By her Last Will and Testament Annie E. Seneca (1840-1923) devised this former house and lot to Frances E. Richardson, also known as Fannie Richardson. Annie was the widow of Stephen J. Seneca (1837-1918) who with his brother, Robert Seneca (1846-1931), had begun the Seneca Cannery. It is assumed that Fannie lived in this home prior to her 1941 intestate death, after which the property descended through her heirs-at-law including Clarence Richardson and Jessie Richardson. After their deaths it passed to Philip G. Richardson, Sr., who added his wife Hazel P. Richardson to the title in 1986. The Richardsons also owned and lived in the property next door, at 209 North Stokes Street, and rented this property to Ralph and Fannie Williams.

In 1991, Ralph and Fannie opened their home here to the Annual Candlelight Tour. They had restored the 1,000 sq ft “gingerbread” house with red clapboard exterior and white shutters incised with dainty hearts. Setting the house off from the street was a black iron fence topped with hitching post horses’ heads at the entrance. A freestanding brick fireplace separated the tiny living room from the dining room. An unusual floor covering was sheepskin which was used to cover the stairs and the upper level; the pot-belly stove was “a Christmas gift from Ralph to himself.”

An upstairs balcony, exposed beams, and a brick divider column, were interesting features of the interior, as well as the windows throughout the house with their four square panels on each side of the main part of the window. By profession, Ralph Williams was a horse trainer but by avocation he was an avid preservationist who deplored the loss of old buildings and houses.

Ironically the house was demolished later and in 2010 Philip and Hazel Richardson sold the vacant lot to a California resident, Honey Lehua Kearns, a landscape contractor. She sold it nine years later to Derek Victor Paglinawan, also a California resident, who sold it in 2021 to Roger C. and Debra Ann Outten. The Outtens currently live elsewhere in Havre de Grace but it appears in early 2022 that the new owners are constructing a three-story house on the formerly open lot.

County Records
3000 sq ft lot.