James Beach Clow House

The James Beach Clow House is a historic house in northern Beaver County, Pennsylvania, United States. Located in North Sewickley Township near the community of Ellwood City,[2]^:1 the house is a rare surviving example of 19th-century Greek Revival farmhouses in Beaver County.

James Beach Clow House
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Front of the Clow House
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Location	Chapel Dr. at Ann St., Ellwood City, Pennsylvania
Coordinates	40°49′33″N 80°15′32″W
Area	5.7 acres (2.3 ha)
Built	1830
Architectural style	Greek Revival
NRHP reference No.	89000349[1]
Added to NRHP	May 17, 1989

The Clow House was built circa 1830 by War of 1812 veteran James Beach Clow, a native of Pitt Township in Allegheny County, upon land that he bought in 1821. A leading man in his community, Clow served as justice of the peace in eastern Beaver County in 1830. Besides his position as a "gentleman farmer", Clow was an industrialist, holding a share in a sawmill near his farm. He sold the property to his son Samuel in 1844, but continued to live in the house until his death ten years later.[2]^:7 Although the house remained Samuel's home until his death in 1893, it was also a dormitory for students attending a school across the road during most of the 1870s. After the deaths of Samuel and his widow, the property passed through several different owners before farming ended in 1950.[2]

Besides the house, early buildings on the property include an original outhouse and a spring house. The property also included an early barn and miscellaneous multi-purpose building, but these two structures were removed in 1959.[2]^:2 Today, the house lies along Chapel Drive southeast of Ellwood City; its prominent hilltop location makes it visible to the south and east to a distance of several miles. Although a modern residential subdivision is located along Chapel immediately to the north of the Clow property, it retains much of its historic integrity amid a primarily rural setting.[2]^{:2, 3, 14} This places it in contrast with most period wooden Greek Revival farmhouses in rural Beaver and Lawrence counties: nearly all surviving examples of this type of architecture have been heavily modified.[2]^:6 Only one other Greek Revival house in Beaver County is listed on the Register — the William B. Dunlap Mansion in the borough of Bridgewater in the central part of the county — and the county's only other 19th-century farmhouse on the Register is the David Littell House in the county's far south.[1]

References

1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
2. Schry, Frederick L. National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: James Beach Clow House. National Park Service, 1988-05-25. Accessed 2009-12-17.

Further reading

• Caldwell, J.A. 1876 Illustrated Historical Centennial Atlas of Beaver County, Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh: Otto Krebs, 1876.
• The Western Argus and Farmers Mechanics Register. Beaver: n.p., 1830.