old-houses- 0583 - Old Houses of the North Country

Old Houses of the North Country
NOYES TUTTLE HOUSE IN BOONVILLE.
One of the most striking of the fine old houses in the
thriving village of Boonville, which is in Oneida county,
is that whicli was built about 1830 by Noyes Tuttle on the
south side of West Schuyler street. It is now owned by Mr.
and Mrs. Cleo L. Hughes and is close to the business heart
of the village, not far from the historic Hulburt tavern
erected in 1819.
The Tuttle mansion, with its beautiful central front
doorway, its fluted pilasters and Ionic capitals, began with
a small house constructed about ten years before and
which is now the rear part of the main structure.
Noyes Tuttle. who died in 1832 about two years after
thebig house was completed, was a skilled carpenter and
carved the pilasters of butternut and the capitals surmounting them. It is not unlikely also that Mr. Tuttle
made the graceful semi-circular stair, with its naturalgrain banister and urn-topped newel post, that winds up
in the broad hallway.
Rectangular sidelights and transom grace the beautiful
original seven-paneled front door. To the left of the hall
is the large living room, while to the right is the pleasant
dining room. Back of the dining room is a bedroom. At
the back of the hall is the kitchen and at the rear of the
house the huge summer kitchen, above which is a woodshed chamber. The upper hall is large and square. Off it
are several bedrooms finished with canopied four-posters
and other beautiful antiques. At the rear of the upper hall
are three more bedrooms.
But antiques are not exclusive to the bedrooms. The
entiie house is attractively furnished with them, and another feature of the mansion is the original white pine
floors of broad boards finished natural and polished. The
exterior walls are bricked up to make the house strong
and warm.
The windows are the original twelve-paned ones and
the mansion is located in the earliest settled section of the
village.
To the east of the house was the carriage shop bult by
Burton Tuttle about 1830 and owned in later years by
Tanner & Wooley. There were made carriages, wagons,
cutters, baby sleighs, etc. From John Owens, Noyes Tuttle
bought the mill which Owens', father, Ephraim, had built
in 1817 and which about the, middle of the 19th century
became the Sargent chair factorv owned bv N. M. Sargent.
On Feb. 25, 1840 title to this Noves Tuttle mansion
—Photo and Caption by David F. Lane
passed to his son, Whiting, who died April 4. 1856, aged
56. His first wife, Susan, had died June 11,1833 at 31. His
second wife, Clarissa, survived him to die Feb. 22, 1877,
aged 72.
The next owner of the mansion was Whiting Tuttle's
daughter, Jane, who had married Sterry Hawkins, son of
the founder of Hawkinsville. Mrs. Hawkins inherited this
property and, on May 3, 1883 sold it to John T. Watts who
operated a blacksmith shop bearing a sign, "Watts You
Bet" around the corner across from the depot.
John Watts died Jan. 30, 1918 and his heirs conveyed
the mansion place to Williams, who was one of his three
children. Sometime later William Watts sold to Wescott W. and Mary Porter, who occupied the house. Mrs.
Porter died about two years later, survived by her husband and a daughter, Czarina, who married Joseph Lenway and moved to another house. Mr. Porter took a second wife and after Mr. Lenway's death and the death of
her father, Czarina came back to reside with her stepmother.
On May 17, 1941 Wescott W. and Madge Potter Porter
sold the mansion to Mr. and Mrs. Hughes, the present
owners but with the condition that the Porters be permitted to remain there ten years. In January, 1952, they relinquished it to Mr. and Mrs. Hughes, who now occupy it
with their two daughters, Mary Lucille and Nancy Ruth.
Mr. Hughes, son of Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Hughes of Kdinburg, Tex., was educaled in the Edinburg High school, the
John Tarleton Military academy of Texas and Tarkio college at Tariko, Mo. He is head of the Ford & Mercury Motor Sales company of Boonville. He was married in Boonville Dec. 25, 1934 to Miss Ruth Virginia Harvey, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. C. Ray Harvey, prominent Boonville
residents.
Mrs. Hughes was educated in the Boonville High school
and also attended Tarkio colege. Her father, now deceased,
was for several terms supervisor of the town of Boonville, which town was named for Gerrit Boon, agent for
the Holland Land company.
But the beautiful Tuttle mansion, much the same as it
originally was, except for some changes made in it by the
Porters, stands today not only an historic landmark in
Boonville but one of the outstanding dwellings in that
community.