The Jefferson - Tybout House
117 Market Street, Warren, PA
The very attractive house south of the
Y.W.C.A. Residence Building on Market Street was, for some
years, the home of one of Warren's poets, Miss Ella Tybout.
It was owned at the time by Mr. J. P. Jefferson, and Miss Tybout
was his secretary. According to the terms of his will,
Miss Tybout was to have the use of the house during her lifetime
and then it would become the property of the Y.W.C.A.
The original owners and builders of the house are
unknown. It is known that the house was moved to its
present location presumably about 1891, when the J. P. Jefferson
house - now the Y.W.C.A.- was built on the corner of Market and
Second. The Tybout residence is at this time serving as
the office building of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
Department of Welfare, Warren County Board of Assistance.
[Since the writing of this article the building was sold to a
private party.]
The house is charming both inside and out and retains
much of its dignity in spite of the fact that it has become a
public building. During Miss Tybout's sojourn, there was a
beautiful sunken garden on the north side--a veritable show
place. The white pillars on either side of the porch and
the dormer windows are distinctive features. The house
looks tiny from the outside, but the interior is spacious, and
the rooms are well shaped and of good size. The entrance
hall has exits to the living room, reception room, dining room,
and to an enclosed, rather narrow stairway leading to the second
floor.
The
living room on the south side of the house is rectangular with a
fireplace in the middle of the south wall. There were electric
wall sconces but these are no longer used since overhead
lighting was needed for the offices. The floors have been
tiled.
On the north side, a small, almost square room probably
served as a parlor or reception room. Back of that, and
running the width of the house was the dining room. There
is a foundation or cellar only under the part of the house above
described, leading one to believe that the back part was added
later, probably after the house was moved.
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Behind the dining room is the kitchen, the maid's.
bedroom and toilet room. The plumbing pipes lie exposed along the floors next to the outside walls of all the rooms and
have to be packed to prevent freezing.
[Since the writing
of this article that problem has been solved with insulation and
heat being blown under that part of the building.]
Upstairs there are
two lovely, long bedrooms running east and west, the length of
the house. At the west end and each is a large bathroom
complete with marble sinks. [Unfortunately, the bathrooms were
stripped of their original fixtures by a private owner] It was
the north bedroom that Miss Tybout wrote her poetry. The buzzer
system she used to summon her maid is still connected.
Garden of
Tybout House
There is no attic,
but from the north bedroom there is a small three-foot door
which leads to a crawl space that exits into the hall thought
another small door. On the original house a double roof was
build for insulation; however, when repairs had to be made the
double roof was removed and a single roof was put on.
Consequently, the second story gets very warm in summer and cold
in winter. The floors were made of chestnut, but because of
splintering they had to be covered with carpet.
The
house was always an attractive place and still retains the
dignity that made it a perfect dwelling place for one of our
most distinguished ladies.
Warren County Historical Society, Warren, PA.
Historic Buildings in Warren
County, PA, September 1972.
[Since the writing of this article the house has been used as a
trophy shop and then sold and rented out as a coffee house,
briefly as a Greek restaurant, and during 2008 it was used as
the Obama Headquarters. It was purchased in 2008 by
Priscilla A. Breese who did some renovations and started the
Tybout House of Handcrafts.] |
Ella M. Tybout 1871-1952
Born in
Delaware, Ella Tybout moved to Warren after the death of her father to be
closer to her cousins Mr. and Mrs. JP Jefferson. Ella Tybout was
one of the county's first female
authors writing her first story at the age of sixteen. She became
a regular contributor to Lippincott's Magazine, Leslie's
New England Magazine, and The Saturday Evening Post.
Her most famous novel was The Wife of the Secretary of State, which was
based on diplomatic life in Washington
DC. Other works include
The
Smuggler and a novelette titled The Man at Stony Lonesome.
June 2010 - I recently met Jane Branch of
Clarendon, PA that told me that she often visited Ella as a small
girl with her aunt, Eila Culbertson Prince and her friend Lillian (Tidiee)
Walker from the old Walker's Creamery. She told me that Ella
like her name pronounced Ē-la. She had fond memories of
playing in the formal garden on the side of the house and hiding in
all the little mysterious cubby holes in the house. She
remembered Ella as a shy woman, possibly seen as a little
stand-offish, but with a quick wit, intelligent with a mind of her
own.
added by Priscilla A. Breese
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