West Shore Apartments began in 1967, but our story starts earlier, when we arrived in Ithaca from the Binghamton region of New York State’s Southern Tier.
We became our own first tenants—along the West Shore of Cayuga Lake.
In about 1965, WSA co-founder and co-owner Bob Terry was offered a position at Cornell University. Bob, his wife Linda, and their two children relocated from Aetna, NY to Ithaca. While exploring Cayuga Lake, they found a building with three one-bedroom apartments and, unable to afford a mortgage for a house, borrowed money to buy the building and moved into one of the units. They hoped to rent the other two. That home—still on Taughannock Boulevard along the West Shore of Cayuga Lake—became the birthplace of West Shore Apartments. (Today, all three units are still available for rent, with quite a few upgrades over the years.)
West Shore Apartments grew beyond that single building and moved its office into town. In the mid-1970s, we relocated our office from Cayuga’s West Shore to 107 Worth Street, just three blocks from Cornell University and Collegetown. Because our office is housed within our own home, we remain consistently accessible to our tenants—there are no posted office hours.
We continued acquiring and renovating properties throughout Ithaca to expand our offerings and meet diverse renter needs. By 1980, Bob and Linda Terry had six children, four of whom attended Cornell, giving us firsthand insight into what it’s like to be college students, parents of college students, and “making Ithaca home” from multiple perspectives.
A second generation joins the mission. Today, our daughter Karla Terry carries the family's legacy. Karla is an Ithaca High School graduate and a 1997 alumna of Cornell’s School of Hotel Administration. After building a career in hospitality and real estate, she returned to Ithaca in 2011 to continue West Shore Apartments’ tradition of helping tenants feel at home in the Finger Lakes.
For us, “making Ithaca home” is deeply personal. We’ve been doing it for more than six decades—for ourselves, our children, and our tenants and their families, whom we’ve had the privilege to serve. This is our legacy and our purpose. Each year, we write a new chapter in WSA’s history as we welcome new and returning tenants to our properties across Ithaca. We look forward to serving you, your family, and your friends for years to come.
We’d love to help you feel at home and fall in love with Ithaca, just as we did. Contact us anytime so we can help you Make Ithaca Home, too.