Olds Whittemore HOUSE — 1900

Client: Historic Erie Preservation Trust
Location: 337 West. 6th, Erie, Pennsylvania
Dates: Original building — c.1900; Renovation — Planning stage
National Register of Historic Places: Significant building in the West Sixth Street Historic District.

Built c. 1900 by Lewis Olds (1822-1908), it is one of three buildings in a row with the characteristic “Olds Shape.” Some of the first inhabitants of the house were John Reboul Whittemore (1871-1951) and his family.

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John R. Whittemore, originally from St. Louis, Missouri, would marry Charlotte Carr Meysenburg Whittemore (1877-1951) in 1899. Shortly thereafter, John and Charlotte would move to Erie, Pennsylvania, so John could take a job as Superintendent of the Erie City Iron Works. His neighbor to the east, living at 333 West 6th, would be Edward Perkins Selden (1858-1925), Vice President of Erie City Iron Works. John and Charlotte stayed in Erie only briefly, and by 1910, they had moved on to California. John and Charlotte’s son, John Reboul Whittemore Jr (1899-2005), was born in 1899 and would have been raised in the house as an infant. John Whittemore Jr. was known as "the world's oldest athlete" at the time of his death. His last competition was on October 5, 2005, six weeks before his 105th birthday, during which he threw the javelin and discus at the Club West Masters Meet held at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

This house was listed as 337 W. Sixth Street (Olds Whittemore House) in the National Register of Historic Places by the U.S. Department of the Interior as a significant building in the West Sixth Street Historic District in 1984.