{"nrhp_refnum":"66000526","name":"Hough, Franklin B., House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Collins St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Lowville","county":"Lewis County","state":"NY","lat":43.78823580700006,"lon":-75.5005615214109,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1966-10-15","is_nhl":true,"nhl_designated_date":"1963-05-23","areas_of_significance":["Conservation"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-and-a-half story brick Italian villa-style house at 29 Collins Street in Lowville, Lewis County, New York, built between 1860 and 1861 and used as a private residence.","why_significant":"It was the home of Dr. Franklin B. Hough from 1863 to 1885. Hough first recognized the need for a national forest conservation policy and became the first federal forest official in 1876. His work laid the basis for the U.S. Forest Service.","narrative":"This two-and-a-half story brick house at 29 Collins Street in Lowville, New York, was built in 1860-61 in the style of an Italian villa. It has a projecting central bay with its own gable roof, a hip roof topped by a rectangular belvedere, dentillated cornices and segmental hoodmoulds over the windows. Inside, high ceilings and a spiral staircase in the entrance hall survive largely as they were. A sugar shanty and a chicken coop from the historic period remain on the three-and-a-half-acre lot. The house matters because of Dr. Franklin B. Hough, who lived here from 1863 to 1885. Comparing the New York State censuses of 1855 and 1865, he saw a sharp fall in forest products and began urging the public and Congress to protect the nation's timberlands. In 1876 he became the first federal forest official, and his reports helped shape the later Forest Service. He also wrote the bill creating the Adirondack Forest Preserve in 1885.","period_of_significance":"1863-85","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Italianate (Italian villa style)","criteria":[],"status_note":"Still used as a private residence; the interior is basically unchanged since Hough's occupancy, and a bay on the south side was replaced by a glassed-in porch around 1967.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:50:39.403513-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/66000526_NHL.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/66000526/130e886a72-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/66000526/130e886a72-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Unknown photographer","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:FranklinBHoughHouse_LowvilleNY_NPS_1962.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Unknown photographer</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:FranklinBHoughHouse_LowvilleNY_NPS_1962.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75315789","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_B._Hough_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q14706276"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/lewis-county/hough-franklin-b-house-66000526/"}