Nestled within Halifax Borough, the J.C. Marsh House has sat for 179 years. The name of this place coming from the respected local citizen J.C. Marsh, who owned the home from the late 1800s until the early 1900s. The prior owner(s) and the person who had the house built are all under speculation; though it likely belonged at one point to Wm. Bottomstone, as the Bottomstones and the Marshes were related. Evidence of the ownership of the building was provided by old deeds of the land and neighboring properties. All of which name this specific address as belonging to J.C. Marsh, followed by the Arnold and the Kluck families.
Marsh was named in several articles from the Harrisburg Telegraph relating to his personal life and a charitable donation.
Harrisburg Telegraph
May 3, 1919
Monday April 28, 1919. – J.C. Marsh spent Monday at Goldsboro, visiting Mr. and Mrs. W.W. Bottomstone.
June 27, 1914
Mrs. John C. Cunningham, of Sparrows Point, Md., is a guest at the home of her brother-in-law, J.C. Marsh. - William Bottomstone, of Baltimore, Md., spent Sunday at the home of his uncle, J. C. Marsh.
November 25, 1914
Halifax, PA. Nov. 25 – A beautiful wedding took place at the home of J.C. Marsh on Tuesday afternoon 2 o’clock when his ward, Miss Amanda Hoffman, was united in marriage to William Wallace Bottomstone, of Baltimore, MD. The ceremony was performed by the Rev. C.A. Punk, pastor of the Otterboin United Brethren Church of this place. In the presence of the parents of the bride, Mr. and Mrs. George Hoffman, of Dietrich, and other relatives and friends. Immediately following the ceremony a bountiful wedding super was served. Mr. and Mrs. Bottomstone will reside at Baltimore, where the groom holds a responsible position.
In that same year of 1914, J.C. Marsh was listed in a Special to The Telegraph on November 25, 1914 during an announcement of the completion of the Boyer Memorial School.
To PRESENT SHOVEL TO SCHOOL
Special to the Telegraph,
Halifax, Pennsylvania, 25 November 1914 – At the exercises at the dedication of the new Boyer Memorial School building on Thursday, J.C. Marsh of this place will present to the school board for display in the building the shovel which Godfrey Sammet, aged 84 years, now deceased, turned the first spadeful of earth for the foundation, 9 August 1913. Mr. Marsh had this shovel polished and put in a neat glass case at a considerable expense to himself and will present it in honor of his two great-grandsons, Raymond Barron and Austin Barron of Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Marsh’s name is also found in a Boot and Shoe Recorder (1916) Recorder Want Ads, requesting a: SALESMAN wanted to carry as a side line a compact, snappy, medium-priced, big-value, line infants’ soft-sole goods. Pennsylvania made. Territory open in all sections. Commission basis. Address. J.C. Marsh, Halifax, PA.
In 1916, J.C. Marsh opened the Moccasin and Soft Shoe Manufacturing Company, following years of experience working with other local shoe factories. His building was located on Second Street in Halifax. This was noted in “American Shoemaking,” Feb. 12, 1916.
His house is a late period federal style. By official definition, the Federal style was popular from 1780 to 1820. On occasion, the elements can be seen in buildings up until the early 1840s. The house itself definitely does not fit into other time period styles such as the Greek or Georgian. If rumors about this location are true, the 1840s house was built on top of the foundation of a previous building. Federal style houses are known their symmetry. They also have simply window and door details. The J.C. Marsh house has doors with antique and latch thumb hardware. All of the frames around these doors is simple woodwork.
Federal Style, Central Pavilion, 1793–94, by Charles Bulfinch, at the Tontine Crescent, Boston, Wikimedia, Public Domain
One of the current owners is a historical researcher who is working on bringing original elements back into the house.
"What we had to work with, our starting point, was the original floorboards from the 1840s in the attic and in one of the bedrooms. We had to peel off three layers of linoleum flooring to get to the boards in the bedroom.
Original floor boards in one of the bedrooms
Mass produced floor boards in the downstairs area
The house had two additions built on, leaving an old window with a rope and pulley system. That window dates to after the original construction of the house. The same goes for the flooring in the living room and dining room. That style of floorboard dates to no earlier than the 1880s and were mass produced.
Our plan is to bring some of the elements that one would have seen in this house throughout the century and a half since its construction. For instance, Roman imagery was very popular for this house style. At the top of the stair landing we placed a Roman bust on top of a column. The interior paint colors were painted over, changing the color from white to creams and blue that would have been used in the early history of the house. This also meant taking out some wallpaper that was in the kitchen and bathroom. Revitalizing historic paint colors has become common enough that samples are easy to find online.
As extra touches, we brought in a few reproductions of classic artwork and framed a copy of a map of the Borough that dates to 1858.
The final step that we are still working on is adding furniture from the Federal and American Empire periods through to the Victorian Era. After that, everything else is modern.
It has taken a lot of work and time to update the parts of the house that needed it, such as the plumbing. But by the doing this work, we also had a few nice surprises. In the basement we found the lid to a cigar box and a letter from a razor company dating to the 1940s. In the yard, we've found pottery shards, metal pieces, and a small glass pill bottle that was surprisingly fully intact.
Outside of the house, I have added a kitchen garden in the backyard. It has a triple purpose for me: historic characteristic, homegrown vegetables, and I use it as a showpiece for classes I teach on the historic uses of plants and herbs in medicine and cooking.
Within the next few years, I hope the house becomes a very charming, historic landmark to drive by. I also hope that we find a lot more history on the house to really seal itself in the historic legacy of the town.”
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