The Timothy Skinner House
Research note

WORKLOG

WORKLOG - 5707 Scenic Ave Research

2026-03-24

Session setup / cleanup

  • Created consolidated project folder: Notes/5707 Scenic Ave Research/
  • Moved older overlapping research notes into archive/
  • Reorganized active research into one-file-per-topic structure

Notes created / refreshed

  • 00 - Overview.md
  • 01 - Verified Facts.md
  • 02 - Historic Designation.md
  • 03 - Ownership & Sale Pattern.md
  • 04 - Financials.md
  • 05 - Due Diligence TODOs.md
  • 06 - Open Questions & Working Theories.md
  • 07 - Public History & Historical Context.md
  • 08 - Sources & Assets to Collect.md
  • 09 - Listing & Public Web Traces.md

Asset archive setup

  • Created:
  • assets/pdfs/
  • assets/images/
  • assets/docs/
  • assets/raw-html/
  • Added assets/links.md manifest

Files saved locally

  • Saved county property description PDF to:
  • assets/pdfs/oswego-county-property-description-report.pdf
  • Saved raw HTML snapshots to:
  • assets/raw-html/timothy-skinner-house.wikipedia.html
  • assets/raw-html/avery-skinner.wikipedia.html
  • assets/raw-html/maple-view.mexico-historical-society.html
  • assets/raw-html/timothy-skinner-house.wikidata.html

Public-history findings added

  • Strengthened Skinner family context via Avery Skinner public-history material
  • Added Timothy W. Skinner thread as a relevant local-family lead
  • Preserved the American Legion linkage as one of the strongest house-identity clues

Public web / listing findings added

  • Captured evidence of a 2024 sold listing trace aligned to the county sale timing
  • Captured current-listing trace clue from public search results
  • Noted that some real-estate aggregators are mixing incorrect metadata into this property

Current active research focus

  1. Formal historic-house proof package
  2. Deeper owner / occupancy / use history
  3. Asset capture: PDFs, photos, listing traces, archival references

Historic-house / Skinner-family chase

  • Created 11 - Historic House Confirmation Hunt.md
  • Logged strongest current proof points linking 5707 to the Timothy Skinner House thread
  • Added stronger family-history context around Avery Skinner and Timothy W. Skinner
  • Confirmed the biggest remaining gap is still the direct NRHP / SHPO / address-bridge document
  • Found the live NPS / NPGallery asset endpoints for NRHP 91000526
  • Saved NPS assets locally including the NRHP placeholder PDF and asset-detail HTML pages
  • Recovered direct NPS metadata confirming:
  • style: Italianate
  • architects: unknown
  • significance year: 1865
  • multiple listing: Mexico MPS
  • note/address field: 5355 Scenic Ave.
  • Pulled the NPS multiple property documentation form for Mexico MPS:
  • assets/pdfs/mexico-mps-64500455.pdf
  • Confirmed the MPS document includes the historic-context framework for the Town of Mexico and explains the evaluation context for related listed resources
  • Reviewed the newly added assets/pdfs/91000526.pdf and confirmed it appears to be the readable Timothy Skinner House nomination packet
  • Extracted and saved detailed findings to:
  • assets/docs/91000526-key-findings.txt
  • Major recovered facts include:
  • built circa 1865/1869 for lawyer Timothy Warner Skinner
  • son of Avery and Elizabeth Huntington Skinner
  • Timothy settled in Mexico Village in 1853 and joined Whitney & Skinner in 1857
  • current function at nomination time was meeting hall (American Legion era)
  • interior remained substantially intact despite American Legion floor-plan changes
  • architect unknown
  • exact historic-location wording: half block north of Scenic and Main in Mexico village
  • Pulled newly added 1854 historic Oswego County map image from repo
  • New user observation from map review: the road appears to have been labeled Center St rather than Scenic Avenue in 1854, which strengthens the case that the street name changed over time
  • Later manual map review suggests the road at the Skinner-house location appears as Railroad in the 1906/1911 Sanborn context while Centre is a different intersecting road
  • Search-result snippet from Mexico Historical Society strongly supports a three-name sequence: Center St → Railroad Street → Scenic Avenue
  • Added 1971 newspaper evidence showing Roy D. Matterson, 5355 Scenic Ave., Mexico, N.Y. in the Mexico Independent (24 June 1971)
  • Saved screenshot asset:
  • assets/images/historic/1971-mexico-independent-roy-matterson-5355-scenic.png
  • Added 1897 newspaper evidence from Mexico Independent (11 August 1897) referencing Timothy W. Skinner and his dwelling in the village of Mexico
  • Saved screenshot asset:
  • assets/images/historic/1897-mexico-independent-timothy-w-skinner-dwelling.png
  • Saved note:
  • assets/docs/1897-timothy-w-skinner-dwelling-note.txt
  • Added 1874 mortgage-book snippet tying Timothy W. Skinner to Cyrus Whitney
  • Saved screenshot asset:
  • assets/images/historic/1874-book-of-mortgages-timothy-w-skinner.png
  • Saved note:
  • assets/docs/1874-book-of-mortgages-timothy-w-skinner-note.txt
  • Added 1897 legal notice showing John W. Ladd as assignee of the estate of Timothy W. Skinner, an insolvent debtor
  • Saved screenshot asset:
  • assets/images/historic/1897-john-w-ladd-assignee-timothy-w-skinner-insolvent.png
  • Saved note:
  • assets/docs/1897-insolvency-timothy-w-skinner-note.txt
  • Added 1961 Mexico Independent centennial clipping stating the American Legion purchased in 1944 the former home of A. W. Skinner on Scenic Avenue
  • Saved screenshot asset:
  • assets/images/historic/1961-mexico-independent-centennial-aw-skinner-legion.png
  • Saved note:
  • assets/docs/1961-centennial-aw-skinner-legion-note.txt

Past listing archive recovery pass

  • Created focused summary note:
  • 10 - Past Listing Recovery.md
  • Saved exact archive/cache recovery attempts and results:
  • assets/raw-html/past-listing-recovery-attempts-2026-03-24.md
  • Confirmed strongest publicly visible prior-sale trace remains search-result snippet text for the 2024 sold cycle, including remarks about the home being opened up as a single-family but easily restorable to a 2-unit layout.
  • Confirmed no concrete older photo gallery recovery from public Wayback/CDX sources in this pass.

Additional asset capture progress

  • Saved additional raw HTML pages into assets/raw-html/:
  • century21-mexico-listings.html
  • homes-mexico-sold.html
  • mexico-historical-society-photo-gallery.html
  • Saved asset capture status note:
  • assets/docs/asset-capture-status.txt
  • Extracted and saved a public historic image candidate from the Timothy Skinner House Wikipedia page:
  • assets/images/historic/timothy-skinner-house-wikipedia-image.jpg
  • source recorded in assets/docs/timothy-skinner-house-image-source.txt
  • Used Playwright successfully against Howard Hanna sold print view for MLS S1531925
  • Saved rendered outputs:
  • assets/raw-html/howardhanna-S1531925-printview-rendered.html
  • assets/docs/howardhanna-S1531925-printview-text.txt
  • assets/docs/howardhanna-S1531925-images.json
  • assets/docs/howardhanna-S1531925-links.txt
  • assets/pdfs/howardhanna-S1531925-printview.pdf
  • Recovered and downloaded 10 prior-listing photos from Howard Hanna / Cirrus image host into:
  • assets/images/past-listings/
  • Recovered an older sold listing page for MLS S1242723 via 2FindYourHome
  • Saved outputs:
  • assets/raw-html/2findyourhome-S1242723-rendered.html
  • assets/docs/2findyourhome-S1242723-text.txt
  • assets/docs/2findyourhome-S1242723-images.json
  • assets/pdfs/2findyourhome-S1242723.pdf
  • Downloaded 5 image assets tied to that older listing into:
  • assets/images/past-listings/S1242723/
  • Key older-listing facts recovered from page text:
  • marketed as a two family house
  • owners lived in lower apartment and used rent to help pay mortgage
  • home gutted and remodeled in 2009
  • roof replaced in 2014
  • Pulled Redfin page for 5707 Scenic Ave Unit C and saved:
  • assets/raw-html/redfin-5707-rendered.html
  • assets/docs/redfin-5707-text.txt
  • assets/docs/redfin-5707-images.json
  • assets/docs/redfin-5707-links.txt
  • assets/docs/redfin-5707-key-excerpts.txt
  • Recovered and downloaded another 10 S1531925 image files from Redfin CDN into:
  • assets/images/past-listings/S1531925-redfin/
  • Redfin-specific useful facts recovered:
  • labels the property as 5707 Scenic Ave Unit C
  • describes it as a 2,184 square foot multi-family home on a 0.5 acre lot with 5 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms
  • confirms last sold on Sept 3 / Sept 5 2024 for $255,000
  • flood factor payload indicates FEMA Zone X (unshaded) / low-to-moderate flood area

Listing photo capture progress

Other public-site sweep for past listings / past photos

  • Ran a broader pass across Realtor.com traces, Howard Hanna, Movoto, Redfin, Onjax/MLS remnants, and Wayback CDX checks.
  • Saved findings to:
  • assets/raw-html/past-listing-other-sites-sweep-2026-03-24.md
  • Best concrete recovery from that sweep was a buried Movoto property-history timeline for the exact address, exposing older MLS IDs:
  • S1531925
  • S1531559
  • S1242723
  • S1103832
  • S330862
  • Confirmed those historical Movoto entries line up with known 2024 / 2020 / 2018 / 2015 marketing cycles and provide a better pivot for future manual retrieval of old listing sheets.
  • Recovered additional public snippets:
  • Redfin search-result trace for the current listing ($345,000, 5 beds, 4 baths, 2,184 sq ft, L Wilson Realty)
  • Realtor.com search-result trace mentioning a property-detail entry for the address
  • Wayback CDX checks on likely direct Realtor / Howard Hanna / Redfin / Onjax property URLs returned empty results ([]) in this environment.
  • Result: stronger historical metadata recovery, but still no recovered prior-cycle photo files to save into assets/images/past-listings/.