Wikipedia:Today's featured article/December 1, 2010

The Clemuel Ricketts Mansion is a Georgian style house made of sandstone, built in 1852 or 1855 on the shore of Ganoga Lake in Colley Township, Sullivan County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It was home to several generations of the Ricketts family, including R. Bruce Ricketts and William Reynolds Ricketts. Originally built as a hunting lodge, it was also a tavern and post office, and served as part of a hotel for much of the 19th century. After 1903 the house served as the Ricketts family's summer home; they kept it even as they sold over 65000 acre to the state of Pennsylvania from 1920 to 1950. The house was included in the Historic American Buildings Survey in 1936 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. The original mansion is an L-shaped structure, two-and-a-half stories high, with stone walls 2 ft thick. It was built in a clearing surrounded by old-growth forest with a view to the lake 900 ft to the east. In 1913 a two-and-a-half story wing was added to the north side of the house and the original structure was renovated. The house has twenty-eight rooms, four porches, and its original hardware and woodwork. Dormers and some windows were added in the renovation, and electrical wiring and modern plumbing have been added since. According to the NRHP nomination form, the Clemuel Ricketts Mansion "is a stunning example of Georgian vernacular architecture". (more...)

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