Looking north on Cliffwood Street toward Greenwood Street in Lenox, with the Breezy Corners house on the right, around 1905-1915. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.
The street in 2015:
As mentioned in previous posts, Lenox was a popular summer resort in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and the house on the right side of the road was one of many summer “cottages” in the area. It was built around 1860, and in 1882 it was sold to Emily Meigs Biddle, a member of the prominent Biddle family in Philadelphia. She and her three adult children spent many summers here, and after Emily’s death in 1905, her youngest daughter, Emily Williams Biddle, inherited the property and kept it until she died in 1931. Over the nearly 50 years that the Biddle family owned the house, they made a number of additions to the original structure, including a third floor, a tower, and a larger servant area. Only part of the house is visible from this angle, but there are not many differences in these two views. There have not been any dramatic changes since the first photo was taken, and the historic home is still standing at the corner of Cliffwood and Greenwood Street.
It was Emily Williams Biddle who enlarged the house with the 3rd fl tower to incorporate a bathroom. After she died in 1931, another daughter Christine Cadwalader inherited the house. It was likely she who added a 4th bath on the 2nd fl to accommodate her 7 sons. The house left the Biddle family in 1938 when it was sold to the Halls. In 1946, Martha Q and Richard Pelton bought the house. They sold the carriage house and converted the kitchen into a garage. The butlers pantry/staff dining area became the new kitchen. It was updated in 1964 and again in 2005.
Martha Q Pelton Shirer’s youngest daughter Suzanne W Pelton inherited the house in 2007
In 2009 the wraparound porch deck was replaced, New more style appropriate handrails were put on stairs leading up to porch from driveway
2023 steps up to front door were restored
2024 concrete wall and archway along Greenwood St restored.
I can supply a current photo
your historic photo is from 1931 after the tower was built.
I can also supply a photo from 1880s from the Morley book