Holt Averell

Remodelled in 1875, for the widowed Mrs Jane (Averell) Carter (1833-1888), who grew up at the Averell Cottage on the same street which had been home to her family for several generations. In 1875, Mrs Carter paid $25,000 for the Second Empire house built four years previously for William G. Lee. She renamed the place Holt Averell for her father/grandparents and in 1878 employed the architect Henry Martyn Congdon (1834-1922) to remodel it and in doing more than doubled the size of the Lee house. The Herter Brothers carried out the interior decoration and she significantly improved the existing gardens. Mrs Carter died in 1888 when the mansion became the property of her eldest child, Mrs Jane (Carter) Brown (1861-1919). The Browns maintained the mansion as a summer home until 1907 when they sold it. It was promptly demolished to make way for the vast Otesaga Resort Hotel which stands in its place today.