120 Nelson Street

Photograph taken by Cheri Szcondronski, National Historic Register Submission, January 2018

 

This one-and-a-half-story, side-gabled Period Cottage is four bays wide and triple-pile with a projecting, front-gabled wing centered on the façade. The house has a brick veneer, flush eaves, vinyl windows, and vinyl siding on a front-gabled dormer on the right (northwest) end of the façade. A four-light-over-four-panel door is centered in the asymmetrical front-gabled wing and sheltered by an aluminum awning. It has a fixed one-light window to its right. To the left (southeast) of the front-gabled wing is an exterior, front-facing brick chimney. A one-story, hip-roofed porch on the left elevation has been enclosed with vinyl windows on a later brick knee wall. There are paired window in the side gables, a single window in the gabled dormer on the façade and a shed-roofed dormer on the rear elevation. The site is located on a slight rise with a brick stair at the street, leading to the front walk, and a concrete block wall at the driveway, west of the house. The building is listed as “under construction” in the 1950 city directory and the earliest known occupants are Lorenzo Leathers, a city policeman who later became a detective, and his wife, Cornelia A. Leathers, a tobacco worker at American Suppliers.

County deed records do not show a chain of owners of this lot.  It should be noted that C.C. Edwards and his wife, Annie, owned a sizeable parcel of land on this street and sold several lots to neighbors to build their homes.  I was unable to verify that he sold this particular lot.  The 1951 City Directory shows that Lorenzo Leathers was the owner and occupant of the property. He and his wife, Cornelia, lived in the house for many years.  

Mr. Leathers followed in the career paths of C. Linwood Cox and Frank McCrea, police officers and detectives in the neighborhood.

The house is owned by Leon Leathers and Deborah Alexina.  It is now rental property.