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The "Embick Cottage" at 531 West 4th Street, Williamsport
The grand staircase in Embick Cottage
A stained glass window in the Embick Cottage
The "Embick Cottage" at 531 West 4th Street, Williamsport
Williamsport -- Anyone from or anyone visiting the Williamsport area probably knows the strip of historic mansions on 4th Street known as Millionaire's Row.
A historic commercial/residential property on Millionaire's Row, known as the "Embick Cottage," located at 531 West 4th Street, will be auctioned off by Cordier Auctions on Thursday, Dec. 16 at 6 p.m. The home was commissioned by Colonel Frederick E. Embick in the late 1880s to be designed by Eber Culver.
Colonel Embick served in the Civil War and was a member (and at one time recording secretary) of the National Lumbermen's Association. According to historians at the Thomas T. Taber Museum, Colonel Embick was the director of the Demorest Manufacturing Company, which made sewing machines and bicycles. The company eventually evolved into Lycoming Motors.
As the lumber industry was losing its footing in Williamsport, Embick moved to New York City and the home was purchased by Joseph B. Rhoads.
The grand staircase in Embick Cottage
Eber Culver was responsible for some of the finest examples of Victorian architecture in Pennsylvania and West 4th Street, and “Millionaire’s Row” was home to many of his designs.
His work was largely commissioned by the lumber barons and other entrepreneurs striking gold during lumbering’s “gilded age” in Williamsport. He designed more than 20 buildings and residences in Williamsport.
Originally from Auburn, New York, Culver learned carpentry in Ohio, went west for the gold rush in 1848, and eventually settled with his wife in Williamsport. After moving to Williamsport, he entered business manufacturing sawmill supplies.
After 12 years in the industry, Culver turned his attention towards construction and design and became the personal designer for Peter Herdic. Herdic was the third mayor of Williamsport and the owner of the Susquehanna Boom, the logging innovation that made Williamsport such a place of affluence in the late 1800s.
The Journal of the Lycoming County Historical Society reported that during the lumber boom of the 1870s, Williamsport was home to more millionaires per capita than any other city in the world, boasting 18 millionaires out of 19,000 residents. These elites commissioned homes on “Millionaire’s Row,” a well-planned section of West 4th Street.
A stained glass window in the Embick Cottage
The house at 531 West 4th Street is a great example of Queen Anne Victorian style with an asymmetrical exterior, gables, dormers, and decorative woodwork, steeply pitched roof featuring fish scale shingles, and tall chimney.
Want to see it yourself? An open house will be held on December 12 from 1-3 p.m. For more information and bidder registration, please contact Erin Tanner at (717) 731-8662 x 103 or email at etanner@cordierauction.com.
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