Built 1880 Opened 1880 Added to NRHP 5 September 1985 | NRHP Reference # 85001966 Area 2,800 m² | |
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Location 427-443 Auburn Street, Allentown, Pennsylvania Architectural style Queen Anne style architecture Similar Woodstock Express, Allentown Art Museum, America on Wheels, Nineteenth Street Theater, Liberty Bell Museum | ||
Gauff-Roth House is a historic home located at 427–443 Auburn St, Allentown, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. It features a wraparound porch, third floor balcony, a polygonal turret, and a hipped roof with multiple gables and dormers.
History
The house was built in 1880 for Mary Craig and Elizabeth Craig Gauff with money inherited from their grandfather. Mary met William Gangewere while the house was being constructed and married him. She lived only a short time in the home or not at all.
The home is a 2 1/2-story, irregular rectangular brick dwelling in the Queen Anne style. It has 66 windows, two working chimneys and two interior non- functional chimneys. Inside the house, is an oak staircase stretching three floors, 43 doors and extensive wood decoration have retained their original finish with few minor changes over the years.
Throughout its history, the home was occupied by the Gauff family in 1880, the Roths in 1930, and the Ziegler's in 1982. At one Sunday dinner, Wilbur Roth discovered the hobo at his table was the brother of a prominent Allentonian. Out of concern, he called the brother, but was asked not to meddle in family affairs.
Kenneth Roth, whose parents, Wilbur and Bertha Roth, bought the house lived in the home until 1944, says his mother was reluctant to move into the mansion, but for a different reason. The Roths had been living in a city-owned home in Lehigh Parkway and she wanted to stay on there. She waited until the summer's end with their children before joining her husband in the mansion.
It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1985. The home was completely renovated in the mid-1990s.