James Clifford House

Completed in 1880, the James Clifford House was the first house built on the north side of East Main Street. James Clifford, an Irish immigrant, commissioned the building as a family home. The distinctive dark red brick used in the structure was kilned directly on the property. The completed house is two stories with a cut stone foundation. The facade is defined by an engaged tower on each side of the building. Each facade bay includes a large vertically oriented window beneath a bracketed entablature. A rounded glass transom over the main entrance mirrors the window arches throughout the structure. Unlike many other Italianate buildings in the Quality Hill Historic District, the James Clifford House was not remodeled to fit a more Neo-Classical Revival style in the early twentieth century. Infamously, the home was the site of the Union Army’s corral during the Civil War. The James Clifford House remained in the Clifford family for many generations, until being sold to the American Legion in the 1970s. The American Legion has maintained the general historical authenticity of the building, though an original two-story wing on the rear was demolished and replaced with a smaller one-story structure.