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503 WEST DOWNER PLACE
The McWethy House
The McWethy house is a Queen Anne style house, complete with vestibules, halls and 17 principle and ante rooms, all non rectangular, irregular in shape.
In 1841, John Barker, an Aurora pioneer, claimed the land on which the McWethy house is situated from the U. S. government. In 1856, John J. Breese and James A. Hinds, local entrepreneurs, purchased and platted the land. In 1863, William Thompson, a gentleman farmer and lumber merchant, purchased a city block on which he had the house built that same year.
Originally, the McWethy house began as a smaller two storied structure with a rear one story section where the kitchen and the butler's pantry are today. The eventual back, or servants, stairs served as the main flight to the upstairs bedrooms. The original front door and adjoining small front porch were situated through the south wall to the right of the back parlor bay windows.
Major remodeling occurred between 1885 and 1887 with the addition of the front parlor, main stairs and staircase hall and additional bedrooms. The distinctive Queen Anne motifs of the broad front veranda, the circular tower, or turret, with its conical roof and bays of cut glass windows, carved out of existing walls, were introduced then as well as adding two stories above the kitchen pantry area for additional bedrooms on the second floor, and servants quarters on the third floor.
In 1887, John J. Davis, an Aurora businessman and civic leader, purchased the enlarged the McWethy house. It was enlarged further in 1906 with the addition of a summer kitchen (today's breakfast room) with its walk in cooler and the screened and sleeping porches across the back of the house. The carriage house (now the garage), complete with hayloft, was erected to replace the original barn and shed.
In 1915, Davis' widow, Juliet, sold the house to the Wilder H. Roberts family. The Gerald McCarthys purchased the house in 1929.
D.V. McWethy, Sr
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