Clemuel Ricketts Mansion

The Clemuel Ricketts Mansion (also known as the Stone House, the William R. Ricketts House, and Ganoga) is a Georgian-style house. It was made of sandstone. It was built in 1852 or 1855 on the shore of Ganoga Lake in Sullivan County, Pennsylvania in the United States. It was home to several generations of the Ricketts family, which includes R. Bruce Ricketts and William Reynolds Ricketts. It was originally built as a hunting lodge. Also, it was a tavern and post office and it served as part of a hotel for much of the 19th century.

Clemuel Ricketts Mansion
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
The front of the mansion, with the 1913 addition at left
Location:	Colley Township, Sullivan County, Pennsylvania
Coordinates:	41°21′8″N 76°19′14″W
Area:	2.2 acres (0.89 ha)
Built:	1852 or 1855
Architect:	Clemuel Ricketts
Architectural style:	Georgian
NRHP Reference#:	83002284
Added to NRHP:	June 9, 1983

The house has seven rooms, four porches, and its original hardware and woodwork. Dormers and some windows were added in the renovation, and electrical wiring and modern plumbing have been added since. According to the NRHP nomination form, the Clemuel Ricketts Mansion "is a stunning example of Georgian vernacular architecture".

The mansion and lake are on a part of the Allegheny Plateau known as North Mountain. The plateau was formed about 300 to 250 million years ago in the Alleghenian orogeny. Rocks—gray sandstone with conglomerates and some siltstone—of the Mississippian Pocono Formation underlie the house and lake for more than 340 million years old. The lake is in a shallow valley, 13 feet (4.0 m) deep, which is seized by glacial till up to 30 feet (9.1 m) thick at the southeast end, where Kitchen Creek exits.

After the house was built, the land was first part of Northumberland County. Later it became part of Lycoming County in 1795. The Susquehanna and Tioga Turnpike was built between 1822 and 1827. It followed the lake's western shore. It was connected the Pennsylvania communities of Berwick in the south and Towanda in the north. The lake was then known as Long Pond, and the Long Pond Tavern, just north of where the house was later built, was a lunch stop for the stagecoach on the turnpike. Sullivan County was formed from Lycoming County in 1847, and two years later Colley Township was formed from Cherry Township.

Clemuel Ricketts Mansion Media

• 

  Aerial view of Ganoga Lake in 1938; the mansion is in the cleared area at left.

• 

  The North Mountain House hotel in the early 1870s; a verandah connected the wooden Ark (left) and stone house (right).

• 

  1875 woodcut by John B. Bachelder of hotel guests at the North Mountain House

• 

  The rear of the house with the two-story porch on the inside of the L; the wing added in 1913 is at far right.

• 

  View from the northeast of the 1913 wing with its wrap-around kitchen porch; the original house is at left.

• 

  First-floor plan of the Clemuel Ricketts Mansion, from the HABS

• 

  The Federal style main door with a fanlight and sidelights, and sandstone walls

Bibliography

• Bachelder, John B. (1875). Popular resorts, and how to reach them. Combining a Brief Description of the Principal Summer Retreats in the United States, and the Routes of travel Leading to Them. Boston, Massachusetts: J.B. Bachelder Publishing. OCLC 317328980. bachelder popular resorts and how to reach them.
• Braun, Duane D. (2007). "Surficial geology of the Red Rock 7.5-minute quadrangle, Luzerne, Sullivan, and Columbia Counties, Pennsylvania" (PDF). Pennsylvania Geological Survey, 4th series, Open-File Report OFSM 07-10.0. Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 24, 2012. Retrieved May 15, 2010.
• Braun, Duane D.; Inners, Jon D. "Pennsylvania Trail of Geology, Ricketts Glen State Park, Luzerne, Sullivan and Columbia Counties, The Rocks, the Glens and the Falls (Park Guide 13)" (PDF). Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. Retrieved April 13, 2010.
• McDonald, Teresa B. (Ganoga Lake Association) (1980). [[[:Template:NRHP-PA]] "National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form: Clemuel Ricketts Mansion"] (PDF). Retrieved April 11, 2010. {{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help)
• Petrillo, F. Charles (1991). Ghost Towns of North Mountain: Ricketts, Mountain Springs, Stull (PDF). Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania: Wyoming Historical & Geological Society. ISBN 978-0-937537-00-8. OCLC 25080093. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 27, 2009. Retrieved April 11, 2010.
• Ricketts, William Reynolds (1936). "William R. Ricketts House, North Mountain Colley, Ganoga Lake, Sullivan County, PA". Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record. Library of Congress. Retrieved April 11, 2010. Note: The map and architectural drawings included are also used as references in this article.
• Tomasak, Peter (2008). In Command of Time Elapsed: The Life and Times of Robert Bruce Ricketts. Kyttle, Pennsylvania: North Mountain Publishing Company.
• Wallace, Paul A.W.; revised by William A. Hunter (2005). Indians in Pennsylvania (Second ed.). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. ISBN 9781422314937. OCLC 1744740. Retrieved April 11, 2010. (Note: OCLC refers to the 1961 First Edition).

Other websites

• William R. Ricketts House, North Mountain Colley, Colley, Sullivan County, PA: 3 photos, 6 measured drawings, and 6 data pages, at Historic American Buildings Survey