Peg McPherson, the daughter-in-law of popular building contractor Andrew H. McPherson, provided this photograph of the Russell home to former village historian Carol Sisler. The caption on the back of the photo lists the construction date as 1924-1925, which conflcts with the Tompkins County assessment information.
415 Klinewoods Road
Year Built: 1928
Style: Queen Anne
“One of our most popular lawyers lives on Klinewoods Road and makes a practice of walking way down town to his office and back every day.”
The quote above was included in developer Jared Newman's "Cayuga Heights Notes" from the April 30, 1935 edition of the Ithaca Journal. The intent of the ad was to entice buyers to a road that in the 1930s seemed very out of the way compared to those in the southern part of the village. The Klinewoods area, one of the last of Newman’s real estate ventures, undertaken during the Depression when he was facing bankruptcy, lay outside the municipal boundary of the Village of Cayuga Heights until the 1950s.
The lawyer that Newman referred to in the ad was most likely George H. Russell (1897-1982; Cornell ’18), who practiced law in Ithaca for close to sixty years, from 1923 until 1980. Russell’s law practice was in the Library Building at 114 North Tioga Street (later known as the Ithaca Savings Bank Building), where Jared Newman also worked. In 1934 Russell’s office was number 301 in the Savings Bank Building, and “Newman and Newman” were on the same floor in room 308. (After World War I, Jared’s son, Charles Hardy Newman (1891-1963) had joined his father’s firm as a partner.)
In 1928 Russell and his wife Gretel Schenck Russell (1899-1929; Cornell ‘23) moved into the four-bedroom house. The address was 409 Klinewoods Road and was subsequently changed to 415 Klinewoods.
George, widowed in 1929, married teacher Alma Townsend (1900-1990) in 1931. Tompkins County deed records show that Alma Russell, widowed after her husband’s death in 1982, died in 1990, and the house was sold the following year. Village Historian Beatrice Szekely remembers being welcomed by Mrs. Russell on Halloween trick or treating with small children years ago.
Beatrice Szekely
Village Historian
June 2016
Year Built: 1928
Style: Queen Anne
“One of our most popular lawyers lives on Klinewoods Road and makes a practice of walking way down town to his office and back every day.”
The quote above was included in developer Jared Newman's "Cayuga Heights Notes" from the April 30, 1935 edition of the Ithaca Journal. The intent of the ad was to entice buyers to a road that in the 1930s seemed very out of the way compared to those in the southern part of the village. The Klinewoods area, one of the last of Newman’s real estate ventures, undertaken during the Depression when he was facing bankruptcy, lay outside the municipal boundary of the Village of Cayuga Heights until the 1950s.
The lawyer that Newman referred to in the ad was most likely George H. Russell (1897-1982; Cornell ’18), who practiced law in Ithaca for close to sixty years, from 1923 until 1980. Russell’s law practice was in the Library Building at 114 North Tioga Street (later known as the Ithaca Savings Bank Building), where Jared Newman also worked. In 1934 Russell’s office was number 301 in the Savings Bank Building, and “Newman and Newman” were on the same floor in room 308. (After World War I, Jared’s son, Charles Hardy Newman (1891-1963) had joined his father’s firm as a partner.)
In 1928 Russell and his wife Gretel Schenck Russell (1899-1929; Cornell ‘23) moved into the four-bedroom house. The address was 409 Klinewoods Road and was subsequently changed to 415 Klinewoods.
George, widowed in 1929, married teacher Alma Townsend (1900-1990) in 1931. Tompkins County deed records show that Alma Russell, widowed after her husband’s death in 1982, died in 1990, and the house was sold the following year. Village Historian Beatrice Szekely remembers being welcomed by Mrs. Russell on Halloween trick or treating with small children years ago.
Beatrice Szekely
Village Historian
June 2016
