Architecture
The original manor house, built circa 1825, was three bays wide with the door on the right. In about 1844, two more bays were added off the main staircase (possibly by Mrs. Olivia Talbott Harrison), making the house more symmetrical, and thus emphasizing its Federal style. There is also a wing on one side. The house is of white frame and is two and one half stories high on the main house and two stories high on wing.
The house has a special archeological feature of having a locally-made brick foundation that is cemented together by mortar containing fossils. It has double chimneys at each end and a chimney on the wing, although they were rebuilt in the 1940s. In total, the house has ten fireplaces. The house has poplar framing with oak sills, which were hand-hewn and pit-sawn on the property. The beam in the basement that supports the house is original and is believed to be from the keel of a sailing ship.
The home’s interior doors, window frames, and chair rails were made in the Greek revival style. The apple wood staircase was carved from wood off the property and is in the Federal style, and on damp days, emits a faint apple fragrance.
The handmade mantels over the four fireplaces on the first floor are original and an interesting feature of the interior doors is that they open from right to left, so that in earlier days the room’s occupants would have a warning before someone entered.
The floors in the hall have boards over 20' long, while the library and upstairs office are very rough hewn. Most of floors in the home are orignial, though some were replaced in the 1940s.
In 1946, the Wards embarked upon a Colonial Revival renovation of the home, adding the pediment supported by four, two-story columns on the front of the house and a palladian window on back. Dr. Ward's original blueprints still exist and show that the home had a dumbwaiter from the basement to what is now the library. On the main floor, the house contains the entry hall with the main staircase, a parlor with huge folding doors that open into another room to make a ballroom, a large dining room, a library, and a large country kitchen. The second floor contains four bedrooms, three baths, and an office. The third floor contains two more bedrooms and access to the space over the portico.
