The Francis Crum House, Columbus, OH

The Francis Crum House, Columbus, OH. 1850

The Francis Crum house stands next to the Snowden house on the east side of E Town Street. It was started in 1844 by another builder, but finished after a long delay by Francis Crum in 1850. The house is a three bay, side entrance plan house, with an additionally two bays added later, slightly recessed. This is a common form of extension for houses of this plan. The house shares some of the design features of the Snowden house, with round arched windows on the first floor and three point arched windows on the second. The surrounds are more abbreviated than the Snowden house, with hood moldings ending in foliate Gothic stops with a rococo cartouche in the center. The windows feature Venetian tracery. The cornice and entablature follow the bull's eye form, as next door, except here the windows are elliptical intersecting the panels. The brackets are especially elaborate, being a s scroll form attached to a rotated s curve design. Deeply carved acanthus leaves and finer carving on the brackets distinguish it from Snowden's. The cupola is very low, with strong brackets echoing the cornice, and rectangular windows with arched ends. Note how the cupola is centered on the original three bays rather than taking account of the addition. Unfortunately, the house has experienced some mutilation, with the front door replaced by a colonial revival form and the first floor of the side wing obliterated with a columned, glass picture window. Both these changes are probably from the 1910s-20s. 

The Philip T. Snowden House, Columbus OH

The Philip Snowden House, Columbus, OH. 1850

The Philip Snowden house is one of the premier homes left in Columbus' East Town Street district, an area of the city which was the wealthy district in the early 19th century. Snowden was a textile importer and built this house in 1850, though he only held onto it for a decade before he went bankrupt. The house is currently owned by the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority. It follows a pavilion style plan, with shallow projective pavilions connected by a recessed pavilion with porch. It is the detailing of the house which is exceptional. All the windows of the house are round arched, with heavy stone surrounds. Each surround begins at the base with a curved ear in a Renaissance style, arising from stylized foliage. This transforms as one ascends to an engaged column supporting a capital of Gothic style foliage. The arch has a thick exterior molding with a toothed/arched design (very Romanesque); the keystone is established by a rococo cartouche. This juggling of styles in the 19th century is especially emphatic here. On the first floor, each window has a paneled apron. The porch is made of three arches and is an exceptionally lacy piece of ironwork resting on thin, stylized Corinthian columns with classical rinceaux in the spandrels. An image from the late 19th century shows a different porch, one which is far less delicate and much clunkier. To me, that certainly looks like a later development as well as it seems to ignore the entire rhythm of the façade and the paired windows.

From History of Columbus.

The door has a pilastered surround. The whole is topped by a cornice structure of the bulls eye type with the bulls eye window inset between rather elaborate panels beneath a row of dentils. The brackets alternate between smaller s scroll brackets and longer double s scroll brackets at emphatic points. Each pavilion is topped by an engaged round pediment (also bracketed) with a rococo foliage and shell element at the apex. The crowning touch to the house is its fine cupola, one of the most attractive of which I know, with a run of four arched windows, and paired brackets (from the picture once also repeated on the lower half) and a dramatic curved tent roof with a thick finial. One of the most impressive houses of its kind, I must say that its degree of finish and preservation make it one of my favorites.

'The Magnolias' Vicksburg, MS

'The Magnolias' Vicksburg, MS. 1877 Source: Wikimedia

Source: Wikimedia

Known as 'the Magnolias' this house has little information about its original builder, although it was constructed in 1877. Like McRaven, the house is a side hall plan with a porch façade, but unlike McRaven, it exhibits many more Italianate details. The window treatments of the house are all segmental arched with thick hood moldings swooping over, and the door fits a Greek Revival design into the segmental arched shape. The house is all about its jigsaw work, with the porch, like McRaven, supported on thin openwork posts with Gothic jigsaw designs and with a jigsaw balustrade. The spandrel brackets on the porch are especially delicate and frilly and form basket handle arches. The entablature is of the bull's eye paneled cornice type, with a row of panels in the frieze filled with incised Eastlake designs, and a layer of dentils with small bulbous brackets emerging. This run of short brackets is interrupted by longer brackets coordinating with the posts of the porch, keeping the verticality of the design. I have to say, while very kitschy, there is something quite authentic, especially to the 1870s, to the yard crowded with all kinds of clashing odds an ends, a Thorvaldsen Hebe, a canon, and Japanese lanterns. Victorians loved those kinds of tchotchkes in front of their houses as a sort of exterior furniture that personalized the house as the objects collected by the owner personalized the interior.

Source: Wikimedia

The R. F. Beck House, Vicksburg, MS

The R. F. Beck House, Vicksburg, MS. 1875. Source: Steven Martin

Source: Steven Martin

The next few posts we will be looking at Italianate Vicksburg!

The R. F. Beck house was built by a building contractor in Vicksburg, MS as a showplace of his own design and construction skills, and it does not disappoint. It is a decidedly individualistic irregular plan house, with sparing detail, partially due to a rather unsympathetic paint job, but a rich treatment in woodwork. The house is irregular in plan, with a side that forms a pavilion plan façade, but lacks the tower component, instead suggesting a tower by the central placement of the octagonal cupola at the junction of the l-shape (although the entrance, as typical of this plan, appears in the center). The windows, all segmental arched except for the full arches in the gables, actually do have hold moldings, articulated in brick, something of a development of the 1860s and 70s, but these are hardly apparent because, unlike their probably original paint scheme which would have differentiated them from the façade, they are painted the same salmon color as the brick. The side façade, oddly, has deeper and more articulated moldings, with several layers, rather than a flat expanse. The entablature is of the paneled bull's eye type and features single s scroll brackets. An odd feature, the brackets are spaced somewhat oddly on the house and not at all aligned with the windows on the long section to the right, while there are bunches of three brackets at the gable peak, a very odd feature. The porch as well is noteworthy, being a rather lacy Gothic concoction with trefoils in the spandrels. The door surround is nice and thick, suitably emphatic, with chamfered panels arranged onto a typical pilaster and arch surround. These same panels are answered in the chimneys, a feature of the panel brick style.

The George Berry House, Oneida, NY

The George Berry House, Oneida, NY. 1860 Photo: Carol

From: History of Chenango and Madison Counties

Built by George Berry, a significant legislator and businessman in Oneida, around 1860 and later home of Manford J. Dewey businessman, this house remains a grand addition to Oneida at 416 Main Street. Looking at the older illustration below, it seems the house has been shorn of its grand tent-roof cupola as well as the anthemion over the pediment, but for the most part it remains intact although in some disrepair. The house is a five bay plan and includes a strong projection in the center that forms a central emphasis. This house displays some high quality woodwork throughout. Over the windows, there are engaged, arched pediments (engaged means they don't go to the edge of the flat molding) resting on brackets. Beneath the hood molding is a series of wooden fringes that hang down providing some fun detail. The porch is typical Italianate with filleted corners, but above there is a charmingly small bay window with arched windows that is bracketed, pilastered, and topped by a tent roof. The cornice as well is of the bull's eye type with panels centered on circular windows and filled with cut-out strapwork. Along the base of the string molding is a series of leaves that form a little fringe. The brackets are of the double s scroll type with larger and smaller members. It seems unfortunately from this real estate listing that the missing decoration of the left hand cornice was never restored and merely boarded up rather callously. At least they didn't remove it all, I have to give them that. In the right hands, with the cupola back, this could look like new!

The John Kelley House, Cincinnati, OH

Kelley House, Cincinnati, OH. 1870s. Photo: Christie

Remaining Photos: HABS

The John Kelley house was built sometime in the late 1860s early 1870s (likely the 1870s when the rest of the street materialized). Little is known about the man it was built for, but like other houses on the street, it has the same Anglo-Italianate flair. The simple limestone facade of this rowhouse plan is not broken up into courses, and unlike most of the houses on the street, it has a Corinthian columned porch. The first floor has round arched windows while the second features segmental arches, a variation common to many houses on the street. The surrounds are the same on each window, with strong Renaissance acanthus leaf brackets and a molding. Spandrels are carved with the usual Renaissance vegetal designs. Uniquely on this house, the cornice has been elongated. Although it is of the bull's eye type, the windows are semicircular rather than round. The addition of the stone course with panels and incised carvings makes it seem much bigger than on other houses. All in all, this house has one of the finer and more finished facades on the street.

The Charles Heine House, Cincinnati, OH

Heine House, Cincinnati, OH. 1870s John Smith Photography

Remaining Photos: HABS

This house, adjoining the Hauck house was probably built by John Hauck in 1874-6 as a residence for his daughter and her husband, Charles Heine, a grocer. On exclusive streets like Dayton Street, one can often find family relations and friends building and buying houses to form their own enclaves. Much plainer than the Hauck house and following the rowhouse plan, the Heine house shares some features with it; perhaps the same architect was used for both. The house's doors in particular have the same design, although there is less carving. The windows also follow the same pattern, with segmental arched windows on the first floor with pillars, a rope molding, and keystone, and round arched windows on the second in the same style. The cornice features paired brackets and dentils, and is of the bull's eye type, although instead of being round, the windows are only semi-circular.

The Andrew Hickenlooper House, Cincinnati, OH

Hickenlooper House, Cincinnati, OH. 1871. Photo: Christie

Photos: Wikimedia

This house at 838 Dayton St. was built in 1871 by successful Civil War general Andrew Hickenlooper, who was involved in Sherman's march through Georgia. The house, which follows the rowhouse plan is one of the most elaborate of the houses on Dayton. Its limestone facade is articulated into three strong bays, like the Hauck house, in which the central bay is slightly less bold than the flanking bays. The first floor features segmental arched windows, all with strong moldings and keystones. These are divided into bays by Ionic pilasters with floral carvings. Notably, the string course molding advances and recesses with the pilasters. The second floor is where the real variation begins. The flanking bays project slightly and feature segmental arched windows with eared moldings and a curved pediment on acanthus brackets. These are pulled straight from Renaissance designs and make this house a good example of Anglo-Italianate style. The central bay is recessed and has just the eared molding around the window, but the carved swags, a notably lavish element, emphasize it significantly in the design. Basically, this house is well balanced in its distribution of elements that attract and diminish. The cornice features paired simple brackets; the flanking bays have a simple paneled cornice, while the central bay has a bull's eye cornice, keeping the three bay distinction all the way up. The whole is topped by a fancy stone cresting that simulates Greek acanthus leaf crestings. As in the Hauck house, all is liberally carved on the front, while the sides are very very plain.

The George W. Lewis House and Row, Albany, NY

The George W. Lewis House, Albany, NY. 1877

The George W. Lewis house is at 163 Lancaster in the Center Square neighborhood in Albany; it was built in 1877 according to Albany Architecture. Lewis, the builder of the house, was a lithographer, who also engaged in real estate development, building the neighboring houses at 165-173 (to the left of the house in my image). The house like the Wing-Williams house is a five bay semi detached row house. However, while the Wing Williams house appealed to Anglo-Italianate detailing, the Lewis house embraces the Albany vernacular and the rich ornament of the 1870s. The porches to the right seem to be of a later date.

The house has all the features of the Albany style. The hood moldings are highly decorated, featuring a curved pediment that's broken by a small, central pointed pediment with a long triglyph and guttae. This distortion of elements of a Doric frieze are typical of the 1870s interest in playing with traditional classical forms. These hood molds may be made of metal and surmount segmented arched windows (the current flat topped windows may be modern). The basement is of rusticated stone, a common treatment in row houses. The porch features the flat-topped trefoil arch we have seen in the Richardson-Bates house and incised design. The expected box window over the door is present. A real treasure of this house is the cornice, which is of the bull's eye type. The house features a central gable with an arched window in the center. A fascinating detail around this window is that the cable molding that extends around the frieze is carved into rope ends at the corners of the window. This charming feature takes a form that is often used abstractly and suggests its original associations. The following images and enlargements show some of the details.

 

 

I also have added a picture of the row Lewis constructed next to his house. These follow the row house plan. He differentiated the row from his house, which forms the terminus of the continuous row. These houses are characterized by different hood moldings, which though a similar shape differ in the detail, a different type of cornice (the undulating type), and box windows that have similar pediments to those on his own house. By altering the detail, Lewis ensured that his house would remain architecturally distinct, both by its different ornament and its different plan, displaying his status in relation to those who occupied his development.