place. The MacDonalds assumed the remaining balances on two of the Semple mortgages, and the Semples assumed the mortgage the MacDonalds had on the Iroquois Road property.
As second owners of 110 Corson, the MacDonalds remained in the house from 1935 until 1979. MacDonald was a revered professor at Cornell University’s law school, provided long service to the New York State Law Revision Commission, held corporate positions such as secretary of Therm-Electric Meters Co., and was active in local civic organizations.
House history compiled from research and write-up of Lynn Thommen, Historic Ithaca
[1] The 1932 Village of Cayuga Heights Assessment Roll is missing from the Village Hall records and was not consulted. The Manning’s Ithaca phone directory first lists the Semples at Corson Place in 1932.
SOURCES
Andrew McPherson-Built Homes Photo Collection, Village of Cayuga Heights, provided by Carol Sisler;
“C.C. Semple, Morse Engineer, Dies,” Ithaca Journal, May 31, 1946, p. 3;
Tompkins County Deed Book 237 Page 289, Cayuga Heights Land Corporation to Charles C. Semple and Margaret F. Semple, October 29, 1930;
Tompkins County Deed Book 237, Page 289, Charles C. Semple and Margaret F. Semple to John W. MacDonald and Mary B. MacDonald, July 15, 1935;
Tompkins County Deed Book 570, Page 176, April 13, 1979.
SOURCES
Andrew McPherson-Built Homes Photo Collection, Village of Cayuga Heights, provided by Carol Sisler;
“C.C. Semple, Morse Engineer, Dies,” Ithaca Journal, May 31, 1946, p. 3;
Tompkins County Deed Book 237 Page 289, Cayuga Heights Land Corporation to Charles C. Semple and Margaret F. Semple, October 29, 1930;
Tompkins County Deed Book 237, Page 289, Charles C. Semple and Margaret F. Semple to John W. MacDonald and Mary B. MacDonald, July 15, 1935;
Tompkins County Deed Book 570, Page 176, April 13, 1979.
