Research note

11 - Historic House Confirmation Hunt

5707 Scenic Ave - Historic House Confirmation Hunt

Goal

Move the Skinner/NRHP theory from strongly plausible to document-backed.

Strongest evidence currently in hand

Timothy Skinner House is publicly described as:

NRHP-listed in 1991
large brick Italianate residence
later sold to the American Legion in 1964

5707 Scenic Ave county chain includes American Legion ownership before the 2006 sale.
User has observed that the public-facing 5355 Scenic Ave address appears wrong/stale and that photos tied to it match 5707.
The physical and historical profile of 5707 is consistent with the Skinner House thread.
New map evidence and later review suggest the street name changed over time (Center / Railroad / Scenic).
Newspaper evidence from Mexico Independent, 11 August 1897 references Timothy W. Skinner and his dwelling in the village of Mexico, directly supporting that he had a substantial residence in the village consistent with the nomination narrative.

New useful family-history findings

Avery Skinner line

Public sources consistently support:

Avery Skinner (1796-1876) was a major local political/civic figure
he founded/anchored Union Square (later Maple View)
he served in county and state office
the Skinner family remained prominent in the Mexico area

Timothy W. Skinner line

Public snippet-level evidence indicates:

Timothy W. Skinner was born in Mexico in 1827
admitted to the bar in Watertown in 1857
practiced law in Mexico village
was connected to the banking house of Whitney & Skinner
an 1874 mortgage-book snippet independently ties Timothy W. Skinner to Cyrus Whitney, reinforcing the Whitney & Skinner relationship described in the nomination narrative
an 1897 Supreme Court / assignee notice identifies Timothy W. Skinner as an insolvent debtor, adding an important late-life biographical development that may matter for the property's later history
a 1961 centennial issue clipping states that the American Legion bought in 1944 the former home of A. W. Skinner on Scenic Avenue, which is a major bridge between the Skinner family line and later Legion occupancy

This is important because it supports a later-generation Skinner with the means and local standing to be associated with a significant village residence, while also adding evidence of later financial decline.

Major breakthrough

I found the live NPS / NPGallery asset endpoints for NRHP ref 91000526 and saved them locally.

I also recovered the Mexico MPS multiple property documentation form from NPS:

assets/pdfs/mexico-mps-64500455.pdf

And then, via the PDFs you added through git, I reviewed what appears to be the actual readable Timothy Skinner House nomination packet:

assets/pdfs/91000526.pdf

This is the strongest documentary source in the folder so far.

Saved assets:

assets/pdfs/nrhp-91000526-nomination.pdf
assets/images/historic/nrhp-91000526-primary.png
assets/raw-html/nps-assetdetail-91000526.html
assets/raw-html/nps-assetdetail-11d1e042.html
assets/raw-html/nps-assetdetail-23c2793a.html

Important metadata recovered directly from the NPS asset detail page:

National Register Information System ID: 91000526
Multiple Listing: Mexico MPS
Applicable Criteria: Architecture/Engineering
Architectural Style: Italianate
Architects: Unknown
Area of Significance: Architecture
Period of Significance: 1850-1874
Significant Year: 1865
Resource Type: Building
Note: 5355 Scenic Ave.
Date Published: 6/20/1991

Still missing

a digitized nomination packet with readable narrative text (the currently served NPS PDF is only a one-page placeholder saying the file has not yet been digitized)
hard address bridge from 5355 Scenic Ave to current 5707 Scenic Ave
direct sentence in a public historic source that names the present address/parcels unambiguously
architect / builder identification beyond the current NPS metadata (Architects: Unknown)

Working interpretation

The evidence is now strong enough to treat the Skinner-House identity as a live, high-priority hypothesis rather than a side theory. But it is still not in the folder as a fully proven documentary chain.

Best next proof targets

SHPO confirmation email / phone note
NRHP nomination packet
local history source explicitly naming Timothy W. Skinner and the village house
deed or town-address evidence of renumbering

The full address-discrepancy evidence stack — street-name timeline, source-by-source breakdown, and gap list — is maintained as a dedicated dossier in 12 - Street Name and Address Discrepancy.

Physical profile cross-check (Zillow / county records)

Public records and Zillow data for 5707 Scenic Ave confirm a physical profile fully consistent with the NRHP nomination:

Year built: 1900 (county assessment record) — within the nomination's Period of Significance (1850–1874) and close to the Significant Year of 1865
Structure: 2,184 sq ft, 2-story, brick, "old style" — consistent with a substantial Italianate village house
Lot: ~0.49 acres (108.95 × 198.5 ft) — appropriate for a prominent mid-19th-century village residence
Tax Map ID / parcel: 134.10-02-12 (SWIS 353401); Zillow parcel string 35340113401000020120000000 — use these to query Oswego County GIS directly for address history
Ownership history through county records: American Legion sold 2006-09-25 for $75,000 — matches the 1961 centennial source saying the Legion bought "the former home of A. W. Skinner on Scenic Avenue"

No element of the physical or ownership record contradicts the Skinner House theory. The profile is entirely consistent across independent sources (county records, Zillow, listing text, newspaper sources).

Newly surfaced: Dr. Avery Warner Skinner memorial (Find a Grave)

Direct phrasing from the memorial: "born … in the historic brick house on Railroad Street" (Mexico, NY), identifying the family residence where summers were spent for years. This strongly links the Skinner house line to Railroad Street (the predecessor name to Scenic Avenue), reinforcing the address-identity bridge we’ve built from Center → Railroad → Scenic.

Source: Find a Grave: Dr. Avery Warner Skinner

Recent confirmation-strengthening materials

Recent added source extracts reinforce both the Railroad Street identity and the continuity of the Skinner-family narrative into later decades, especially through Avery W. Skinner and later newspaper references. These do not alone prove current parcel identity, but they materially strengthen the historical continuity argument.