'Beechwood', the Isaac Kinsey House, Milton, IN

The Isaac Kinsey House, Milton, IN. 1871. Photo: Wikimedia

Other images: HABS

The Isaac Kinsey house, also known as 'Beechwood' is a grand estate in rural Wayne County, IN. Built in 1871 and designed by the Richmond architect Joel Stover, it was the family farm for Isaac Kinsey, an investor in a very successful drill company. His house was so important to him, he had a panel painted to advertise his own home (pictured below). Although in a rural setting, Stover gave Kinsey a highly sophisticated, urban style home that would have been suitable in Richmond. The house starts as a typical side hall plan house, but the additions are what transform it cleverly into a fantasy. There is a long thin wing running to the right of the house, and the addition of two, two story bay windows with octagonal tent roofs topped by fantastic, baluster finials makes it seem like the house has exotic towers, although they don't stand out far from the facade as a real tower would.

The two big areas in which this house excels are iron and wood. The actual window surrounds are extremely plain and are basically just holes punched in the brick, stuccoed facade. Everywhere, iron is present to jazz up the design. Most notable is the two story, spindly iron porch around the main entrance with Gothic, Rococo, and Greek Revival flairs (most ironwork is a truly eclectic mix of styles). Additionally, the balcony wraps around the front bay window and is complemented by roof crestings and the metal finial on the bay window roofs. In terms of wood, the cupola itself has heavy molded surrounds for the arched windows, dentils, and moldings that suggest capitals for pilasters. The cornice is one of the more elaborate I've seen. It's of the fillet cornice type, although the windows and panels have semicircles cut out of the sides, a sort of reverse fillet. The windows are surrounded by all the doo-dads one could imagine, dentils, an architrave (uniquely made up of beveled panels), and balls. The house in fact seems obsessed with small wooden balls attached to all of the elements on its cornice. Additionally, the brackets, which are an odd double s type have both s-curves separated by a thick piece of flat molding. It's almost like they bought two brackets and stuck them together. The coolest thing about the cornice is that it runs around the house, rather than stopping like others do when an unimportant section is encountered. This is certainly a reflection of Kinsey's wealth that he could afford to throw money around on all that woodwork (hey that's how 19th century people thought about this stuff). No doubt the zany iron fountain also made a similar statement. HABS has pictures of the interior, drawings, plans, and an image of Kinsey's own house dedication painting.

The Thomas Gaff House, Aurora, IN

The Thomas Gaff House, Aurora, IN. 1855 Photo: Johns S

This is certainly a one of a kind early Italianate house. Built in 1855, its designer was Isaiah Rogers, the father of the American hotel who worked primarily in Greek Revival. Rogers dotted the nation with dozens of grand Greek edifices that revolutionized the way Americans lodged when traveling. The Thomas Gaff house was built by Rogers for an important local distillery owner, and the design is unique as a specimen of Italianate and Greek Revival fusion. The house is far more eclectic than most examples of Italianate we have seen. While the plan is symmetrical, the large projecting semi-circular portico is more characteristic of Regency design in England than houses in the US. The thinness and classical inaccuracy of the columns on the central portico and side porches are much more characteristic of Federal design than Italianate or Greek Revival. The effect created is one of lightness and buoyancy rather than classical monumentality, a feature that is reflected in the delicacy of the second floor ironwork. The decision to side the house in flushboard rather than clapboard is another element which, although not unprecedented in Italianates, is very common in Greek Revival.

Features that are typically Italianate are the Renaissance style details in the corner quoins, second floor window moldings, and round arched windows which dominate the central bay. Also significant is the uncommon round cupola that reflects the curve of the central bay and is marked by paired tombstone windows. The cornice is simple, as are the brackets which are crafted like rafter brackets, a kind of bracket found on earlier Italianate homes of the 50s and 40s. A final interesting feature is that the house is built on a slope; the entire back of the house is a maze of ells, porches, and additions that sit on the sloped rock behind, as seen in the following images from HABS. The house is currently well maintained and functions as a house museum.

The Schlosser House, Attica, IN

The Schlosser House, Attica, IN. 1865 Photo: Wikimedia

Sorry to have been remiss lately. With classes starting and all I have just been swamped, but I promise not to give up. This house, the Schlosser house, in Attica, IN was built in 1865 as a symmetrical plan house, but being in a small town in Indiana it has some unusual vernacular features. First, the lintels over the windows that consist of simple pieces of stone inserted into the facade (called labels) are a strong Greek Revival element. Here, they are heavily carved with Greek designs of acanthus with palmettes; the fact that the owner has picked them out in paint helps a great deal in noticing the design elements. The porch on the front is an elaborate affair, with complex fretwork scrolls (that have the air of steamboat Gothic about them). The central piece of fretwork between the two bracket shaped pieces is particularly interesting. The facing is brick, which forms a band to make an architrave that has paired double s-curve brackets under the eave. The side porch is startlingly simple, being basically simple posts without even a full entablature. However, the simplicity of the wooden design is not reflected in the elaborate cast iron balustrade over the porch, which is a lovely feature and was obviously designed to be used as a balcony, given the elongation of the second floor windows on that side. Although the paint scheme is probably not historical (they would never have picked out stone details like that), I rather like it with its mix of blacks, yellows, and greens. It goes to show that even when historical colors aren't used, a pleasing picture can be formed. The yellows and blacks are in fact harmonious Victorian colors, so it does even out. Even though the house was built in 1865, it is aesthetically a throwback to the early 1850s in its design, showing that regionalism could often trump high style taste.

The Columbia Club, Indianapolis, IN

The Columbia Club, Indianapolis, IN. 1889
Photo from Indianapolis Illustrated

The Columbia Club building was located on Monument Circle in Indianapolis. Though not strictly a residential building, it has a residential styling that is unique. According to Historic Indianapolis it was erected in 1889 and replaced in 1898, after only a few years. It's not surprising that this resembles a house; clubs like the Union League in Philadelphia often emulated residential design, perhaps because so many of them were headquartered in former mansions. Although the building may have been built in 1889, its styling looks more like a product of the late 1870s or early 1880s. This retardaire design might be a testament to the conservativism of the club members and their aesthetics. Even so, the design is grand and dripping with exuberance. The club did not follow a typical plan, although it resembles a side hall house. The first floor is set off from the second by rustication or deep grooves between stonework. In addition the first and fourth bays are differentiated by slight projections and pilasters, making it seem more palace like than might be expected and giving it a European flair. While the first floor is somewhat soberly designed with its arched windows, the second floor is a fabulously ornamented design with segmental arched windows with eared moldings that have cornices above them with carved ornament overflowing above and below to suggest brackets and pediment. Further carved classical panels of swirling acanthus leaves above and below the windows give the club an added Renaissance flair, as do the Corinthian pilasters, also with carved ornament. The cornice is Anglo-Italianate in design with typic rotated s-curve brackets. Although the Renaissance stylings and cornice do suggest Anglo-Italianate, the lack of sobriety in design makes it less of a rigid example of the style. There appears to be a side porch of two stories, with pilasters and arched windows. There is bunting crisscrossing the facade, no doubt for some signifigant event, probably political. Overall an impressive and unique clubhouse for the 19th century man.

The Lewis W. Hasselman House, Indianapolis, IN

The Lewis W. Hasselman House, Indianapolis, IN. 1865

 

The above photos are from the publications Indianapolis Illustrated
and Art Works of Indianapolis.

The Lewis W. Hasselman house stood on Indianapolis' fashionable North Meridian Street until the 1920s when it was razed for the Indianapolis Athletic Club. The house was built in the 1865 for Hasselman, a manufacturer of steam engines and mill parts. The designer was Francis Costigan, basically Indiana's answer to Connecticut's Henry Austin, whose Lanier house is probably one of the country's best Greek Revivals. This is one of his only Italianate designs and is a showstopper. It is a symmetrical plan house, although the flanking bays have protruding two story bay windows, a very grand statement indeed. It was faced in limestone. The house has a variety of unique features that made it an important example of Italianate. The first floor features an impressive door surround with Corinthian columns and a pediment that is broken around the arch of the door frame, hearkening back to Georgian design. The triangular pediment is broken is the center by a curve, an interesting reinterpretation of a traditional form. The flanking bay windows, as all the windows on the house are arched with thick hood moldings enriched with carved foliage. The central window on the bay has Venetian tracery, but the space that would have featured the circular element has been filled with carving, as have the areas beneath the window. The hood molding on the central window of the first floor bays has a swoop of molding that comes to a carved finial, a reminiscence of Gothic architecture. This window design is repeated in the central window above the door. This level of carving is similar to the work on the Backus house and must have been a statement of the owner's wealth and ability to afford such expensive rococo carvings.

Although the second story windows are plainer, an interesting profusion of brackets underlie their sills. The third floor is where things get really strange, with pairs or round windows that are connected by carved rosettes and have ribbons and strapwork extending from the sides. This feature is particularly unique to this house and shows a real originality in design. It almost looks like fancy portholes on a yacht. The cornice is not particularly complex, but the same richness of carving adorns it; the brackets feature carved garlands, s curves, and incised designs. The originality of the design continues to the octagonal cupola, which repeats the cornice stylings and seems to have windows with angled tops. The whole is capped by a finial that resembles an acorn. In every way, the Hasselman house exemplifies high style Italianate design that was not Anglo-Italianate but American in inspiration. It is similar to some of the zany and experimental designs found in Detroit's lost mansions. The style of this house seems to be related to another Costigan work, the Odd Fellows' Building in Indianapolis with its ornate carved detailing and bay windows. An Italiante carriage house can be seen in the background. A lovely work, it's a shame this house is gone.