900 Stewart Avenue (Ithaca, New York)
| 900 Stewart Avenue | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| General information | |
| Architectural style | Egyptian Revival |
| Address | 900 Stewart Ave. |
| Town or city | Ithaca, New York |
| Coordinates | 42°27′10″N 76°29′26″W / 42.4526996°N 76.4905456°W |
| Completed | 1926 |
| Opened | 1926 |
| Owner | Ann Druyan |
900 Stewart Avenue is a building in Ithaca, New York, notable for its unique Egyptian Revival architecture, its dramatic placement partway down a cliff, and being the residence of astronomer Carl Sagan. The building is on a ledge approximately 50 feet (15 m) below street level, overlooking Fall Creek and Ithaca Falls.
It is one of only two Egyptian Revival buildings in Tompkins County, the other being the Masonic Temple in downtown Ithaca. Due to its unusual location and design, and its forbidding street entrance, it is the subject of frequent local speculation.
It is part of the Cornell Heights Historic District.
The building was built as the meeting place of the Sphinx Head Society, a Cornell University secret society formed in 1890. The society had discussed building a meeting place since the early 1900s, and bought the site in 1908. At the time, the site was far away from campus, secluded by trees, and lacking neighbors across the gorge. After raising $25,000 they hired local architect J. Lakin Bainbridge, who also designed the Tompkins County Courthouse. Ground was broken in 1925, and the building was finished in 1926. The design was intended to resemble an Egyptian tomb, perhaps partly as a delayed expression of the popularity of Egyptian Revival architecture in the late 1800s, perhaps partly as a resurgence in popular interest in Classical Egypt after the opening of Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922, and perhaps partly because of similar structures at Yale and Dartmouth (the Skull and Bones tomb and the Sphinx, respectively).
The building only had a single door, and no windows. A journalist described the eeriness of being inside it:
The entrance through a doorway on the monumental side, flanked by ornamental stone pillars beneath Egyptian symbols on the lintel and the frieze set the stage. After walking through a small entryway between cloak and storage rooms, the initiated entered a long, lofty rectangular room, only dimly lit by a few sconces on the side walls. Wooden pews extended along the unadorned stone walls.
...
Wikipedia