Llenroc, Ithaca

Llenroc is a Gothic revival villa built for Ezra Cornell, the founder of Cornell University. It is located at 100 Cornell Avenue in Ithaca, New York, just below the Cornell University campus. Since 1911, it has been the home of the Pi Chapter of the Delta Phi fraternity. The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. There are several notable aspects to the house and property. The house's stone exteriors feature three-foot thick masonry walls and a variety of carved capitals, arches, and turrets. Its interiors are decorated in Georgia Pine and black walnut, and include large leaded glass mirrors, fireplaces, molded plaster ceilings, and a pine balustrade main staircase carved in a Gothic style. Rare, hand-made twin chandeliers hang in the living and music rooms. The house contains nine elaborate fireplaces. In 1925, the Smiley Baldwin Memorial Stairway was donated to the Delta Phi fraternity by Arthur Baldwin, Cornell Class of 1892. The outdoor Stairway, built in honor of Arthur's son Morgan Smiley Baldwin, Cornell Class of 1915, who was killed in World War I, connects Cornell Avenue and University Avenue and is located at the southwest corner of the property. Arthur Baldwin and Morgan Smiley Baldwin were both brothers of the chapter. The Pi chapter of the Delta Phi fraternity was founded at Cornell University in 1891. After spending its first 10 years in rental houses, the chapter purchased 515 Stewart Avenue in 1901. In 1911, the chapter purchased Llenroc from Ezra’s daughters Mary Emily Cornell and Emma Cornell Blair. White wrote the chapter a letter of congratulations, in which he stated, “The music of the University chimes comes down from the library tower upon the whole place morning, noon, and evening, as a benediction. I am glad to see a house so dear to me in the possession of so distinguished a fraternity as yours, and trust that the occupation of the place hallowed by so many cherished memories will bring a blessing on all who enter it.” The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. Llenroc is featured in many books about the University, Ezra Cornell, and Central New York State. It is the subject of a 1994 master’s thesis written by a graduate student in the Architecture College. It is lectured about in the Cornell University course Cornell: The First American University. Architect and chapter brother M. Arthur Gensler, Cornell Class of ‘58 and the founder of Gensler, the world’s largest architectural firm, called Llenroc “one of the great buildings in America.”

Built as his home by Ezra Cornell, Llenroc is a nineteenth century Victorian Gothic stone villa. It is elegant, imposing, and unique. As the Daily Sun observes, “With McGraw and Morrill Halls, this home represents Cornell as its founder first knew it.” Ezra’s personal tastes were plain in most respects. But when it came to Llenroc, Ezra built what Professor Kermit Parsons in his book, The Cornell Campus, calls “his only architectural extravagance." Ezra’s son Alonzo Cornell wrote in his biography of Ezra that “with his exceptional prosperity came the ambition to build a dwelling which should be an ornament to the locality." And Professor Burt Wilder recalled, “Perhaps the best exemplification of the duality of his nature was offered by his indifference to the impression made by his rather shabby vehicle, horse, and even hat, as contrasted with his genuine and superior artistic pleasure in the execution of carvings for his projected residence.” Llenroc was designed by the Albany firm Nichols & Brown, which had earlier designed Cascadilla Hall. It was completed in 1876. Ezra recruited skilled craftsmen from all over Europe to work on the house. Robert Richardson, one of many craftsmen who came from England, was one of the house’s primary stonecarvers. He went on to work on the A.D. White House, Sage College, Sage Chapel, and Barnes Hall. A.D. White so admired the quality of Richardson’s work that he dubbed him Magister de vivis lapidibus, Latin for “teacher of living stone.” At White’s suggestion, 'True and Firm' was carved on the stone riband above the house’s front door. Alonzo Cornell stated, “True and Firm—the motto which surmounts the principal entrance—is indeed characteristic of the building in all of its details.” ***PH***