The R. A. Loveland House, Janesville, WI

The R. A. Loveland House, Janesville, WI. 1861 Photo: Sarah Lawver

The R. A, Loveland house was built in 1861 and is a smaller, cheaper version of the Lappin house posted two days ago. The house is another side hall plan, but has less features that emphasize centrality, confining itself to a central open pediment in the central bay and an arched window on the second floor. Otherwise, the house has basically the same porch with its paired columns and alternating round arched and filleted openings and similar Greek Revival eared moldings. Additional images can be found here. The cornice itself also lacks the sculptural qualities of the Lappin house with architrave moldings and simple brackets. The fascination of this house is how a similar plan and architectural treatment can manifest in different ways according to the wealth of the builder. There seem to be several example of this type in the city, and the design is clearly an important vernacular base for the town's Italianates.

The Thomas Lappin House, Janesville, WI

Thomas Lappin House, Janesville, WI. 1864 Photo: Sarah Lawver

The Thomas Lappin house in Janesville is a fine example of a side hall plan that oddly functions like a symmetrical plan, built in 1864 for a major early merchant in the town. It was designed by the architect Gary Nettleton, a local designer responsible for many Janesville houses. The house has several fine features; although the there is no central projection, symmetrical emphasis is achieved by an open pediment, a central arched window on the second floor, and a pediment on the central bay of the porch. This is in conflict with the side hall entrance. The house's details are dignified, with simple Greek revival eared window and door surrounds with crown moldings; the windows on the first floor are flat while the second floor alternates between rectangular, round, and segmental arched windows whose alternation makes a pleasing effect. There is an odd diamond window on the right side. The whole facade is outlined with verge boards at the corners. The porch is grand, fully bracketed with paired columns that alternately create arched and filleted openings. The cornice type, which seems common in Janesville, is heavily sculpted with paired c scroll brackets, secondary brackets, and dentils with a thick architrave molding, giving it a lot of weight. Additionally, the third floor windows are cleverly hidden within the cornice's sculpture with decorative grills. The architrave line is broken in the center to provide a further central emphasis. Unfortunately, it seems a second floor window has been replaced by a door and someone has stuck shutters around the central window that have been put on backwards (a personal pet peeve), but all in all, the house is mostly intact. Additional views can be found here.

The Brewster Randall House, Janesville, WI

The Brewster Randall House, Janesville, WI. 1862 Photo: Wikimedia

Photo: Wikimedia

This house is an example of remuddling at its most dramatic. It was built in 1862 for Brewster Randall, lawyer and senator, as a simple side hall Italianate with Greek Revival eared window surrounds and a rather fussy molded door surround, reminiscent of Federal designs. The greatest amount of ornament was confined to the fine cornice, with its attractive c scroll brackets with beads and acanthus leaves, that interrupt both dentils and s scroll brackets rotated under the very wide eave. A view of the house as it was can in 2003 be seen here. At some point, someone decided to have some fun. The visionary decided to add some Gothic style exterior lambrequins to the windows, added somewhat incongruous classical pediments over the windows, glued sculpted lions onto the door, and added an oversize classical balustrade to the door's cornice. Additionally, the simple lattice porch was enlivened with further Gothic and ovoid tracery. However, even though this is unquestionably a remuddle, it is surprisingly consistent with the Victorian innovative spirit and love of ornament. As we have seen in Janesville, there is a strong drive toward the eclectic syncretism of styles, as in the Tallman house. The redesigner's combination of Gothic, Classical, and Rococo forms onto an otherwise staid Italianate house could have been done in the 19th century as much as in the 20th. Although sometimes we value the perfection of style and bemoan later additions, for people in the 19th century a house was something to personalize, to constantly reinvent. They didn't think of their homes as museum specimens and felt no shame at adding a Queen Anne porch or a Second Empire turret to an Italianate cube. Italianate is an interesting style precisely because you can apply any sort of style to it. Thus, although this house may not be the perfect specimen of Italianate purity, it is a perfect example of the restless spirit of Victorian architectural innovation.

The Hamilton-Richardson House, Janesville, WI

Hamilton Richardson House, Janesville, WI. 1871. Photo: Wikimedia

Photo: Wikimedia

This irregular plan house was built in 1871 for Hamilton Richardson, a very wealthy and successful businessman in Janesville. The house has been well restored and is currently the Guardian Angel Bed and Breakfast. It lacks the defining tower of the irregular plan houses, giving it a horizonta emphasis. The house is aggressively simple, with a facade of Wisconsin cream brick, arched windows with no surrounds but a ring of projecting bricks with stone keystones. Even the cornice is bracketless and simple. However, the house has its zany elements invested in its woodwork. First, the entrance portico features a bracket surround, where brackets define the doorway. In this case they are enormous c scrolls with strapwork and some exciting swoops on the ends. The porch as well (pictured below) has massive arches with delicate lattice supports. Overall, the house is very dignified.

Photo: Wikimedia

The James B. Crosby House, Janesville, WI

James Crosby House, Janesville, WI. 1851 Photo: Wikimedia

Photo: Wikimedia

The James B. Crosby house was built in 1851 and has been connected to the work of Samuel Sloan because it is closely based on his plan for "an Ornamental Villa" in his book The Model Architect (pictured below). In its long history, it has been a hospital, a drama school run by a minister, and a foster home. It is currently owned by an architect who bought the dilapidated house and is in the process of restoring it, even rebuilding its demolished surgical wing from its hospital days as his facebook page says. The house displays its early design with its simple ornamentation and irregular massing, something that definitely is very Sloan (his designs, though early vary the most from standard plans). In essence, it is a symmetrical plan house with a gable rather than hip roof and a deep gabled central projection with a triple window. Another early feature are the very tall double windows with Greek Revival eared surrounds, the large overhanging eave, and the absence of an architrave molding. The porch is simple and stick like with some Arabesque designs similar to the Tallman house and a little fringe. The brackets are s-scroll type and pierced with large finials and intersect a run of dentils. Perhaps most magnificent is the octagonal cupola, which has rectangular windows and extends the s scroll brackets down the entire height of the cupola, adding c scrolls until the brackets reach the bottom. This creates a very exotic profile indeed!

The William Tallman House, Janesville, WI

The Wm. Tallman House, Janesville, WI. 1857 Photo: Wikimedia

Photo: Cliff

Janesville, WI is a nice historic town with a great collection of Italianate homes. The most famous of these is the William Tallman house, currently a museum. Constructed in 1857 for William Tallman, a lawyer, and once had Abraham Lincoln as a guest. The house is imposing, partially because of its tall third floor divided between the wall and the cornice; it follows the symmetrical plan. The house, like many in Wisconsin, is faced with yellow/cream brick which is augmented by sandstone quoins at the corners. An interesting feature of this house is the work on the windows and details. The first floor has flat windows with deep, cast-iron brackets and moldings with vegetal fluff on top. The second floor has arched windows with Venetian tracery and iron drip moldings enlivened by leaf garlands. Additionally, the deep porch is beautifully carved with rococo foliage and rests on impossibly slender Corinthian/Indian candelabra columns; it also retains its balcony railing. The front door itself is interesting. It uses a traditional Federal design with a fanlight, but the fan is articulated with Goth trefoil tracery with further carving on the spandrels and moldings.

Especially impressive is the box window/conservatory on the left facade. The windows on this have a particularly Moorish flavor, with Venetian tracery that is further divided into a nine-foil design set inside horseshoe arches with elaborate Arabesque strapwork. We have looked at some houses with Moorish designs confined mostly to the Northeast; this is the most western house that displays this stylistic syncretism. The house is finished in the round; even the back porch is decorated with Greek palmettes. The cornice is paneled with chamfered panels and paired octagonal windows. The brackets are of the s and c scroll type and the whole is topped by a cupola with narrow grouped arched windows and a fantastic bulbous finial. This house is an exercise in eclecticism. In looking at its combination of Moorish, Gothic, Greek, and Rococo, it's apparent that the designer was interested in using the Tallman's money to express wealth through stylistic exuberance. Some views of the interior can be seen here. The photos below show more details and were taken by Cliff.

This photo: Wikimedia

The John Hart Whorton House, Appleton, WI

The John Hart Whorton House, Appleton, WI. 1875 Photo: bigcityal

This house was built in 1875 by John Hart Whorton, an important banker. It is an interesting example of the side tower plan, in that unlike other examples, the central recessed section is extremely short and the tower is unusually large. The tower is emphasized by the slightly projecting roof at the base of the top stage. Odd as well is the porch that runs across the entire front of the house, since in other examples the porch can only be found in the central facade section. The porch is also interesting for its long spans which are emphasized by the simple gingerbread. The facade is faced in yellow/cream brick which is a common feature in Wisconsin with brownstone highlights, creating a highly polychromatic effect. The windows are all arched, and the hood moldings consist of slightly projecting brick with brownstone keystones and finials. The style of this house, with its prevalence of arched windows, brick, and polychrome is sometimes called Lombardic, because it has a close affinity with the Romanesque architecture of the Lombards in Italy which was being publicized in the 19th century. So-called Lombardic ornament is of course just one of the many subsets of Italianate design.

The cornice on this house with its panels and s-curve brackets is particularly large, in keeping with the exaggerations in the plan and scale of other elements. Interestingly, the brackets do not continue around the base of the top stage of the tower, making it appear disconnected from the main house. Perhaps the best thing about the house, in my opinion, is how sensitively it is painted. The trim colors emphasize and harmonize with the colors of the stone and bricks of the facade, making the whole look like a consistent architectural unit. It is a testament to how a well painted Italianate can look.

Three Sandstone Italianates in Madison, WI

The Gilman House, 1855 Photo: Shihmei Barger

The Fuller-Bashford House, 1856 Photo: Richard Hurd

The Kendall House, 1855 Photo: Shihmei Barger

 

These three Italianates form a natural group. They were all built around the same time and in the same neighborhood, Madison's Mansion Hill District, by the city's wealthy. They are all built of the same sandstone and have similar detailing; thus, they represent a good window on the styling of one particular area at a specific time. Architect August Kutzbock, who has designed several houses in earlier posts probably had a hand in designing all three. These houses are notable for their simplicity of ornamentation and their dependence on sandstone and its texture for effect, rather than elaboration of moldings and variation of elements. They serve as a good contrast of Kutzbock's more flamboyant designs for the Keenan and Pierce houses nearby.

 

The Gilman house follows the irregular plan, odd as it may seem. It lacks the tower, which is not an uncommon practice, and the area that should be slightly recessed for the tower's base is flush with the projecting pavilion; elongating the design. It was built in 1855 for Julius White, but its real claim to fame is that it housed the governors of Wisconsin from 1883 to 1950. The house has segmented arched windows and spare sandstone window surrounds; the greatest variation is the pairing of windows on the right of the façade which top a box window. The entablature is narrow and the brackets are an interesting feature in that they strive to give an impression of width rather than height. The porch on this house is not original.

 

The Fuller-Bashford house also follows the irregular plan, but features the tower, which is apparently a rarity in Madison. Perhaps the sunny campanile didn't appeal to the settlers in the snowy north. It was built in 1856-7 for Robet Bashford, an attorney and mayor; the Fullers were railroad tycoons who bought it in 1865. This is one of the more sophisticated houses; it features eared window surrounds and paired tombstone windows (also with eared moldings) in the projecting pavilion. The cornice is spare, featuring no brackets but only a run of dentil molding. Unlike most of the houses we have seen, this tower does not feature arched windows on the top story, but simply repeats the windows of the other floors, an oddity. There is an odd aspect to the windows; the second floor windows appear a bit too long. Often architects tried to vary the window height; in general the windows get smaller as one moves up the façade. In this house, however, they look to be the same size regardless. The rather ghastly porch is not original to the house, although I don't know if it originally had one.

 

The Kendall house follows the symmetrical plan, with a mansard roof added in 1873. Originally it had a shallow hip roof with a cupola. It was built for J. E. Kendall, a banker, in 1855. This house features shallow pedimented cornices above the tall windows and the front door has ear moldings. This house seems to have been jazzed up with a box window and cornice, which look from their size and elaboration to be Second Empire additions, although there's a possibility they could be original.

 

Taken separately, these houses are not particularly impressive. As a group, however, they provide interesting information about the simple and elegant tastes of Madison's early wealthy families and about the early parts of Kutzbock's career before he embraced the complexity of Rundbogenstil. They serve as the perfect foil for the later houses of how a few years and the growth of a city could radically change the freedom with which people personalized their homes.

The George Keenan House, Madison, WI

The George Keenan House, Madison, WI 1858 Shihmei Barger

Photo: Richard Hurd

Before you ask, let me say it: the mansard roof is a later addition of 1870. The house was originally built as an Italianate and seems to have an intact Italianate façade; the roof was simply altered to keep up with the Second Empire fashion. When looking at it, you just have to imagine the low hip roof that originally would have crowned it. There might also have been a cupola akin to the Pierce house. The reason I decided to post this house, which is a block from the Pierce house, is that it also manifests the marriage of Italianate and Rundbogenstil. The house was built in 1858 for Napoleon Van Slyke (there's a name!) who never lived in it. It is named after a famous surgeon who lived here in the early 20th century. The designer was August Kutzbock, the architect responsible for Madison's collection of Rundbogenstil designs. Unlike the wooden John Hill house and the sandstone Pierce house, this house is constructed of Milwaukee cream brick, a specialty of Wisconsin, and follows the symmetrical plan. In fact, aside from the sandstone highlights, the entire house, even the decorative balconies and cornice, is constructed of brick. The projection of the central front bay is common to this type, as we have seen. It might have originally had a gable above it. The paired tombstone windows are by now a familiar feature of Italianate design as is the grouping of the first floor windows by a common cornice. It somewhat resembles the window treatment of the Reddick house. Another telltale Italianate feature is the wooden awning that crowns the small door on the façade of the ell to the right of the house.

The house manifests Rundbogenstil in its cornice and impressive porches. The brick cornice is supported by a series of brick brackets that resemble the corbels and machicolations of Medieval castle architecture. This is set over a simple fringe of inverted crenellations that almost resemble dentils. The cornice switches to a simple dentilled design on the projecting section, which might be a later addition. The windows in classic Rundbogenstil manner are rounded, feature a Gothicized Venetian tracery, and are surrounded by sandstone hood moldings and capitals featuring inverted crenellations. The first floor windows have a similar treatment are on a slight projection crowned by a cornice. The central bay has bricks laid in a blind flat topped trefoil arch and a traditionally traceried window. The house has two impressive Romanesque porches. Each features sandstone turrets at the corners, setting off an undulating brick balustrade, an interesting design. The brick is laid so that projections resemble an odd abstraction of inverted crenellations. While the Pierce house seems to draw inspiration from Romanesque church architecture, the Keenan house definitely has a castle-like feeling, demonstrating that the same architect can draw from two very different idioms for the same type of house. Perhaps there was simply a desire to distinguish. The Keenan house, with its mansard that is actually quite well integrated and complementary to Kutzbock's design, is a unique testimony to Kutzbock's versatility.

The McDonnell-Pierce House, Madison, WI

The McDonell-Pierce House, Madison, WI 1857 Photo: Wikimedia

Photo Shihmei Barger

Continuing with the exploration of Rundbogenstil Italianate, this is probably the prime example I can think of and one of the most beautiful. This house in Madison, WI was built for Alexander McDonnell, the contractor for the state capitol designed in a similar Rundbogenstil manner; the architects were August Kutzbock and Samuel Donnel. Kutzbock, a German immigrant, might have inspired the adoption of Rundbogenstil design in this house, reflecting his Germanic past. Other buildings designed by him use this same type of ornamentation, and it is definitely a vernacular peculiarity of the Madison area. The house is situated in what was once one of Madison's most elegant neighborhoods, the aptly named Mansion Hill neighborhood. Later the house was owned by George Pierce an executive, after whose death it became like many great houses, a boarding house. Currently it is a boutique hotel, the Mansion Hill Inn, and it is beautifully preserved.

The house is a tour de force of design and elaboration. The house follows the pavilioned plan and is faced with Prairie du Chene sandstone from Wisconsin. Unlike some of the sandstone we have seen, this type is relatively monotonous in color and lack of veining. The house follows many of the principles of Rundbogenstil. The cornice and entablature are heavily layered. Beneath the cornice is a run of dentils, followed by paired inverted crenellations, a broad empty band, and finally a straight run of inverted crenellations. All the variety allows the cornice to be complex and avoid monotony. At the corners of the gables are large stone posts that hang off the walls, featuring floral ornaments at the top and bottom. This type of hanging post at a corner is a hallmark of sophisticated Rundbogenstil. All the windows feature Venetian tracery. The first floor consists primarily of bay windows, while the second floor has paired windows linked by a tall arched with a carved hood molding. The ends of the hood mold feature, again, paired inverted crenellations. The bay windows are uneven, the center window being double, the sides single; the employment of the Venetian tracery in the sides of the bay window is somewhat odd with the circle included over the single window. Raised stone quoins that link to a band in the entablature complete the effect. Being built on a slope, half of the house's basement is exposed, and the architect picked an odd trefoil motif for the windows and carving of this section, livening up what is otherwise the least elaborate section of most houses. The side facades also feature oddly elliptical quatrefoil windows in the gables.

Particularly Italianate about this house besides the massing and effect is the cupola. The cupola is elaborate, as many Midwestern cupolas are; it is unevenly octagonal and features almost Gothic strapwork surrounding the windows. The left side of the house features an elaborate two story iron porch, which echoes the iron porch in the center of the façade around the door and the railings over the bay windows. The railings and side porch are particularly thin and delicate in contrast to the heaviness of the palm columns and vines on the front porch. The painting of the porches and ironwork greenish blue is reflective of the historical coloration; the black color we associate with it today has come from darkening paint whose effect was continued by painting it black in subsequent repaintings. The door is flanked by niches, is arched, has vegetal carving in the spandrels, and features red glass cut to clear in the transom, displaying the richness of the design. The following images by various photographers (the house is certainly photogenic) illustrate some details.

 Photo: Jennifer Tharp

 

 Photo: Richard Hurd

 

Photo: Jennifer Tharp

Enlargement of Wikimedia photo above.

 

Photo: Jennifer Tharp

 

 Photos of the interior by Shihmei Barger.