{"nrhp_refnum":"05001135","name":"Belt-Gaskin House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"77 Chapman Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Auburn","county":"Cayuga County","state":"NY","lat":42.92222018700005,"lon":-76.57561502299995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2005-10-05","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Black","Social History"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-story, three-bay frame single-family house at 77 Chapman Avenue (formerly Cornell Street) in Auburn, Cayuga County, New York, built about 1868 in a neighborhood near Harriet Tubman's home.","why_significant":"The house is tied to freedom seekers and the Auburn African American community from the 1860s onward. It was first owned by Thomas and Rachael Belt, who returned from Canada, and later by Philip and Mary Elliott Gaskin, Mary being a niece-line relative of Harriet Tubman and a beneficiary of her will. It anchors a neighborhood of freedom seekers and others who bought lots from abolitionist Abijah Fitch.","narrative":"Built about 1868 on the north side of Chapman Avenue, then called Cornell Street, this two-story, three-bay frame house sits in a south Auburn neighborhood that developed near Harriet Tubman's home. It has a stone foundation, vinyl siding and a rear wing, and was probably built in two sections between 1868 and 1874. Thomas and Rachael Belt, African Americans born in Maryland who had lived in Canada, bought the lot from Horace Fitch, acting for his abolitionist father Abijah Fitch, who sold about twenty lots to Black buyers in the area. The house later passed to Philip and Mary Elliott Gaskin in 1927. Mary Gaskin was a descendant of Tubman's family circle and inherited a third of Tubman's estate. The house represents the continuity of freedom seekers within Auburn's African American community from the 1860s onward. Twentieth-century changes include a front porch and one-over-one windows, yet it still serves as a home.","period_of_significance":"1868- ca. 1950","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Mid/late-19th Century: vernacular","criteria":["A"],"status_note":"Still used as a single-family dwelling; retains historic location, design, setting, feeling and association, with 20th-century changes including vinyl siding, a front porch and replacement windows.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:51:53.983429-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/05001135.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/05001135/5340b2ec50-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/05001135/5340b2ec50-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Doncram","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Belt-Gaskin_House_01_31_56_322000.jpeg\" rel=\"noopener\">Doncram</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Belt-Gaskin_House_01_31_56_322000.jpeg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75312212","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belt-Gaskin_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4884695"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/cayuga-county/belt-gaskin-house-05001135/"}