Watson-Curtze Mansion, is a historic home located at Erie,

Erie County, Pennsylvania Erie County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is the northernmost county in Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 270,876. Its county seat is Erie. The county was created in 1800 and later organized in 1803. ...

History

The mansion was designed by the Buffalo architectural firm of Green & Wicks and built in 1891–1892. It is a -story, two-bay,

brownstone Brownstone is a brown Triassic–Jurassic sandstone that was historically a popular building material. The term is also used in the United States and Canada to refer to a townhouse clad in this or any other aesthetically similar material. Type ...

mansion A mansion is a large dwelling house. The word itself derives through Old French from the Latin word ''mansio'' "dwelling", an abstract noun derived from the verb ''manere'' "to dwell". The English word '' manse'' originally defined a property l ...

in the

Richardsonian Romanesque Richardsonian Romanesque is a style of Romanesque Revival architecture named after the American architect Henry Hobson Richardson (1838–1886). The revival style incorporates 11th and 12th century southern French, Spanish, and Italian Romanesque ...

style. It features a short tower, smooth piers with decorated capitals, windows with

transom Transom may refer to: * Transom (architecture), a bar of wood or stone across the top of a door or window, or the window above such a bar * Transom (nautical), that part of the stern of a vessel where the two sides of its hull meet * Operation Tran ...

s, carved tympanum, and deep-set windows. The 24 room home also has stained glass windows, oak flooring, an elevator, 12 fireplaces, and a

solarium Solarium may refer to: * A sunroom, a room built largely of glass to afford exposure to the sun * A terrace (building) or flat housetop * The '' Solarium Augusti'', a monumental meridian line (or perhaps a sundial) erected in Rome by Emperor Augu ...

. Also on the property is a contributing

carriage house A carriage house, also called a remise or coach house, is an outbuilding which was originally built to house horse-drawn carriages and the related tack. In Great Britain the farm building was called a cart shed. These typically were open f ...

. The mansion features pierced and hand-carved woodwork, mosaics, stained glass and friezes. There are

Tiffany Tiffany may refer to: People * Tiffany (given name), list of people with this name * Tiffany (surname), list of people with this surname Known mononymously as "Tiffany": * Tiffany Darwish, (born 1971), an American singer, songwriter, actress kn ...

light fixtures including decorative motifs with cherubs, peacocks, leaves, and shells.

Ownership

The home was built by Harrison F. Watson (1853-1904), an Erie roofing paper magnate and holder of U.S. Patents on gaskets and tubes. Harrison and his wife, Carrie Tracy, an avid gardener, lived in the home with their daughter, Winifred, until 1923. In 1923, Frederic Felix Curtze (1858-1941), president of the Erie Trust Company, purchased the home and lived at the property until his death in 1941, when his family donated the property and it officially became a museum. Today, the Mansion is owned by the Erie County Historical Society and is operated as a

historic house museum A historic house museum is a house of historic significance that has been transformed into a museum. Historic furnishings may be displayed in a way that reflects their original placement and usage in a home. Historic house museums are held to a ...

. ''Note:'' This includes

National Register of Historic Places

It was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1983. It is located in the

West Sixth Street Historic District The West Sixth Street Historic District is a national historic district that is located in Erie, Erie County, Pennsylvania. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. History and architectural features This district en ...

References

External links

Watson-Curtze Mansion website
{{National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania Historic house museums in Pennsylvania Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania Richardsonian Romanesque architecture in Pennsylvania Houses completed in 1891 Houses in Erie, Pennsylvania Museums in Erie, Pennsylvania National Register of Historic Places in Erie County, Pennsylvania Green & Wicks buildings