David Cooke's Myerstown Homestead

David Cooke's Myerstown Homestead. 329 East Market Street. This Federal-style brick house was built circa 1810 by David Cooke, Jr. (1750-1824), one of the founding fathers of Marietta. Cooke laid out the village of New Haven on a corner of his farmstead in the fall on 1803 and then expanded his original town in the fall of 1805. In addition to selling lots, Cooke also helped to develop his town by building several fine brick buildings. Among these new structures was a tavern on Front Street, mercantile offices (104 East Front Street) and this charming house. In November of 1813, Cooke sold off his remaining farmland and moved to Lancaster. This house and a tract of land of 18.5 acres adjoining the western boundary of Cooke's village were sold to John Myers (c1790-1830) for $30,000. Myers was a merchant who had his own design to expand the newly formed Borough of Marietta. He laid out a new subdivision that was called Myerstown and immediately sold this house to John Plitt, a merchant in Columbia. From about 1818 to about 1845, the house was owned by John Andrew Shulze (1774-1852) of Lebanon, PA. Shulze was the Govenor of Pennsylvania from 1823 to 1829. The house was mostly occupied by tenants, but since 1877 it has been an owner-occupied residence. The longest tenure is that of Mrs. Mary Hoffman Geyer (1862-1952) and family who owned the house from 1889 to 1958-sixty-nine years! This home's features include original six-over-six windows with wooden lintels and roundels, paneled first first floor shutters and louvered second floor shutters, an eight-panel entry door flanked by sidelights and topped with a fanlight transom, and an unusual stone belt course at the second floor level. , Home of Justin and Rebecca Baltozer (2019) , James C. Landis, "Candlelight Tours of Marietta 1966 to 2015", In 1803, David Cooke, Jr. laid out and sold lots in the eastern end of present-day Marietta that he called New Haven The following year, 1804, James Anderson IV, who operated Anderson's Ferry, laid out and sold lots adjacent to Cooke's in the western end that he called Waterford. These two developments were incorporated in 1812 to form Marietta Borough.