Constructed in 1855, the Collins Burnham House, also known as the Ogdensburg Business School, is located at 324 Caroline Street. The Burnham home was built in the Italianate Style, which began in England in the 1840s. By the late 1860s, the style had swept through North America. Italianate homes could be constructed with many different building materials and adapted to modest budgets. This style of home features low-pitched or flat roofs, balanced rectangular shape, tall appearance, and wide overhanging eaves with brackets and cornices. There were 170,000 bricks used in the construction of the Burnham house at a cost of $672.27. Four marble chimneypieces cost $161.95. The total cost to build this house in 1855 was just over $9,000.
The Burnham family resided in this house until 1886. Collins A. Burnham, born in 1798, married Mary Battell. Mary Battell Burnham was born in Massachusetts the daughter of James and Ruhama Battell Collins and Mary Battell Burnham had a daughter Mary B. Burnham who was born in 1825. She never married, residing with her parents until her death in 1877. Mr. Burnham was a trustee of the Village of Ogdensburgh in 1839 and 1851 and one of the first trustees of the Ogdensburgh Cemetery Association beginning in 1847. As a banker, he had a long connection with the Ogdensburg Bank when it was the only bank in the county, from its organization in 1829 to the end of its charter in 1859. He also headed the gas works for the city. Mr. Burnham died in 1873. His wife, Mary Battell Burnham died in 1886.
After the death of the Burnham family, the house was sold and for many years the building was used as a parish house for St. John’s Episcopal Church. Later owners included the Elks Club, Dr. Frederick Clark, and Arthur and Alice Billings Mastic. Mrs. Mastic owned and operated the Ogdensburg Business School until the late 1960s at which point the 4,900 square foot building was converted into 4 apartments. At present, it is once again a single family home.
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