{{Use American English|date=August 2025}} [[File:Durfee House, Geneva NY.jpg|thumb|right|The Durfee House from across Route 14, with Seneca Lake in the background.]] The '''Durfee House''' is a historic building that now serves as student housing for Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, New York. It was originally built downtown as a land speculator's office during the nascence of European settlers in the region. Frederick Augustus de Zeng and his family are supposed to be early owners. Dated to 1787,<ref name="HWSpdf">{{cite web|url=http://www.hws.edu/academics/art/images/arch_brochure.pdf |title=Historical campus buildings PDF |publisher=Hobart and William Smith Colleges|accessdate=March 27, 2015}}</ref> it is the oldest known extant structure in Geneva and the surrounding area; however, the building was moved to its present location at 639 South Main Street in 1838 and expanded at least once in its history, in the late 1790s and/or in the 1840s.<ref name="artstor">{{cite web|url=http://hcap.artstor.org/cgi-bin/library?a=d&d=p800|title=Durfee House |publisher=Council of Independent Colleges |accessdate=March 27, 2015}}</ref> This hinders its historical landmark eligibility,<ref name="criterion B">{{cite web|url=http://www.nps.gov/nr/publications/bulletins/nrb15/nrb15_7.htm#crit%20con%20b |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070708070153/http://www.nps.gov/nr/publications/bulletins/nrb15/nrb15_7.htm#crit%20con%20b |url-status=dead |archive-date=July 8, 2007 |title=Criteria Consideration B: Moved Properties |publisher=National Park Service|work=National Register of Historic Places |accessdate=March 27, 2015}}</ref> despite the fact that it is considered to be one of the oldest extant frame buildings west of Rome, New York.<ref name="southmainst">{{cite web|url=http://www.southmainst.com/tour/639.html|title=639 Durfee House|publisher=Coldwell Banker|author= Corrine Stoewsand Carey |accessdate=March 27, 2015}}</ref><ref name="artstor"/> Owned by Hobart College since 1840, the building is named for mathematician and dean William Pitt Durfee.
==See also== *Geneva Hall and Trinity Hall, Hobart & William Smith College
==References== {{reflist}}
==Bibliography==
*{{cite book |last=Smith |first=Warren Hunting |title=Hobart and William Smith: The History of Two Colleges | location=Geneva, NY |publisher=Hobart and William Smith Colleges |year=1972 |oclc=409772}}
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Category:Geneva, New York Category:Hobart and William Smith Colleges Category:Commercial buildings completed in 1787 Category:Houses completed in 1787 Category:Buildings and structures in Ontario County, New York Category:History of New York (state) Category:1787 establishments in New York (state)