Webb Horton House - History

History

The mansion was designed by Frank J. Lindsey, a local carpenter turned architect, for Horton, a Delaware County native who had built a fortune starting from a Narrowsburg tanning business, later benefiting from an oil strike in Sheffield, Pennsylvania. The Horton family had been living in an older house on the property since the 1880s, slowly acquiring the land for the estate house. Construction of the main building was begun in 1902, when Webb was 76, and completed in 1906, reportedly at a cost of a million dollars ($25.6 million in contemporary dollars). Horton died in 1908, reportedly never having spent a night in the house. His wife died two years later, and by 1918 both his children had died without marrying or otherwise leaving heirs.

Before he succumbed to the flu in 1918, Eugene Horton, the last to die, had acquired the land for the service complex. He hired another local architect, David Hastings Canfield, to design the outbuildings. In addition to the current complex, there was also a conservatory and hothouse on the site, as a well as a frame house facing East Conkling. In 1911 the Horton children had bought the house at South and East Conkling, later tearing it down for the sunken garden.

Eugene Horton willed the estate to his cousin and employee, John Morrison. Morrison, a farmer, reluctantly took care of the estate until his death in 1947. He made few changes to the property.

Morrison's will left the estate to Horton Hospital (also named after the house's first resident) in Middletown, with his wife Catherine granted life tenancy. When the founders of Orange County Community College approached her in the late 1940s, she was willing to sell, but did not have the legal right to since her husband's will had already disposed of the property. The hospital was not willing to sell at that time since it had planned to do so upon Mrs. Morrison's death in the hope of getting the best possible price to pay down its debt. The community raised $480,000 ($4.58 million in contemporary dollars) to that end, and the hospital released its claim.

The first classes were held in 1950 in the garage/stable building. While many more modern buildings have been developed on the campus, the mansion, stables, and other outbuildings are still used for educational, administrative, and custodial purposes. The college has made a few changes: converting one of the upper balconies to an office, enclosing the porches, and putting in new vestibule doors. Other than that, the buildings have retained their integrity.