Documented
Dates, architectural details, and public names are tied to records that visitors can open and read for themselves.
Sources and research
How we checked the story.
Old houses gather stories. Some live in public records, some are held in family memory, and some still need a little more digging. This page shows what we used and how we decided what belongs in the public story. Post-family correspondence and later local reporting give the builder question firmer historical footing, while keeping his exact working role and one date discrepancy in plain view.
Research reviewed July 19, 2026
Our approach
Clear labels, honest history.
Remembered
Family stories and the current homeowner’s account bring the house to life. We identify them as recollections so readers can distinguish lived memory from the public record.
Still unfolding
Historical evidence identifies Post as the builder. What remains open is whether he served as foreman or contractor, and why a 1910 recollection says “about 1838” when the house's established date is 1835.
Sources behind the story
Records, reporting, and recollections.
- 01Open source
1974 National Register nomination
The official district inventory describes the house, its Greek Revival details, and the arrangement of all seven porches.
- 02Open source
National Register property record
The National Park Service record identifies the Marietta Historic District and its 1974 listing.
- 03Open source
Dartmouth Libraries
Allen’s alumni file helps confirm his education and the timeline of his academic career.
- 04Open source
Marietta College history
College records place Allen on the early faculty and clarify his appointments through 1840.
- 05Open source
1834 Washington County memorial to Congress
This contemporary document records a March 1834 citizens’ meeting at the Marietta courthouse and includes Truman Post among the Washington County signers.
- 06Open source
Marietta College name citations
An American Antiquarian Society index cites Post as steward in Marietta College’s 1835 Second Annual Report and its 1838 Catalogue of Officers and Students.
- 07Open source
1838 Marietta College catalogue
The contemporary catalogue explains that the steward directed a manual-labor program that included farming, carpentry, bricklaying, and plastering. See printed page 31.
- 08Open source
The Tallow Light, vol. 53, no. 4 (2022)
William J. Showalter’s article, “Marietta College, the House of Seven Porches, & Post Toasties,” reproduces excerpts from 1910 Post-family correspondence and cites an October 16, 1956 Marietta Daily Times account. Together, they identify Truman Post as the builder of Allen’s house at 331 Fifth Street and place a second Post-built home for Professor Samuel Maxwell nearby. The correspondence leaves open whether Post served as foreman or contractor and recalls the work as “about 1838,” later than the house’s established 1835 date. See printed pages 94 through 101, especially 96 through 98.
- 09Open source
C.W. Post: The Hour and the Man
Nettie Leitch Major’s 1963 biography and genealogy draws on the Post family Bible, letters, Cornwall land records, and Illinois court records. Printed pages 269 through 276 document Truman’s 1834 move to Marietta, his family, his later farm near Waverly, and his 1847 death.
- 10Open source
History of the Town of Cornwall, Vermont
Lyman Matthews’s 1862 town history records Truman Post’s December 11, 1796 birth and his place in the Cornwall community before the move west.
- 11Open source
Historical Marker Database
The marker record preserves the 1835 date and the Allen, Buell, and Kelso names associated with the house.
- 12Open source
The Marietta Times
A 2019 interview records details of the Ditchendorf family’s preservation work and the house’s jib openings.
- 13Open source
Washington County Auditor sales report
The county’s July 2023 sales report confirms Janet Grams’s purchase of the property.
- 14Homeowner-supplied history
Current homeowner history
Janet Grams’s account adds first-hand context about the Kelso hospitality years, her earlier preservation work at Larchmont, and her decision to make the House of Seven Porches her next home and preservation project.
What comes next
There is more to learn.
The most useful next stops are Washington County deed and tax records, the original Post-Mills correspondence and related documents at Marietta College, the October 16, 1956 Marietta Daily Times, college account books and faculty papers, early newspapers, historic photographs, and restoration files. Those records may clarify Post's exact role and the difference between the 1835 date and the later “about 1838” recollection.
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