Jackson Blood Cobblestone House facts for kids
Quick facts for kids |
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Jackson Blood Cobblestone House
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South profile and east elevation of main block, 2010
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 Location in New York
Location in the United States
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| Location | Lyndonville, NY |
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| Nearest city | Lockport |
| Area | 0.8 acres (3,200 m2) |
| Built | 1846 |
| Architectural style | Greek Revival |
| MPS | Cobblestone Architecture of New York State MPS |
| NRHP reference No. | 05000635 |
| Added to NRHP | June 30, 2005 |
The Jackson Blood Cobblestone House is a unique old home found on South Main Street (NY 63) in Lyndonville, New York. It's a great example of Greek Revival style, built in the middle of the 1800s.
Jackson Blood, an important person in the early days of the nearby Town of Yates, built this house. He and his family actually gathered the cobblestones themselves. They brought these smooth stones from Lake Ontario to the north, all the way to the building site. This house was one of the first in the area to use stoves for heating instead of traditional fireplaces.
In the first half of the 1900s, the house was divided into three apartments for rent. Many parts of the inside were changed then. Later, it was made back into a single home for one family. In 2005, the house was added to the National Register of Historic Places. It is the only building in Lyndonville on this list and the most northern one in Orleans County.
Contents
Exploring the Jackson Blood Cobblestone House Design
Where the House Stands and What's Around It
The Jackson Blood Cobblestone House sits on a lot about three-quarters of an acre in size. It's on the west side of South Main Street, just south of the village center. This area is mostly homes built in the late 1800s and 1900s. Tall, old trees fill the yards, and beyond them are open fields. The land here is flat. There's also a modern garage behind the house, which was added later.
How the House is Built
The house has three main parts. The biggest part is a large, rectangular section that is two and a half stories tall. It has three sections of windows on the front and three on the side. Two smaller wings, one and a half stories tall, stretch out from the main part to the north and to the back (west). All parts of the house are covered with rows of medium-sized cobblestones. These stones were smoothed by the lake and are held together with a special V-shaped mortar.
Special Stone Details and Features
All the decorative parts of the house, like the frames around windows (called lintels and sills), the corner stones (quoins), and the stone base (water table), are made from limestone. There's a very unusual decoration on the front of the house. It's a half-circle stone arch with a special center stone (keystone) that connects the tops of the second-story windows. Above this, the roof is gently sloped and has a very deep, flat band (frieze) and a decorated edge (cornice) with returns. The original windows have six small panes of glass on the top and six on the bottom. A porch built in the mid-1900s with square posts is on the front of the north wing.
Inside the Cobblestone Home
The main front door is set back a bit and has side windows. It opens into a small entry area (vestibule). From here, a simple staircase goes up to the second floor. To the south of the entrance is one large room. The north wing has a dining room with a marble fireplace and the kitchen. The back wing is a family room. Upstairs, the layout is similar, with a large bedroom above the main room downstairs.
Most of the inside decorations and finishes were added later. The ceilings in the main rooms are modern and curved (coved plaster). The most important original parts are the wooden doors and their special frames. On the second floor of the wings, the small windows slide up into the wall.
A Look at the Jackson Blood House History
Jackson Blood's Early Life and Influence
Jackson Blood arrived in this area in 1815, even before Orleans County was officially formed. He was a young man when he bought a farm near the lake. Later, he bought many large pieces of land around what is now Lyndonville. When the town, named after Governor Joseph C. Yates, was created in 1823, Jackson Blood was chosen as one of its first three leaders for common schools.
Building the Unique Cobblestone House
Local stories say that the Blood family themselves gathered the cobblestones from the lake. They started bringing them to the house site after Blood bought a farm in the area in 1830. This shows how Lyndonville was becoming more important than Yates Center. This was because Lyndonville was closer to the Erie Canal and had a creek that powered a mill. The house was finished in 1846. Its tightly packed rows of stones are a sign of the middle and later years of the cobblestone building style.
Originally, the house had four chimneys. Three of them were just for decoration to make the outside look balanced. The fourth chimney was at the southeast corner of the main part of the house. Its remaining smoke channel (flue) angles towards the east wall. This, along with the building date, suggests that the builder was using new stove technology to heat the house, instead of relying on old-fashioned fireplaces.
Changes Over the Years
Jackson Blood lived in the house until 1875. A few years before he passed away, one of his sons, C. Jackson Blood, served as the town supervisor for a time. In the 1900s, the house was divided into three separate apartments for rent. The dining room fireplace was added during this time, along with many of the interior decorations. In the 1950s, another renovation brought the house back together as one home. Since then, there haven't been any other major changes.
