White-Pound House

White-Pound House
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
White-Pound House, June 2009
Location	140 Pine St., Lockport, New York
Coordinates	43°9′58″N 78°41′31″W
Built	1835
Architectural style	Italianate
MPS	Stone Buildings of Lockport, New York MPS
NRHP reference No.	03000484
Added to NRHP	May 30, 2003

White-Pound House is a historic home located at Lockport in Niagara County, New York. It is a two-story stone structure built in 1835. During the late 1850s, it was remodeled in the Italianate style. The house today retains its late nineteenth-century appearance on both its exterior and interior and is distinguished by its sophisticated detailing. Together, the combination of fine stone masonry workmanship, elaborate decorative detail and the high level of architectural integrity make the White-Pound house a prominent local landmark and an important example of Lockport's legacy of stone architecture. It is one of approximately 75 stone residences remaining in the city of Lockport.

The house experienced two significant alterations during the nineteenth century. The first, probably completed in the late 1850s, included the entrance porch, elongated window openings at the first floor street facade, the hip roof, extended eves, scroll brackets and pendants. The second renovation, completed in about 1880, included the current entrance doors, the present fireplace mantles and the second floor frame addition at the rear wing. Both renovations included work to stylistically update the appearance of the house. The first renovation transformed the house with picturesque architectural elements associated with the Italiante architectural style popularized by Andrew Jackson Downing. The incised detailing, bull's eye corner blocks and trim found at the rear wing are typical of the machine produced millwork contemporary of the Eastlake architectural style. The changes in the house illustrate the evolution of popular taste through the nineteenth century.

The White-Pound house is significant under the National Register Criterion C as an important example of Lockport's mid nineteenth-century domestic architecture. The use of more refined masonry treatment at the house's main facade is enhanced by prominent beaded joints dressed stonework located at the base of the entry porch. Together, the combination of fine stone masonry workmanship, elaborate decorative detail and the high level of architectural integrity make the White/Pound house a prominent local landmark and an important example of Lockport's legacy of stone architecture.

The White-Pound house is located south of the city's central business district on the east side of Pine Street. The surrounding residential neighborhood contains early to late nineteenth-century houses. Although most houses are wood-frame construction, several other stone houses are located within the surrounding block.

The White-Pound house is located on a level 66 foot wide by 119 foot deep lot. A walk of Gasport Limestone slabs connects the public sidewalk to the entrance porch of the house. A concrete driveway is located at the north side of the house. A modern, wood, three-foot high stockade fence in located at the rear of the back yard.

EXTERIOR

The White-Pound house is a hip roof, two and a half story, Gasport Limestone, Italianate-style house. A two-story wing projects from the rear of the house. Gasport Limestone lintels and sills are used on all facades of the building. The dressed water table, located above the three-foot high ashlar-faced exposed foundation wall, occurs only at the street facade. Large dressed ashlar Gasport Limestone quoins reinforce the corners of the house.

The four-bay, west-facing front facade of the house is constructed of grey Gasport Limestone laid in quarry-face ashlar with beaded mortar joints. The facade has a regular arrangement of openings incorporating four second-story windows aligned above taller first-floor windows. The windows retain nineteenth-century wood one-over-one double-hung sash and operable louvered shutters. Six-light sash cellar windows are located below the water table. Double entrance doors and a single-bay porch occupy the the right center bay of the facade. The treads and cheek walls of the porch are constructed of dressed Gasport Limestone blocks. The square porch posts with abstracted capitals and plinths appear to date from the early twentieth century. The hip roof of the porch has broad projecting eaves adorned with regularly spaced pairs of turned pendants. The tall, narrow porch entrance doors incorporate three-quarter height glass lights, molded trim and bull's-eye corner blocks. Early twentieth-century storm doors, with removable twelve-light sash, are installed at the exterior face of the main doors.

The north and south facades of the house are constructed of uncoursed rubble. The south wall is devoid of window openings. The north wall has been parged.

At roof level, the eaves extend nearly three feet beyond the face of the wall below. The bays are marked with large scroll brackets. The eaves are embellished by regularly spaced turned pendants. Above the south and north walls are two symmetrical pairs of stone chimneys.

The first floor of the rear wing is constructed of stone matching the detailing of the main block. The wood-frame second floor of the wing appears to be a late nineteenth-century addition.

INTERIOR

The interior of the White/Pound house survives with a relatively high degree of integrity of design, materials and craftsmanship. Most rooms retain original plaster finishes, base moldings, casings and four-panel doors. The original room configuration survives intact.

The house's front entrance leads to the main hall containing a open stair along its left wall. The stair handrail terminates in a shepherd's crook above a turned newel. The turned handrail spindles have a plain tapered profile. The handrail spindles and newel have a dark natural finish. South of the hall is a small sitting room connected to a bedroom in the rear. North of the hall are the main parlor and the dining room. The two rooms are connected by a large doorway. The kitchen and utility spaces are located in the rear wing. All of the primary first-floor rooms incorporate wide plank hardwood floors, ten-foot ceilings, four-panel doors, wide shouldered Greek Revival casings and simple but wide wood base boards. The interior doorways incorporate paneled casings with corner blocks. The dining room and main parlors contain matching black marble Eastlake style fireplace mantles with decorative incising, coal grates and encaustic tile hearths. The wide proportions of the mantle suggest their current appearance is the result of a ca. 1880 adaptation of a preexisting mantle.

One of the house's most significant features is s well-preserved early kitchen located in the cellar directly below the main parlor. A simple open stair with chamfered and tapered square newel and square spindles descends from the first floor to the kitchen. The room retains its original plain six-panel doors, wainscoting, beaded Federal-era casings, plaster walls and ceiling and fir plank floor. At the north wall of the room is a cooking fireplace and baking oven. The fireplace retains a federal mantle, andirons and crane. The firebox opening and the heath are constructed with large dressed blocks of Gasport Limestone. The adjacent baking over in constructed of brick.

HISTORY

The White-Pound house was constructed in 1835. During the first thirteen years of its existence, the title to the house was transferred many times. However, after 1848, when Charles Schulz and his wife Sophia sold the house for $1000 to Robert and Martha White, the house remained in the ownership of the same family for 125 years.

Born on June 26, 1818 in Washington County, New York, Robert White moved to Lockport in 1836 and began work as a retail clerk for Wilkinson & McMaster. In 1842, he entered in a partnership with Sumner Ballou to open his own grocery business. He died of "spasmodic croup" in 1865 leaving his widow, Martha C, and three children. His obituary in the Lockport Daily Journal described him as a man of "large personal popularity, who was elected to represent the town on the County Board of Supervisors, at a time when his party was in the minority in the Town of Lockport... He was universally regarded as a faithful and capable public officer and a public-spirited and patriotic citizen..."

Martha White occupied the house until her death in 1910. She left the house in trust for her daughter Mary E. who made it her lifelong residence. After the death of Mary E. White in 1940, the house was rented by the residual legatees from Martha C. White's will. In 1948, the title of the house was transferred to Donna Coates Pound. Pound's husband, Alexander White, a grandson of Robert an Martha White, was a descendant of one of Lockport's most prestigious families. Donna moved into the house after her husband died and remained in the house until 1972. After Donna's death, the house was sold outside of the family.

It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003 after undergoing detailed preservation by Robert J and Holly E Keller.

External links

• White-Pound House - Lockport, NY - U.S. National Register of Historic Places on Waymarking.com

History & Architectural Description/Bibliographical References:

National Register of Historic Places registration form prepared by Claire Ross (Consultant: Robert Corby)

Stone Buildings of Lockport, NY Multiple Property Documentation Form Obituary Files - Niagara County Historian's Office McDonough, Kevin. City of Lockport Planning Department