So...when was this house built?

This is a great question. And the answer is: I really don't know.

However, as we get into the Wolf era, it's important to note that I bought what was supposedly a house contructed in 1885. Certainly the house showing in the historical photo from the turn of the century looks like my house, and the easement that is on record in 1906 indicates that whatever was there had roughly the same dimensions, which is to say dimensions placing the Burrows Street side way too close to the neighboring house. So it's definitely at least ca. 1900. And the style, which is a sort of Italianate/Eastlake/stick/Queen Anne/late victorian polyglot, suggests that it is of roughly the 1880s or 1890s.

However, it wouldn't be unusual to see a house modified and decorated which was actually constructed earlier, and there's a lot of evidence suggesting that the house is actually older.

That evidence is:

• The development pattern of Bellefonte, in which Allegheny Street developed all the way to the site of the current elementary school during the Civil War antebellum period.


• Sanborn maps and other historical maps -- which indicate a double structure on my property in the 1850s and 1870s. These same maps indicate some additions -- the rear staircases and side porch and commercial area -- over the years.


• The deed research, when coupled with the census. The deeds continue to be transferred and legible back to 1823. The census indicates residents on that lot back to 1820.


• The relatively good records of the Civil War era -- Bellefonte at the time had four competing newspapers. So if there was a structure on the property before 1847 and it burned down or was otherwise replaced before 1880 or so, we'd probably know.

So...I don't know when the house was constructed. but I'm definitely assuming that it's pre-1885.