New to Old Town

A new house is going up at the corner of Holly and Third Streets.

Transformation Complete

The transformation is complete on this house at the corner of Myrtle and 5th Streets. See my previous post from September 2011 for a photo of what the house looked like before the new addition. The new garage that was added on 5th Street is particularly nice!

Identical Twins

The house at 1202 15th St. known as the Chesser-Morgan House has an interesting history. It was built around 1895 and was originally located on the Southwestern University campus. A house that looks exactly like it still exists on the Southwestern campus and is currently used as the campus police station (see below). The house at 1202 15th St. was moved to its current location by a team of oxen in 1905, possibly to make room for the extension of Maple Street.The house that remains on the Southwestern University campus was covered with limestone when the campus decided to have all its buildings have the same limestone exterior.

Even after it was no longer located on the Southwestern University campus, the house at 1202 15th St. still had connections to Southwestern. The second owner of the house was Daniel Morgan, a retired Methodist minister. After his death, the house was owned by Morgan's daughter, Ruth Morgan Ferguson. Ferguson served as Dean of Women at Southwestern from 1935 until her retirement in 1960.

The Chesser-Morgan house is one of six that will be on the Georgetown Heritage Society's annual Holiday Home Tour this year. The tour will be held Dec. 8-9, so mark your calendars if you want an opportunity to see this charming Victorian house on the inside. Leslie Kaufman has filled her house with a variety of interesting collections.