Kline Farmhouse

The Warren Real Estate building located at 832 Hanshaw Road (with Tompkins Financial Corporation as its current tenant) across the street from the Corners Community Center was originally the farmhouse of the Kline family. Philip (1781-1874) and Elizabeth Winters (1787-1854) Kline migrated from New Jersey to Tompkins County by 1817. In that year they purchased 42.67 acres in Military Lot 90 from John Sharpe. After Benjamin Cradit's death in 1823, the Klines bought part of the Cradit lands north of their original lot. The red brick Kline farmhouse was built on the former Cradit lands.

In 1920, Eunice Cornell Taylor (1862-1942; a granddaughter of Ezra Cornell) and her husband Charles Taylor acquired the Kline farmhouse from Eunice's brother, Franklin C. Cornell (1866-1934). The Taylors bought cows and ran a dairy business, which was not a great success. A cement garden, called "The Mall," was built in 1928 for the Taylors. Later, widowed and without funds, Eunice was cared for by the farm manager and his wife. After she died in 1942, the house was inhabited by a series of residents, thereby acquiring its infamous name, "Bedbug House."

Some may remember the house as the Peggy Cornwall women's clothing shop before Warren Real Estate moved in and accomplished renovations to the Federal-style facade.

For more about the house, visit The Cayuga Heights History Project website.

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