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This grand Classical Revival 1899 house came into its present ownership on September 10, 2001. First efforts that fall focused on replacing a defunct heating system. The next year, the roof was replaced and the exterior paint redone, which included extending the five "painted lady" colors to the third floor, which had been left white. During the third year, the chimney was repointed and rebuilt.
Inside the home, some of the light fixtures have been replaced; paint has been stripped from doors, staircase, and window seats. The pockets where the missing pocket doors used to hang have been boxed in, French doors have been added to the morning room, and stained glass panels have been rehung in the swinging doors between the entry vestibule and the foyer. The ground floor fireplace apron has been retiled; hardware has been restored to the window sashes. Floors in several of the downstairs and second floor rooms have been sanded and refinished. Carpeting and or runners has been installed on the stairways. Shelving has been installed on the landing of the staircase to the basement, whose walls were also sheetrocked. Wall paper has been stripped and replaced, tile spashes have been added in bathroom and kitchen. The third floor bathroom’s linoleum floor has been replaced with tile. Radiator valves and thermostat have been replaced. Basement pipes have been wrapped and several replaced as leaks occur. The porch balustrades have been refilled and protective coverings applied to the base of two of the front porch columns. Infestations of carpenter bees in the porch railings and squirrels roosting in the overhangs have been dislodged and their holes filled. Handrails and lighting have been added to the stairways to the front porch and its brickwork rebuilt. Sidewalk cracks have been patched, annual and perennial plantings (chiefly roses) have been added to the front and side gardens. The above-ground non-functional pool has been removed and the remaining circle of sand is now a planted seating area. Three trees in the back of the house, one dead, one splitting and one about to split, have been taken down.
The house has an interesting history. Its former owners, Patrick and Frances Griffin, raised a large family here, and during their 17 years brought the house back from the brink of being condemned to being a liveable and charming - if still needy - home. Patrick is responsible for the murals on the ceiling of the morning room, and of the downstairs bath. Frances stenciled the kitchen borders and the third floor hallway, and applied the sponge painting to the third floor living room (formerly the billiard room.) One of the children must have applied the luminescent stars to the second floor library ceiling, and added the bb pellet dent to the living room’s front curved window...
Before the Griffins lived another family whose head of household, an artist, ran "The Mansion House" art school in the house. Previous to that, the building housed the Lubbavitch Yeshiva Academy and, before that, it was the first home of Temple Sinai. The home’s ownership during the first half of the 20th century remains to be researched.
In 1900, the Springfield Homestead, a real estate journal, carried the following front page article about the house:
“Mr. Lathrop Colonial House”
"Of the many handsome residences on Sumner Avenue one that commands much attention is the colonial house of F.W. Lathrop, the real estate dealer. This house was built under the personal supervision of Mr. Lathrop, from plans executed by Carroll H. Pratt of Louis F. Neuman’s office, and was completed a year ago, after being a full year in course of construction. It is of southern colonial design with all the modern details of finish, containing 12 spacious rooms. The large double veranda is surmounted at the third floor by a wide balcony, having entrance to the billiard room. Heavy colonial pillars, four in number, extend two stories in height. From the broad veranda on the lower floor, entrance is made to the vestibule which is finished in quartered oak and oak frieze. The vestibule opens into the spacious main hall, which is really a combination hall and library, there being no division between the rooms.
"The library and hall have the massive oak beams at the ceiling, and the side wall are wainscotted in Indian quartered oak. A large fireplace and specially made mantel occupy one side of the library. From the hall the grand staircase, having one-half turn, built of heavy carved oak, ascends to the second floor, with wainscotting at the sides. The reception room is entered both from the vestibule and the main hall and is finished in enameled white wood, rubbed to an egg-shell finish. The ceiling of the reception room is frescoed over canvas and the effect is very pleasing. The dining room is in the old English style, with the heavy ceiling beams and the wainscotting of quartered oak. All of the floors were planed, scraped and sandpapered and then waxed to a high polish. The kitchen, with a spacious pantry and a refrigerator built into the house, completes the arrangement of the lower floor, the laundry being in the basement.
"The second floor contains four large rooms, three sleeping apartments and a reception or sitting room, the latter having a handsome tiled fireplace. There are two bathrooms, one being on the second floor and the other on the third floor, where there are three sleeping rooms in addition to the large billiard room....”
The Lathrop House was included on the 1981 brochure for a walking tour of Forest Park Heights, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and prepared by the Genealogical/Local History Department of the Springfield City Library “to cover prominent architectural and historical structures that are still standing...” It puts the original cost of construction at $12,000.
In 2003 Springfield City Council granted permission to accomodate guests at the Lathrop House B&B, named after the first owner.