The Morgan–Manning House is a historic house located in
Brockport,
Monroe County, New York
Monroe County is a county in the U.S. state of New York, located along Lake Ontario's southern shore. As of 2022, the population was 752,035, according to Census Bureau estimates. Its county seat and largest city is Rochester. The county is ...
. It was built in 1854 and is a two-story,
Italianate
The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style combined its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century It ...
–style brick dwelling on a
limestone
Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...
foundation. The five-by-four-bay main block features a hipped roof and
cupola
In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, usually dome-like structure on top of a building often crowning a larger roof or dome. Cupolas often serve as a roof lantern to admit light and air or as a lookout.
The word derives, via Ital ...
. It has a two-story hipped roof wing with a smaller two-story brick appendage creating a stepped, or telescoping, plan or profile. The house also has a full width
porch
A porch (; , ) is a room or gallery located in front of an entrance to a building. A porch is placed in front of the façade of a building it commands, and forms a low front. Alternatively, it may be a vestibule (architecture), vestibule (a s ...
with brick piers. The interior features elaborate interior woodwork, period plasterwork, stained glass and decorated ceilings. Also on the property is a contributing
carriage house
A ''carriage house'', also called a ''remise'' or ''coach house'', is a term used in North America to describe an outbuilding that was originally built to house horse-drawn carriages and their related tack. Carriage houses were often two ...
.
[ ''See also:'' ]
The home was originally built for John C. Ostrom and was purchased in 1867 by Dayton S. Morgan and his wife Susan Jocelyn Morgan. Dayton Morgan was a local industrialist whose foundry, the Globe Iron Works, produced the first hundred mechanized reapers for
Cyrus McCormick
Cyrus Hall McCormick (February 15, 1809 – May 13, 1884) was an American inventor and businessman who founded the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company, which became part of the International Harvester Company in 1902. Originally from the Blue ...
. Mr Morgan went on to produce his own very successful mechanized reapers with business partner William Seymour. The house remained in the Morgan family for almost the next hundred years. The Morgan family remodeled many of the rooms on the main floor of the house in the late Victorian style, embellishing the rooms oak and cherry paneling and trim, and stained glass windows. Dayton Morgan died in 1890. His daughter Sara Morgan married physician Frederick Manning in the 1890s. After the early death of her husband, Mrs. Manning returned to Brockport with her young son Arnold, who died at age 21 in 1916. Sara Morgan Manning stayed on in her parents' house until her death in 1964, at age 96, following a disastrous fire that swept through the house on September 26th of that year.
[Western Monroe Historical Society profile](_blank)
Mrs. Manning bequeathed her home to her community. A group of local citizens formed the Western Monroe Historical Society to restore and care for the house, which had become a local landmark. The damage from the fire has been repaired and the house is furnished to reflect the lifestyle of a wealthy canal town resident during the second half of the 19th century, through the first quarter of the 20th century. The Society's collection includes many portraits of locally prominent 19th-century residents and furnishings from local families.
It was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
in 1991.
It is designated as a Point of Interest on the
Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor
The Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor is a National Heritage Area in New York State.
It has created signage in a wide area, including placing signs many miles away from any historic site of the Erie Canal.
The corridor includes 34 Nationa ...
by the
National Park Service
The National Park Service (NPS) is an List of federal agencies in the United States, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, within the US Department of the Interior. The service manages all List ...
.
On the evening of Tuesday, January 14, 2025 at approximately 6:45 PM, members of the buildings board arrived for their monthly meeting, upon entering the residence, smoke was discovered coming from the basement. The small basement fire spread quickly due to the Victorian structural components. Fire crews responded from the Brockport Volunteer Fire Department, as well as 4 alarms of mutual aide from neighboring departments. The structure was left with significant damage, including a partial collapse of the second floor, and the pool room and a small bedroom collapsed on the first floor. Several rooms were left with water and smoke damage. The building was secured, and is set to have the roof shrink wrapped to prevent weather damage while awaiting assessment for possible repairs. Board members say they are looking into rebuilding.
[https://13wham.com/news/local/its-just-gone-brockport-residents-react-to-fire-at-historic-morgan-manning-house-main-street-victorian-house-museum-main-street]
References
External links
*
National Register of Historic Places profilefrom ''History of Rochester and Monroe County New York From the Earliest Historic Times to the Beginning of 1907''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Morgan-Manning House
Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in New York (state)
Houses in Monroe County, New York
Italianate architecture in New York (state)
Historic house museums in New York (state)
National Register of Historic Places in Monroe County, New York