File:Watkins-Freer House, Watkins Glen, New York - 20221004.jpg

English: The Watkins-Freer House, 124 East 4th Street, Watkins Glen, New York. One of the oldest extant structures in the village, this oddly proportioned two-and-a-half-story brick house just off the main drag was apparently intended to be one of a block of rowhouses (its east side wall, seen at right, was originally windowless); however, its neighbors were never built, leaving it an anomaly on the streetscape of the proposed North Decatur and Lafayette Park Historic District. A vernacular interpretation of the Federal style is exemplified by its symmetrical façade, the placement of its entrance set off to the side, its simple, Classically-inspired ornamentation, and its fenestration pattern of flat-headed windows framed by wooden shutters and stone sills and lintekls. Though subsequent alterations have compromised the house's architectural integrity, it retains historical importance due to its connection to two of the towering figures of the earliest history of Watkins Glen. It was built as the home of Dr. Samuel Watkins (1771-1851), who platted and developed the village that bears his name on what were once the land holdings of his older brother John, one of the area's first white settlers, which he inherited after the latter's death in 1813. After Watkins' death, the property passed into the hands of his widow Cynthia's second husband, Judge George Gross Freer (1809-1878), one of the wealthiest men in Schuyler County. Though he made his name as a prominent attorney, political figure, and publisher (the editorials he penned for the Watkins Republican were a deciding factor in the decision to locate the seat of government of the newly founded Schuyler County in Watkins Glen rather than neighboring Montour Falls), Judge Freer's most lasting historical legacy was as the owner of "Freer's Glen", a tourist resort on part of the former John Watkins property that was the predecessor of today's Watkins Glen State Park.