Ward House
Also known as: William Allen House
Why it's listed
Ward House is a two-story brick residence at 118 West Main Street in Westfield, built in the late 1860s in the Italian Villa style. Its L-shaped plan has a low-pitched standing-seam metal roof, a prominent cupola with a bracketed cornice, broad eaves with scroll brackets, and rounded-arch windows capped with ornate cast-iron lintels. A porch was added late in the nineteenth century. Inside, black walnut woodwork and two white marble fireplaces survive. The house is believed to have been built for the Ward family, and S. Ward was a prominent local merchant. Dr. John Davis owned it from 1889 to 1910. The estate once covered 26 acres and operated as a working farm; it now occupies 3.3 acres. A one-and-a-half-story clapboard barn with a steep cross-gable roof and a small pond remain. The house was valued as one of the few distinctive, largely unaltered Italian Villa examples in Westfield.
Significance in brief: The nomination argues the house is architecturally significant as a distinctive, substantially unaltered example of the mid-nineteenth-century Italian Villa style, one of few of its type in Westfield. Its cupola, bracketed eaves, asymmetrical massing and rounded-arch windows are typical of the style. The barn and pond recall its past as a 26-acre working farm.
Machine-generated summary. This summary was generated by a language model from the official nomination document and has not been reviewed line by line by an editor. It may contain errors. Check the source document before relying on any detail. Source: nomination document (PDF) · National Archives catalog entry. NRHP reference 83001657, listed September 26, 1983. Summary generated October 2026 (model claude-sonnet-5-5, prompt v1.0-2026-10-29, confidence medium).
Key facts
| Address | 118 W. Main St., Westfield |
|---|---|
| County | Chautauqua County |
| Listed | September 26, 1983 |
| Reference number | 83001657 |
| Resource type | Building |
| Architectural style | Italian Villa |
| Areas of significance | Architecture |
| Level of significance | Local |
| Status (as stated in the nomination) | Residential use; condition listed as good in the inventory form. |
| Acreage | 3.3 |
| Coordinates | 42.31751, -79.58401 (NPS GIS) |
What listing means for this property
National Register listing is honorary for a privately owned home: it does not by itself restrict what an owner may do with their own money, and it does not require public access. Restrictions come from local landmark or historic-district ordinances, which are separate (how they differ).
Owner-occupied houses are not eligible for the 20% federal rehabilitation tax credit, which applies to income-producing buildings, but many states offer credits for homeowners. Listing also opens the door to preservation easements and to buying a plaque. Start with what listing means for homeowners, renovating a listed house and selling one.
General information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change; confirm with your State Historic Preservation Office or a qualified adviser.
Sources and further reading
- National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places database (snapshot May 2026), reference 83001657.
- Nomination form (PDF, National Archives) — catalog entry
- Wikipedia article (used for cross-checking only; text not reproduced here)
- Wikidata Q7969025
- This listing as JSON
Last updated October 2026. Found an error? See the editorial policy for how to report it.