{"nrhp_refnum":"71000559","name":"Boardman House","other_names":["Ithaca College Museum of Art"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"120 E. Buffalo St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Ithaca","county":"Tompkins County","state":"NY","lat":42.41704194600004,"lon":-76.45837701299996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1971-05-06","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Education","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A three-story brick Italianate mansion with a cupola at 120 East Buffalo Street, Ithaca, Tompkins County, New York, built in 1867 by George McChain at the southeast corner of DeWitt Park.","why_significant":"The nomination calls it an excellent, notable example of the large, gracious urban Italianate mansion popular in New York in the mid-19th century. It is also tied to publisher George McChain and Judge Douglas Boardman, a prominent Ithaca citizen and the first Dean of the Cornell University Law School. Its location helps define the civic and historic core of Ithaca around DeWitt Park.","narrative":"Built in 1867 by Ithaca publisher George McChain, this Italianate mansion at 120 East Buffalo Street faces the southeast corner of DeWitt Park. It has a full basement, three stories and a cupola, with dark red brick walls laid in Flemish bond on a stone foundation. Wide bracketed eaves, tall windows with console-bracketed cornices, and a front porch with paired Ionic-style columns mark its design. McChain bought the land from Ezra Cornell. Douglas Boardman, a lawyer, judge, bank president and the first Dean of the Cornell University Law School, purchased the house in 1887 and lived there for many years. In 1911 it became the Ithaca Conservatory of Music, later Ithaca College, and it was later used as a museum of art. The nomination describes it as essentially intact and a fine example of the large urban mansion of its period, and it adds to the character of the historic park around it.","period_of_significance":"19th Century (specific date 1867)","architect_builder":"George McChain (builder)","architectural_style":"Italianate mansion","criteria":[],"status_note":"Described in the nomination as in good condition and essentially intact, used as the Ithaca College Museum of Art with galleries, offices and workrooms. Later correspondence in the file notes that the county owner had applied for a demolition permit in 1975.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:50:39.280726-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/71000559.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/71000559/59e60239ff-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/71000559/59e60239ff-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Zipzipzip","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Boardman_House,_Ithaca,_NY.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Zipzipzip</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Boardman_House,_Ithaca,_NY.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75322469","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boardman_House_(Ithaca,_New_York)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4931429"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/tompkins-county/boardman-house-71000559/"}