George J. Smith House
Encyclopedia
The George J. Smith House is located on Albany Avenue (NY 32
) in Kingston
, New York
, United States. It is a Queen Anne
Style
frame
house built in the 1880s. Its interior has been slightly modified since then.
In addition to being a representative example of the Queen Anne Style in Kingston, it was home to George J. Smith
, who served a term as the area's congressman
. In 2002 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
. Currently its lower floor is a local Montessori school
, and the upper floor is an apartment.
on the north side of a divided
section of Albany Avenue, a short distance east of its junction with Interstate 587 and NY 28
. The neighborhood is residential, with most houses of similar vintage. The John Smith House
next door to the west is also listed on the Register, as is the Sharp Burial Ground
across Albany a short distance to the east. Another house is to the east with a woodlot
to the north.
The house itself is a three-story building on a brick foundation
sided
in a mix of cedar
clapboard
and wood shingle. It has steeply pitched
multiple intersecting gable
roofs and projecting bays covered in red shingles.
On the south (front) facade
, a three-story three-sided bay projects from the southwest corner. It has alternatting bands of siding, projecting eaves with gable stickwork. To its east a porch extends across the rest of the first story. It has a gable roof offset to the east, supported by four chamfer
ed posts with decorative capitals
in pierced woodwork trim.
The east profile has an inset porch on the second story near the front. It has similar decorative stickwork below its projecting gable. Next to it is another projection, a two-story three-sided bay topped with a hipped roof
. The north has a two-story wing and two-story porch. On the west, the simplest side, is a large exterior brick chimney.
The main entrance is a pair of wooden and glass doors in a heavily molded
frame. It leads to a broad central hall flanked on the west by two parlors joined by a broad archway. Both have fireplaces with intricate classically-inspired wooden mantel
s. Many of the finishes, including the lath and plaster
walls and carved architrave
s, are original. On the east of the main hall a stairway climbs to the second floor. It has finely carved baluster
s and newel
s. The second floor has been converted into an apartment but retains many original finishes as well.
At the northwest corner of the property is a small garage. It appears to have been a carriage house
built at the same time as the house, and is thus considered a contributing resource
to the property's historic character.
idenitifies the owner as George J. Smith
.
Smith had brought the Powell Cigar Company to the city, built a large factory and made it the Powell, Smith & Company. Later it became the American Cigar Company, with 1,800 employees at its peak. In the years after the house was built, he became active in Republican
politics, serving as the county committee chair and the state treasurer in the late 1890s. Four years after that, in 1902, he was elected to the House for a single term.
The house remained a private residence until its use by the school. It has had no other modifications save those made for that use.
New York State Route 32
New York State Route 32 is a north–south state highway that extends for through the Hudson Valley and Capital District regions of the U.S. state of New York. It is a two-lane surface road for nearly its entire length, with few divided and no limited-access sections. From Harriman to Albany,...
) in Kingston
Kingston, New York
Kingston is a city in and the county seat of Ulster County, New York, USA. It is north of New York City and south of Albany. It became New York's first capital in 1777, and was burned by the British Oct. 16, 1777, after the Battles of Saratoga...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, United States. It is a Queen Anne
Queen Anne Style architecture
The Queen Anne Style in Britain means either the English Baroque architectural style roughly of the reign of Queen Anne , or a revived form that was popular in the last quarter of the 19th century and the early decades of the 20th century...
Style
Architectural style
Architectural styles classify architecture in terms of the use of form, techniques, materials, time period, region and other stylistic influences. It overlaps with, and emerges from the study of the evolution and history of architecture...
frame
Framing (construction)
Framing, in construction known as light-frame construction, is a building technique based around structural members, usually called studs, which provide a stable frame to which interior and exterior wall coverings are attached, and covered by a roof comprising horizontal ceiling joists and sloping...
house built in the 1880s. Its interior has been slightly modified since then.
In addition to being a representative example of the Queen Anne Style in Kingston, it was home to George J. Smith
George J. Smith
George Joseph Smith was a U.S. Representative from New York.Born in Kingston, New York, Smith attended the public schools.He engaged in banking and the manufacturing business in New York City and Kingston....
, who served a term as the area's congressman
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
. In 2002 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
. Currently its lower floor is a local Montessori school
Montessori method
Montessori education is an educational approach developed by Italian physician and educator Maria Montessori. Montessori education is practiced in an estimated 20,000 schools worldwide, serving children from birth to eighteen years old.-Overview:...
, and the upper floor is an apartment.
Property
The George J. Smith House is situated on a 100 by lotLot (real estate)
In real estate, a lot or plot is a tract or parcel of land owned or meant to be owned by some owner. A lot is essentially considered a parcel of real property in some countries or immovable property in other countries...
on the north side of a divided
Divided Highway
Divided Highway is a compilation album by American rock band The Doobie Brothers, released in 2003. . All tracks are taken from the albums Cycles and Brotherhood .-Track listing:...
section of Albany Avenue, a short distance east of its junction with Interstate 587 and NY 28
New York State Route 28
New York State Route 28 is a state highway extending for in the shape of a "C" between the Hudson Valley city of Kingston and southern Warren County in the U.S. state of New York. Along the way, it intersects several major routes, including Interstate 88 , U.S. Route 20 , and the...
. The neighborhood is residential, with most houses of similar vintage. The John Smith House
John Smith House (Kingston, New York)
The John Smith House is located on Albany Avenue in Kingston, New York, United States. It is a wood frame house in the Italianate architectural style built in the mid-19th century.It has remained relatively intact since then...
next door to the west is also listed on the Register, as is the Sharp Burial Ground
Sharp Burial Ground
The Sharp Burial Ground, also known as the Albany Avenue Cemetery, is located on Albany Avenue in Kingston, New York, United States. It is a small burying ground used during the middle decades of the 19th century, before larger rural cemeteries had become common but after churchyards had become...
across Albany a short distance to the east. Another house is to the east with a woodlot
Woodlot
A woodlot is a term used in North America to refer to a segment of a woodland or forest capable of small-scale production of forest products such as wood fuel, sap for maple syrup, sawlogs, as well as recreational uses like bird watching, bushwalking, and wildflower appreciation...
to the north.
The house itself is a three-story building on a brick foundation
Foundation (architecture)
A foundation is the lowest and supporting layer of a structure. Foundations are generally divided into two categories: shallow foundations and deep foundations.-Shallow foundations:...
sided
Siding
Siding is the outer covering or cladding of a house meant to shed water and protect from the effects of weather. On a building that uses siding, it may act as a key element in the aesthetic beauty of the structure and directly influence its property value....
in a mix of cedar
Cedar wood
Cedar wood comes from several different trees that grow in different parts of the world, and may have different uses.* California incense-cedar, from Calocedrus decurrens, is the primary type of wood used for making pencils...
clapboard
Clapboard (architecture)
Clapboard, also known as bevel siding or lap siding or weather-board , is a board used typically for exterior horizontal siding that has one edge thicker than the other and where the board above laps over the one below...
and wood shingle. It has steeply pitched
Roof pitch
In building construction, roof pitch is a numerical measure of the steepness of a roof, and a pitched roof is a roof that is steep.The roof's pitch is the measured vertical rise divided by the measured horizontal span, the same thing as what is called "slope" in geometry. Roof pitch is typically...
multiple intersecting gable
Gable
A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of a sloping roof. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system being used and aesthetic concerns. Thus the type of roof enclosing the volume dictates the shape of the gable...
roofs and projecting bays covered in red shingles.
On the south (front) facade
Facade
A facade or façade is generally one exterior side of a building, usually, but not always, the front. The word comes from the French language, literally meaning "frontage" or "face"....
, a three-story three-sided bay projects from the southwest corner. It has alternatting bands of siding, projecting eaves with gable stickwork. To its east a porch extends across the rest of the first story. It has a gable roof offset to the east, supported by four chamfer
Chamfer
A chamfer is a beveled edge connecting two surfaces. If the surfaces are at right angles, the chamfer will typically be symmetrical at 45 degrees. A fillet is the rounding off of an interior corner. A rounding of an exterior corner is called a "round" or a "radius"."Chamfer" is a term commonly...
ed posts with decorative capitals
Capital (architecture)
In architecture the capital forms the topmost member of a column . It mediates between the column and the load thrusting down upon it, broadening the area of the column's supporting surface...
in pierced woodwork trim.
The east profile has an inset porch on the second story near the front. It has similar decorative stickwork below its projecting gable. Next to it is another projection, a two-story three-sided bay topped with a hipped roof
Hip roof
A hip roof, or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope. Thus it is a house with no gables or other vertical sides to the roof. A square hip roof is shaped like a pyramid. Hip roofs on the houses could have two triangular side...
. The north has a two-story wing and two-story porch. On the west, the simplest side, is a large exterior brick chimney.
The main entrance is a pair of wooden and glass doors in a heavily molded
Molding (decorative)
Molding or moulding is a strip of material with various profiles used to cover transitions between surfaces or for decoration. It is traditionally made from solid milled wood or plaster but may be made from plastic or reformed wood...
frame. It leads to a broad central hall flanked on the west by two parlors joined by a broad archway. Both have fireplaces with intricate classically-inspired wooden mantel
Mantel
Mantel is a municipality in the district of Neustadt in Bavaria in Germany....
s. Many of the finishes, including the lath and plaster
Lath and plaster
Lath and plaster is a building process used mainly for interior walls in Canada and the United States until the late 1950s. After the 1950s, drywall began to replace the lath and plaster process in the United States. In the United Kingdom, lath and plaster was used for some interior partition...
walls and carved architrave
Architrave
An architrave is the lintel or beam that rests on the capitals of the columns. It is an architectural element in Classical architecture.-Classical architecture:...
s, are original. On the east of the main hall a stairway climbs to the second floor. It has finely carved baluster
Baluster
A baluster is a moulded shaft, square or of lathe-turned form, one of various forms of spindle in woodwork, made of stone or wood and sometimes of metal, standing on a unifying footing, and supporting the coping of a parapet or the handrail of a staircase. Multiplied in this way, they form a...
s and newel
Newel
A newel, also called a central pole, is an upright post that supports the handrail of a stair banister. In stairs having straight flights it is the principal post at the foot of the staircase, but it can also be used for the intermediate posts on landings and at the top of a staircase...
s. The second floor has been converted into an apartment but retains many original finishes as well.
At the northwest corner of the property is a small garage. It appears to have been a carriage house
Carriage house
A carriage house, also called remise or coach house, is an outbuilding which was originally built to house horse-drawn carriages and the related tack.In Great Britain the farm building was called a Cart Shed...
built at the same time as the house, and is thus considered a contributing resource
Contributing property
In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing resource or contributing property is any building, structure, or object which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic district, listed locally or federally, significant...
to the property's historic character.
History
The house first appears on a fire insurance map in 1887. Five years later, in 1892, a city directoryCity directory
A city directory is a listing of residents, streets, businesses, organizations or institutions, giving their location in a city. Antedating telephone directories, they have been in use for centuries....
idenitifies the owner as George J. Smith
George J. Smith
George Joseph Smith was a U.S. Representative from New York.Born in Kingston, New York, Smith attended the public schools.He engaged in banking and the manufacturing business in New York City and Kingston....
.
Smith had brought the Powell Cigar Company to the city, built a large factory and made it the Powell, Smith & Company. Later it became the American Cigar Company, with 1,800 employees at its peak. In the years after the house was built, he became active in Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
politics, serving as the county committee chair and the state treasurer in the late 1890s. Four years after that, in 1902, he was elected to the House for a single term.
The house remained a private residence until its use by the school. It has had no other modifications save those made for that use.