Webb Horton House
Encyclopedia
The Webb Horton House, is an ornate 40-room mansion in Middletown
, New York, United States, designed by local architect Frank Lindsey. It is now part of the campus of SUNY Orange, known as Morrison Hall, and housing its main administrative offices. A nearby service complex has also been kept and used for the college as well.
It is an extravagant combination of styles and materials that has been altered very little during its subsequent ownership and use by the college. In 1990 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
.
outbuildings. On the north (rear) of the house is its original 1.7 acres (6,879.7 m²) lawn, sloping gently down towards Wawayanda Creek
behind the college, which now serves as the college's main quad
.
The college campus surrounds the house on three sides, with a large modern building called Hudson Hall immediately to the east. A 6½-foot–high (2 m) stone and iron fence, ornamented with scrolls and the initials "WH" on the main gate, screens the house from South Street and the parking lots across it. Large, mature trees grow around the house. The neighborhood off the campus is residential.
. It is 118 feet (36 m) long and 80 feet (24.4 m) wide. It rises two stories above a high basement, with all windows protected by cast
and wrought iron
grilles, to steeply pitched
hipped roofs
surfaced in green ceramic tile and pierced by ornate dormer windows. Three-story towers rise on the front and rear facade
s.
There are four separate sections to the front facade. At the south corner, the tower's three bays
form a porch on the first story. On the two above, each bay has a pair of windows separated by a Corinthian
pier. The conical roof has three dormers, each gable
d, decorated with marble in a shell motif and topped with a finial. They contain one window flanked by pilasters.
The porch continues onto the main facade's two bays. On the first floor, the northern bay serves as the main entrance. It is topped with a carved cartouche
consisting of the WH monogram
, ribbons, fruits and oak leaves. The door itself is flanked with marble panels carved with vases, foliage and bellflower
s. The windows have a Corinthian column at each side and egg-and-dart
molded
lintels. The porch is floored in a pale gray mosaic
with a darker gray border.
The second story of this section has three windows, each separated by Corinthian piers. Above it is a molded stone cornice
and frieze
, carved in foliage and flowers which also extends around the towers. The windows are complemented by two dormers similar to, but larger than, the tower dormers.
The next three bays have a single window on the first and second story with cartouches at the lintels. Above the second story is a wide frieze with cornucopia, shells, torches, flowers and other foliage. At the third story is an open balcony. Its openings are similar to those on the first story's porch. Above it is a frieze similar to the one on the tower, a molded stone cornice, three dormers and a hipped roof with a conical top over the bay. A tall, paneled chimney marks the intersection of the conical and hipped roofs.
The third section, two bays wide, has a similar treatment to the entrance section. Each bay has three windows, added later. The two dormers in the hipped roof are similar to those at the entrance.
A terrace connects the southeast and northeast facades. It has a stone balustrade and other similar treatments to the porches on the southeast facade. Atop, a chimney rises from between two dormers.
At the other end of the northeast facade, with fenestration
similar to the rest of the house, is a flat-roofed balustraded porch, now enclosed. It has similar treatments to the doors and windows on the southeast facade.
The northwest facade is as complex as the southeast. Its roofline is marked by four chimneys and dormers similar to the others. In the center is a projecting curved section, three bays wide, three and a half stories high, similar to the one opposite with a balcony. On the south of the facade is a porte cochère of marble, with opening treatments similar to the porches. At the top of its stairs is an iron and glass vestibule
with intricate carved cartouches, scrolls, foliage and circles. Above this entrance, on the second story, is a pictorial stained glass
window attributed to the Tiffany
studio.
On the western corner, a terrace begins. It wraps around the corner to become a porch running the length of the southwest facade. Atop its entire length is a stone balustrade. Above it is a hipped roof with two chimneys, both flanked by dormers.
oak library by pocket door
s. Both incorporate many rococo
relief designs.
On the north side of the hall is a large carved wooden fireplace with onyx
trim. A small room next to it leads to the dining room, with a beamed ceiling, and kitchen. On the west side, a short flight of stairs leads to the porte-cochère and a large mahogany
stair to the second floor. The stained glass window lights the landing.
The stairway ends in a curved balustrade on the second floor hall, done in Circassian walnut. This level was given over originally to bedrooms for the family and guests. The rooms in the tower were used as a solarium
. The third floor hallway is more open and was, according to the Horton family, used as a ballroom
. The large room to the south was originally a billiard room
. Another bedroom was located to the north, with the top room in the tower serving as a trophy room. Its ceiling, right under the tower's conical roof, is ornamented with ribs and Moorish Revival
relief
designs.
walls is located to the northwest. The largest building is an L-shaped garage/carriage house
with upstairs apartment on the north of the complex. It is sided in large, irregularly cut masonry which may be artificial aggregate or lava stone. Its hipped roof, pierced with gabled dormers, is covered in flat green ceramic tile. Inside the first floor has been converted to classroom and office space, but it retains some of the original finishes.
On the south end of the garage/stable is a corral
for the horses. To its south is a one-story toolhouse similar to the garage. It was also used as an icehouse. Today it houses several transformer
s.
South of the garage are two glass greenhouse
s on stone foundations. The northern one has a small masonry structure on the west. Between them are the foundations of cold frame
s. There was also a sunken garden between them that was removed to build another academic building, the Learning Resource Center. The stones from it are stacked at the south end of the yard.
The building's massive form shows the influence of several contemporary architectural style
s. The masonry exterior is a Richardsonian Romanesque
touch, the complicated roofline is in accord with the Queen Anne Style
, and the classically inspired decorations a nod to the Beaux-Arts mode.
native who had built a fortune starting from a Narrowsburg
tanning
business, later benefiting from an oil strike in Sheffield, Pennsylvania
. The Horton family had been living in an older house on the property since the 1880s, slowly acquiring the land for the estate house. Construction of the main building was begun in 1902, when Webb was 76, and completed in 1906, reportedly at a cost of a million dollars ($ in contemporary dollars). Horton died in 1908, reportedly never having spent a night in the house. His wife died two years later, and by 1918 both his children had died without marrying or otherwise leaving heirs.
Before he succumbed to the flu in 1918, Eugene Horton, the last to die, had acquired the land for the service complex. He hired another local architect, David Hastings Canfield, to design the outbuildings. In addition to the current complex, there was also a conservatory
and hothouse
on the site, as a well as a frame house facing East Conkling. In 1911 the Horton children had bought the house at South and East Conkling, later tearing it down for the sunken garden.
Eugene Horton willed the estate to his cousin and employee, John Morrison. Morrison, a farmer, reluctantly took care of the estate until his death in 1947. He made few changes to the property.
Morrison's will left the estate to Horton Hospital (also named after the house's first resident) in Middletown, with his wife Catherine granted life tenancy
. When the founders of Orange County Community College
approached her in the late 1940s, she was willing to sell, but did not have the legal right to since her husband's will had already disposed of the property. The hospital was not willing to sell at that time since it had planned to do so upon Mrs. Morrison's death in the hope of getting the best possible price to pay down its debt. The community raised $480,000 ($ in contemporary dollars) to that end, and the hospital released its claim.
The first classes were held in 1950 in the garage/stable building. While many more modern buildings have been developed on the campus, the mansion, stables, and other outbuildings are still used for educational, administrative, and custodial purposes. The college has made a few changes: converting one of the upper balconies to an office, enclosing the porches, and putting in new vestibule doors. Other than that, the buildings have retained their integrity.
Middletown, Orange County, New York
Middletown is a city in Orange County, New York, United States. It lies in New York's Hudson Valley region, near the Wallkill River and the foothills of the Shawangunk Mountains. Middletown is situated between Port Jervis and Newburgh, New York. The city's population was 25,388 at the 2000 census...
, New York, United States, designed by local architect Frank Lindsey. It is now part of the campus of SUNY Orange, known as Morrison Hall, and housing its main administrative offices. A nearby service complex has also been kept and used for the college as well.
It is an extravagant combination of styles and materials that has been altered very little during its subsequent ownership and use by the college. In 1990 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
.
Building
The house sits on a low hilltop on South Street between East Conkling and Grand View avenues in the southwest quadrant of the city. It has a view out to the southeast. The five-acre (2 ha) lot that was originally the mansion property is now part of the college campus, but still has its original curvilinear road and path system as well as four contributingContributing property
In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing resource or contributing property is any building, structure, or object which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic district, listed locally or federally, significant...
outbuildings. On the north (rear) of the house is its original 1.7 acres (6,879.7 m²) lawn, sloping gently down towards Wawayanda Creek
Wawayanda Creek
Wawayanda Creek is the name of Pochuck Creek above its confluence with the tributary Black Creek. It is long. Wawayanda Creek, via Pochuck Creek, is a tributary of the Wallkill River in Sussex County, New Jersey in the United States....
behind the college, which now serves as the college's main quad
Quadrangle (architecture)
In architecture, a quadrangle is a space or courtyard, usually rectangular in plan, the sides of which are entirely or mainly occupied by parts of a large building. The word is probably most closely associated with college or university campus architecture, but quadrangles may be found in other...
.
The college campus surrounds the house on three sides, with a large modern building called Hudson Hall immediately to the east. A 6½-foot–high (2 m) stone and iron fence, ornamented with scrolls and the initials "WH" on the main gate, screens the house from South Street and the parking lots across it. Large, mature trees grow around the house. The neighborhood off the campus is residential.
Exterior
The house itself has load-bearing walls sided in rock-faced marble tied into its steel frameSteel frame
Steel frame usually refers to a building technique with a "skeleton frame" of vertical steel columns and horizontal -beams, constructed in a rectangular grid to support the floors, roof and walls of a building which are all attached to the frame...
. It is 118 feet (36 m) long and 80 feet (24.4 m) wide. It rises two stories above a high basement, with all windows protected by cast
Cast iron
Cast iron is derived from pig iron, and while it usually refers to gray iron, it also identifies a large group of ferrous alloys which solidify with a eutectic. The color of a fractured surface can be used to identify an alloy. White cast iron is named after its white surface when fractured, due...
and wrought iron
Wrought iron
thumb|The [[Eiffel tower]] is constructed from [[puddle iron]], a form of wrought ironWrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon...
grilles, to steeply pitched
Roof pitch
In building construction, roof pitch is a numerical measure of the steepness of a roof, and a pitched roof is a roof that is steep.The roof's pitch is the measured vertical rise divided by the measured horizontal span, the same thing as what is called "slope" in geometry. Roof pitch is typically...
hipped roofs
Hip roof
A hip roof, or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope. Thus it is a house with no gables or other vertical sides to the roof. A square hip roof is shaped like a pyramid. Hip roofs on the houses could have two triangular side...
surfaced in green ceramic tile and pierced by ornate dormer windows. Three-story towers rise on the front and rear facade
Facade
A facade or façade is generally one exterior side of a building, usually, but not always, the front. The word comes from the French language, literally meaning "frontage" or "face"....
s.
There are four separate sections to the front facade. At the south corner, the tower's three bays
Bay (architecture)
A bay is a unit of form in architecture. This unit is defined as the zone between the outer edges of an engaged column, pilaster, or post; or within a window frame, doorframe, or vertical 'bas relief' wall form.-Defining elements:...
form a porch on the first story. On the two above, each bay has a pair of windows separated by a Corinthian
Corinthian order
The Corinthian order is one of the three principal classical orders of ancient Greek and Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric and Ionic. When classical architecture was revived during the Renaissance, two more orders were added to the canon, the Tuscan order and the Composite order...
pier. The conical roof has three dormers, each gable
Gable
A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of a sloping roof. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system being used and aesthetic concerns. Thus the type of roof enclosing the volume dictates the shape of the gable...
d, decorated with marble in a shell motif and topped with a finial. They contain one window flanked by pilasters.
The porch continues onto the main facade's two bays. On the first floor, the northern bay serves as the main entrance. It is topped with a carved cartouche
Cartouche
In Egyptian hieroglyphs, a cartouche is an ellipse with a horizontal line at one end, indicating that the text enclosed is a royal name, coming into use during the beginning of the Fourth Dynasty under Pharaoh Sneferu, replacing the earlier serekh...
consisting of the WH monogram
Monogram
A monogram is a motif made by overlapping or combining two or more letters or other graphemes to form one symbol. Monograms are often made by combining the initials of an individual or a company, used as recognizable symbols or logos. A series of uncombined initials is properly referred to as a...
, ribbons, fruits and oak leaves. The door itself is flanked with marble panels carved with vases, foliage and bellflower
Bellflower
The term Bellflower can refer to:*The city of Bellflower, California.*The village of Bellflower, Illinois.* Bellflower, Missouri*Numerous flowering Bellflower plants, classified in the genera Campanula, Campanulastrum, Codonopsis, and Platycodon.*The Bellflower family of rabbits, created by...
s. The windows have a Corinthian column at each side and egg-and-dart
Egg-and-dart
Egg-and-dart or Egg-and-tongue is an ornamental device often carved in wood, stone, or plaster quarter-round ovolo mouldings, consisting of an egg-shaped object alternating with an element shaped like an arrow, anchor or dart. Egg-and-dart enrichment of the ovolo molding of the Ionic capital is...
molded
Molding (decorative)
Molding or moulding is a strip of material with various profiles used to cover transitions between surfaces or for decoration. It is traditionally made from solid milled wood or plaster but may be made from plastic or reformed wood...
lintels. The porch is floored in a pale gray mosaic
Mosaic
Mosaic is the art of creating images with an assemblage of small pieces of colored glass, stone, or other materials. It may be a technique of decorative art, an aspect of interior decoration, or of cultural and spiritual significance as in a cathedral...
with a darker gray border.
The second story of this section has three windows, each separated by Corinthian piers. Above it is a molded stone cornice
Cornice
Cornice molding is generally any horizontal decorative molding that crowns any building or furniture element: the cornice over a door or window, for instance, or the cornice around the edge of a pedestal. A simple cornice may be formed just with a crown molding.The function of the projecting...
and frieze
Frieze
thumb|267px|Frieze of the [[Tower of the Winds]], AthensIn architecture the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Even when neither columns nor pilasters are expressed, on an astylar wall it lies upon...
, carved in foliage and flowers which also extends around the towers. The windows are complemented by two dormers similar to, but larger than, the tower dormers.
The next three bays have a single window on the first and second story with cartouches at the lintels. Above the second story is a wide frieze with cornucopia, shells, torches, flowers and other foliage. At the third story is an open balcony. Its openings are similar to those on the first story's porch. Above it is a frieze similar to the one on the tower, a molded stone cornice, three dormers and a hipped roof with a conical top over the bay. A tall, paneled chimney marks the intersection of the conical and hipped roofs.
The third section, two bays wide, has a similar treatment to the entrance section. Each bay has three windows, added later. The two dormers in the hipped roof are similar to those at the entrance.
A terrace connects the southeast and northeast facades. It has a stone balustrade and other similar treatments to the porches on the southeast facade. Atop, a chimney rises from between two dormers.
At the other end of the northeast facade, with fenestration
Window
A window is a transparent or translucent opening in a wall or door that allows the passage of light and, if not closed or sealed, air and sound. Windows are usually glazed or covered in some other transparent or translucent material like float glass. Windows are held in place by frames, which...
similar to the rest of the house, is a flat-roofed balustraded porch, now enclosed. It has similar treatments to the doors and windows on the southeast facade.
The northwest facade is as complex as the southeast. Its roofline is marked by four chimneys and dormers similar to the others. In the center is a projecting curved section, three bays wide, three and a half stories high, similar to the one opposite with a balcony. On the south of the facade is a porte cochère of marble, with opening treatments similar to the porches. At the top of its stairs is an iron and glass vestibule
Vestibule (architecture)
A vestibule is a lobby, entrance hall, or passage between the entrance and the interior of a building.The same term can apply to structures in modern or ancient roman architecture. In modern architecture vestibule typically refers to a small room or hall between an entrance and the interior of...
with intricate carved cartouches, scrolls, foliage and circles. Above this entrance, on the second story, is a pictorial stained glass
Stained glass
The term stained glass can refer to coloured glass as a material or to works produced from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant buildings...
window attributed to the Tiffany
Tiffany & Co.
Tiffany & Co. is an American jewelry and silverware company. As part of its branding, the company is strongly associated with its Tiffany Blue , which is a registered trademark.- History :...
studio.
On the western corner, a terrace begins. It wraps around the corner to become a porch running the length of the southwest facade. Atop its entire length is a stone balustrade. Above it is a hipped roof with two chimneys, both flanked by dormers.
Interior
All the stories still have their original central-hall interior plan. The main entrance leads into it via a paneled vestibule. The major rooms are off to the south, including the circular salon, linked to the stainedWood stain
A wood stain consists of a colorant suspended or dissolved in a 'vehicle' or solvent. The suspension agent can be water, alcohol, petroleum distillate, or the actual finishing agent...
oak library by pocket door
Pocket door
A pocket door is a sliding door that disappears, when fully open, into a compartment in the adjacent wall. Pocket doors are used for architectural effect, or when there is no room for the swing of a hinged door. They usually travel on rollers suspended from an overhead track, although some also...
s. Both incorporate many rococo
Rococo
Rococo , also referred to as "Late Baroque", is an 18th-century style which developed as Baroque artists gave up their symmetry and became increasingly ornate, florid, and playful...
relief designs.
On the north side of the hall is a large carved wooden fireplace with onyx
Onyx
Onyx is a banded variety of chalcedony. The colors of its bands range from white to almost every color . Commonly, specimens of onyx contain bands of black and/or white.-Etymology:...
trim. A small room next to it leads to the dining room, with a beamed ceiling, and kitchen. On the west side, a short flight of stairs leads to the porte-cochère and a large mahogany
Mahogany
The name mahogany is used when referring to numerous varieties of dark-colored hardwood. It is a native American word originally used for the wood of the species Swietenia mahagoni, known as West Indian or Cuban mahogany....
stair to the second floor. The stained glass window lights the landing.
The stairway ends in a curved balustrade on the second floor hall, done in Circassian walnut. This level was given over originally to bedrooms for the family and guests. The rooms in the tower were used as a solarium
Solarium
Solarium may refer to:* Similar to a Sunroom, a room built largely of glass to afford exposure to the sun. Solariums have glass roofs , unlike sunrooms...
. The third floor hallway is more open and was, according to the Horton family, used as a ballroom
Ballroom
A ballroom is a large room inside a building, the designated purpose of which is holding formal dances called balls. Traditionally, most balls were held in private residences; many mansions contain one or more ballrooms...
. The large room to the south was originally a billiard room
Billiard room
A billiard room is a recreation room, such as in a house or recreation center, with a billiards, pool or snooker table...
. Another bedroom was located to the north, with the top room in the tower serving as a trophy room. Its ceiling, right under the tower's conical roof, is ornamented with ribs and Moorish Revival
Moorish Revival
Moorish Revival or Neo-Moorish is one of the exotic revival architectural styles that were adopted by architects of Europe and the Americas in the wake of the Romanticist fascination with all things oriental...
relief
Relief
Relief is a sculptural technique. The term relief is from the Latin verb levo, to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is thus to give the impression that the sculpted material has been raised above the background plane...
designs.
Outbuildings
A service complex enclosed by cobblestoneCobblestone
Cobblestones are stones that were frequently used in the pavement of early streets. "Cobblestone" is derived from the very old English word "cob", which had a wide range of meanings, one of which was "rounded lump" with overtones of large size...
walls is located to the northwest. The largest building is an L-shaped garage/carriage house
Carriage house
A carriage house, also called remise or coach house, is an outbuilding which was originally built to house horse-drawn carriages and the related tack.In Great Britain the farm building was called a Cart Shed...
with upstairs apartment on the north of the complex. It is sided in large, irregularly cut masonry which may be artificial aggregate or lava stone. Its hipped roof, pierced with gabled dormers, is covered in flat green ceramic tile. Inside the first floor has been converted to classroom and office space, but it retains some of the original finishes.
On the south end of the garage/stable is a corral
Corral
Corral is a town, commune and sea port in Los Ríos Region, Chile. It is located south of Corral Bay. Corral is best known for the forts of Corral Bay, a system of defensive batteries and forts made to protect Valdivia during colonial times. Corral was the headquarters of the system...
for the horses. To its south is a one-story toolhouse similar to the garage. It was also used as an icehouse. Today it houses several transformer
Transformer
A transformer is a device that transfers electrical energy from one circuit to another through inductively coupled conductors—the transformer's coils. A varying current in the first or primary winding creates a varying magnetic flux in the transformer's core and thus a varying magnetic field...
s.
South of the garage are two glass greenhouse
Greenhouse
A greenhouse is a building in which plants are grown. These structures range in size from small sheds to very large buildings...
s on stone foundations. The northern one has a small masonry structure on the west. Between them are the foundations of cold frame
Cold frame
In agriculture and gardening, a cold frame is a transparent-roofed enclosure, built low to the ground, used to protect plants from cold weather. The transparent top admits sunlight and prevents heat escape via convection that would otherwise occur, particularly at night...
s. There was also a sunken garden between them that was removed to build another academic building, the Learning Resource Center. The stones from it are stacked at the south end of the yard.
Aesthetics
The Horton House is typical of the country seats built by the wealthy of late 19th-century America, though in an urban or suburban setting. It shows the influence of Artistic Country-Seats, an 1887 pattern book by George William Sheldon, which had houses with many different rooms.The building's massive form shows the influence of several contemporary architectural style
Architectural style
Architectural styles classify architecture in terms of the use of form, techniques, materials, time period, region and other stylistic influences. It overlaps with, and emerges from the study of the evolution and history of architecture...
s. The masonry exterior is a Richardsonian Romanesque
Richardsonian Romanesque
Richardsonian Romanesque is a style of Romanesque Revival architecture named after architect Henry Hobson Richardson, whose masterpiece is Trinity Church, Boston , designated a National Historic Landmark...
touch, the complicated roofline is in accord with the Queen Anne Style
Queen Anne Style architecture
The Queen Anne Style in Britain means either the English Baroque architectural style roughly of the reign of Queen Anne , or a revived form that was popular in the last quarter of the 19th century and the early decades of the 20th century...
, and the classically inspired decorations a nod to the Beaux-Arts mode.
History
The mansion was designed by Frank J. Lindsey, a local carpenter turned architect, for Horton, a Delaware CountyDelaware County, New York
Delaware County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. As of 2010 the population was 47,980. The county seat is Delhi. It is named after the Delaware River, which was named in honor of Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr, appointed governor of Virginia in 1609.-History:When counties...
native who had built a fortune starting from a Narrowsburg
Narrowsburg, New York
Narrowsburg is a hamlet in Sullivan County, New York, United States. The population was 414 at the 2000 census.Narrowsburg is in the western part of the Town of Tusten at the junction of Routes 52 and 97...
tanning
Tanning
Tanning is the making of leather from the skins of animals which does not easily decompose. Traditionally, tanning used tannin, an acidic chemical compound from which the tanning process draws its name . Coloring may occur during tanning...
business, later benefiting from an oil strike in Sheffield, Pennsylvania
Sheffield, Pennsylvania
Sheffield is a census-designated place in Warren County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 1,268 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Sheffield is located at ....
. The Horton family had been living in an older house on the property since the 1880s, slowly acquiring the land for the estate house. Construction of the main building was begun in 1902, when Webb was 76, and completed in 1906, reportedly at a cost of a million dollars ($ in contemporary dollars). Horton died in 1908, reportedly never having spent a night in the house. His wife died two years later, and by 1918 both his children had died without marrying or otherwise leaving heirs.
Before he succumbed to the flu in 1918, Eugene Horton, the last to die, had acquired the land for the service complex. He hired another local architect, David Hastings Canfield, to design the outbuildings. In addition to the current complex, there was also a conservatory
Conservatory (greenhouse)
A conservatory is a room having glass roof and walls, typically attached to a house on only one side, used as a greenhouse or a sunroom...
and hothouse
Hothouse
Hothouse or Hot House or Hot house may refer to:* A heated greenhouse* "Hot House" , a jazz standard* Hot House , a 1995 album by musician Bruce Hornsby* Hot House...
on the site, as a well as a frame house facing East Conkling. In 1911 the Horton children had bought the house at South and East Conkling, later tearing it down for the sunken garden.
Eugene Horton willed the estate to his cousin and employee, John Morrison. Morrison, a farmer, reluctantly took care of the estate until his death in 1947. He made few changes to the property.
Morrison's will left the estate to Horton Hospital (also named after the house's first resident) in Middletown, with his wife Catherine granted life tenancy
Life estate
A life estate is a concept used in common law and statutory law to designate the ownership of land for the duration of a person's life. In legal terms it is an estate in real property that ends at death when there is a "reversion" to the original owner...
. When the founders of Orange County Community College
Orange County Community College
Orange County Community College, or SUNY Orange, is a unit of the State University of New York offering two year associates degrees. The College, with its main campus in Middletown, New York was founded in 1950, making it the first county-sponsored community college in the SUNY system...
approached her in the late 1940s, she was willing to sell, but did not have the legal right to since her husband's will had already disposed of the property. The hospital was not willing to sell at that time since it had planned to do so upon Mrs. Morrison's death in the hope of getting the best possible price to pay down its debt. The community raised $480,000 ($ in contemporary dollars) to that end, and the hospital released its claim.
The first classes were held in 1950 in the garage/stable building. While many more modern buildings have been developed on the campus, the mansion, stables, and other outbuildings are still used for educational, administrative, and custodial purposes. The college has made a few changes: converting one of the upper balconies to an office, enclosing the porches, and putting in new vestibule doors. Other than that, the buildings have retained their integrity.
See also
- National Register of Historic Places listings in Orange County, New York