Vintage Stereoview: Wilder House

Stereoview of the Wilder Residence just outside the village of Essex, NY. (Source: Geo Davis via Rosslyn Redux)

It’s time for another vintage Essex, NY, image! This is the second in a series of stereoviews that we have recently acquired.

What is a Stereoview?

So you may be wondering– just what is a stereoview? Photographers produced these double image cards to be used with a stereo viewer. The device gave the appearance of 3-D when you looked through it.

Wilder House

We shared this image on the Essex on Lake Champlain Facebook page last week and asked our viewers to identify the historic Essex home seen in the photo and anything else they could tell us about the style. One wise viewer quickly guessed the home’s correct architectural style:

Greater Adirondack Ghost and Tour Company (Plattsburgh, NY) Great photo! This is a “Mansard” or “Second Empire” style structure. It was first popularized by the French and saw widespread use in this country in the decades after the Civil War.

Unfortunately no one could name the house. Well, we’re ready to tell you here! This is a stereoview picturing the Wilder House on the outskirts of the main Essex village.

Funds from the Noble family built this brick Victorian home for Reverend C. N. Wilder of the Essex Presbyterian Church in the late 1870s. This building was later converted into the Agawam Inn, but today it is again a residence. Learn more about the Wilder House here.

Note the fences on both side of the dirt road. Today the road is paved, and the fences no longer remain. Fences were common on most Essex properties of the past because of the many farm animals that would roam the town.

Also visible in the photo are people out and about on the porch in antique dress.

Vintage Stereoview: Noble Clemons House (www.essexonlakechamplain.com)
Wilder House (www.essexonlakechamplain.com)
Union School (www.essexonlakechamplain.com)
Merchant Row Mansions in Essex, NY (www.essexonlakechamplain.com)
1954 LCT Ferry Brochure (www.essexonlakechamplain.com)

About Katie Shepard

Passionate about reading and writing stories, Katie Shepard enjoys discovering more about her home while writing and editing for Essex on Lake Champlain. Katie graduated from SUNY Plattsburgh in 2011 where she studied English literature, philosophy, and Asian studies. Her first book Essex, New York Architecture: A Doodler's Field Guide was published in 2015.