The Daniel Bright Miller House, Lewisburg, PA

Miller House, Lewisburg, PA. 1860s All Photos: Lewisburg Architecture Project

This fine home was built by Daniel Bright Miller, a professor at Bucknell in the 1860s. It is now called Cooley Hall and houses college departments. The house is of the central tower type and makes a very grand impression with all of its heavy detailing, brick and stone, and massing. The facade is fine brick with stone quoins and hood moldings. The first floor features segmental arched windows with hood moldings on brackets conforming to the arch curve; same with the front door, which unexpectedly lacks a porch (is one missing or was it always that way? The second floor has rectangular windows with sharply filleted corners with a triple arched Palladian window in the central tower bay. The third bracketed floor is generous and larger than typical, with arched windows between extremely long double s scroll brackets making it an arched cornice type. Again, the central tower has paired arched windows. Finally the top stage of the tower, separated by a small cornice has paired brackets, double windows with Venetian tracery and carved wooden quoins. The house shows some exact similarities to the Marsh house, the last entry. The top of the tower matches the Marsh cupola; both houses use quoins and rustication; both have a bay window equally located on the side and do not continue the brackets on the side facade. Both feature paired windows with tracery in the side gable and a similar long, finished wing extending out the back. Both also have a triple arched Palladian window in the second floor. These are far too many coincidences and suggest that the same designer designed both.

The William Loftland House and the William D. Baker House, Philadelphia, PA

The William D. Lofland House, Philadelphia, PA. 1854

The 1854, William Lofland house, 4100 Pine St at the corner of 41st, is perhaps one of my favorite houses in Philadelphia. In this building, Sloan created a unique profile perhaps based on Design 9, although many of Sloan's designs feature central gabled towers as a feature. I'm going to call it a central tower design. All of these, however, have a central entrance, while in this house, the entrance has been shifted to the left of the tower. Unfortunately, the destruction of the right hand side of the house doesn't do us any favors in understanding its original appearance. The size would indicate a double house, but the information in Sloan's work doesn't show that this was constructed as a double, making it one of West Philadelphia's more substantial private villas. It was a speculative design for Lofland.

Starting at the central tower block, Sloan has a three story element that has a fine bay window on the first floor topped by an impressive three bay iron porch, a rather unique feature. The left hand of the front façade features the arched entrance and another delicate iron porch with its original tent roof. The side façade uniquely has a wing with a small tower in the rear. This is strange, since towers are usually presented as a dominant feature on the design and rarely placed in the back of a house. Details include a straightforward stucco finish and mostly rectangular windows (arches are only used on special features like the bay window and tower) topped with Greek Revival anthemia. There is no strong architrave, and the brackets used on the main façade are unexpectedly small s curve types. Larger brackets are employed on the rear tower. Note the decorative chimneys as well, a particularly picturesque detail. I really hope someone decides to fix this house up and restore it. It's one of the most interesting Italianates in all of West Philadelphia and is remarkable for its surviving details. Plus, with the large wall around the property (maybe later) and its studied asymmetry, it looks more like its rustic Italian precedents than many examples of the style.

Of the same period are probably two other Sloan-style (they can't be fully attributed to him, but the ascription is extremely likely) buildings on 40th Street between Pine and Baltimore Ave. These probably also date from the early 1850s and are contemporary with the rest of the area's development.

The first is an interesting series of four row houses. The shallow central gables and those over the doors fit in very closely with Sloan's style, as does the style of the brackets (matching those on the central house on Pine Street, the finish, and the brownstone quoins on the corners. Like other Sloan doubles we have seen, Sloan has worked hard here to create a composition that doesn't simply look like a blocky row of individual houses, but strives to create a unified single building out of several dwellings.

The second is an interesting building that seems to consist of several houses. It may have been built as a double and later altered for commercial uses, as this was primarily a residential neighborhood and interestingly navigates its odd trapezoidal lot. It looks like a rather gussied up version of MA Design 8 with its central, three-story tower flanked by two story sections. In this case, the tombstone windows on the sides would be consistent with Design 8, and the original first story would have had paired rectangular windows with a shared entrance in the central block. Differences consist of the treatment of the central section (modified for a double house) and the engaged pediments on the side pavilions.

The William D. Baker house, Philadlphia, PA. 1854.

There seems to be a bit of confusion about who the house at 4207 Walnut was built for. Cooledge says William D. Baker, but others Judge Allison. It's slightly confusing because Sloan built about five houses in this area all in 1854 for several different clients, and the descriptions are not entirely clear in determining which is which. The house is currently the Walnut Hill Culinary School. It's an impressive size symmetrical plan house (it could also be labelled a five bay plan) with a strong severity in the design. The most intriguing feature of the design are the recessed panels that define the bays, a treatment Sloan explored in MA Design 20, though the house follows roughly MA Design 36. The design is spare in its details with simple moldings (on the second floor with anthemia, as seen on the Alpha Psi house on Pine). The entablature is elongated with an architrave molding running below third floor windows with panels and pilasters in the central three bays; the brackets are again very diminutive here. The porch, in contrast to the massiveness of the house is surprisingly wiry, and to the right is an odd little wing with tombstone windows and an archway, the function of which is rather unclear. Had the neighboring house not been demolished, it might be clearer.

Some of the remnants of Sloan's other houses in the area survive.

Others have been demolished.

4045 Walnut

4203 Walnut (Comegy House) c. 1860

The John Hardy House, Newcomerstown, OH

The John Hardy House, Newcomerstown, OH. 1874 Photo: scottamus

The John Hardy house in Newcomerstown (quite the town name!), built in 1874 was lovingly restored after a fire that require much of the interior to be restored, but it nonetheless has all of its amazing details and grandeur thanks to its invested owners (who by the way seem to have a lot of plants). The house, although in a small town, would fit in in any urban community with its grand central tower plan. Executed in brick, the trim of the windows and door is stone, and the owners have appropriately painted the wooden trim to match and simulate the stone. Score one for historic paint schemes! The windows alternate in style; the main facade windows are segmental arched with pedimented hood moldings, while the windows on each distinctive feature (bay window and tower) are round headed with Venetian tracery. A similar variation between body and tower can be found in the cornices, with a regular paneled cornice and brackets (s-curve) on the body and a more high style dentil cornice on the tower. The top stage of the tower itself has impressive engaged pediments with a heavy paneled cornice and a cluster of three arched windows (a constant nod to Romanesque bell towers). Two of the features on this house are particularly impressive. First is the door surround, a very urban looking stone door with pilasters, entablature, and an engaged round pediment, similar to those we saw on the Hauck house in Cincinnati, although it is perhaps a little bit less ornamented. Second is the amazing lacy ironwork at the top of the tower. Though most Italianates with towers have, or had, some sort of finial on the tower, this house has a cascade of thin wrought iron in rococo rocailles and fantastic blossoms that make me think of some vine growing on the house. Not only is this uncommon, but it is extremely rare that it survived and allows us to view how people in the country could come up with designs that have whimsy and uniqueness.

The Millar-Wheeler House, Utica, NY

The Millar-Wheeler House, Utica, NY. 1866

Photo: Wikimedia

The Millar-Wheeler house is a spectacular Italianate on Genesee Street in Utica built in 1866. Following the increasing trend for elaboration found in the 1860s and 1870s, the house displays an interesting combination of complex ornament and simplicity in wall treatment. The house is a symmetrical plan Italianate, but it verges on the central tower plan because the cupola has been pushed to the front of the house and simulates a tower because the central bay slightly projects. The treatment of the windows is simple, with plain window molding surrounds topped by pediments.

The real treat on this house is the carpentry. The porch construction is particularly eye-catching. The porch itself around the arched door features not only paneled columns, but an elaborate dentilled and bracketed cornice, and an interesting open arch spanning the interior of the porch arches. Above is a five bay, half octagonal, sengmental arched window that shows the same elaborate ornament. In all cases, the design features turnings and cut out designs (fleur de lys, cartouches, quatrefoils) that create the built-up, carved look seen on a lot of houses in the 60s. The cupola itself continues the elaborate design with tombstone windows, Corinthian pilasters, and thick brackets. Small embedded pediments are on each side of the tower cornice. The main cornice of the house, which has s curve brackets, is of the horizontal type but there is an interesting feature where the third floor windows that are in the entablature are flanked by brackets and have a free floating fringe hanging over them, like a truncated wooden awning. There is also a simple side porch on the left hand facade. The house is currently a bed and breakfast called Rosemont Inn, and pictures of some of the interior can be found here.

'Nuits', the Francois Cottenet House, Irvington, NY

'Nuits', Irvington, NY. 1852 Photos: Wikimedia

'Nuits' is an impressive early Italianate mansion overlooking the Hudson River Valley in Irvington, NY, a city full of impressive homes. It was part of the push in the early and mid 19th century to construct elaborate showplace estates on the river to both take advantage of the impressive views and the company offered by the artists, businessmen, and writers who had country homes in the area. It was designed by the German architect Detlef Lienau for Francois Cottenet, a French immigrant to the US.

The house is a highly unique example of Italianate design, and its plan is complicated and expansive. It is in general an example of the central tower plan with a strongly projecting tower bisecting a narrow three story block. This central block, while it gives the appearance of symmetry soon dissolves from the sides into a mass of asymmetrical projections, bays, and corridors. As can be seen on the plan below, the house is a series of intersecting cubes, which seem placed where they seemed most conducive to interior planning rather than exterior symmetry. Whoever said function followed form in historic design? Indeed, the house does seem like some fantastic cubist sculpture, and must have seemed striking to 19th century steamboat passengers.

Unlike many Italianates, Nuits is actually built of stone. Apparently Cottenet had no problems with importing expensive Caen stone for his house. Decoratively, the house is in line with the severity characteristic of Italianate designs of the 1850s: spare walls and light colors only relieved by porches and around the windows. The entablature is only marked by a slight projection in the stone and rafter brackets. At Nuits, the windows are liberally supplied with Juliette balconies, wooden tent roofed awnings, and even a tent roof box window. The front itself has a few interesting features in that the windows flanking the tower are actually triple segmental arched windows, and the archway surrounding the main door is rusticated (the seams between stone courses are emphasized). Very simple, spindly porches are liberally supplied around the main block. A large conservatory was added in the 1860s, a unique survivor.

The house is still a private home and seems to have had a pool added behind the billiard room. Recent pictures of the front and of one of the interiors can be found online.

'Blandwood', the Charles Bland House, Greensboro, NC

Blandwood, Greensboro, NC. 1844

Continuing my exploration of some early Italianate houses, Blandwood in Greensboro is one of the nation's oldest Italianate homes, and it's spare design reflects the simplicity of many early Italianate houses. Begun as an 18th century farmhouse (the four room plan of which can be seen below), the home reached its current design in 1844 under the aegis of none other than Alexander Jackson Davis, the man who introduced Italianate design to America. Davis altered the house for James Moorehead by creating a new wing connected to the original house by a central hall and adding Italianate details, such as the arched entryway, central tower, plaster exterior, and rafter brackets, which are characteristic of most early Italianates. The lack of cornice ornamentation is also typical of an early design. The facade is of the symmetrical and central tower type, and unusual for this kind of design the tower projects dramatically from the facade and is not relieved by side porches. The overall effect is severity at its extreme.

Atypical for an Italianate house, this building lacks the usual play of round and flat headed windows that are usually found in towers. Similarly, the small size of the second floor windows is uncommon. The house also creates a strong sense of formality by the connection of the kitchen and side buildings with segmental arched arcades and simple pilasters. A folly like this is more common in English formal design than American. The interiors are well preserved, since the house was saved from demolition and now operates as a museum. A couple images below, selected from the NCSU page on the house, illustrate the elaborate interiors in their pre-restored state. Blandwood is a rare survivor of a fascinating early page in the history of Italianate design in America. 

Following Photos: NCSU

The Harvey Howard House, Wooster, OH

The Harvey Howard House, Wooster, OH. 1860 Photo: Wikimedia

Photo: Wayne County Historical Soc.

Sorry to have been so remiss in August! It was a busy month.

This house is somewhat difficult to classify. Although it appears to follow the five bay plan it could also be classified as a central tower plan because of how deep the projection is from the central facade. I think I'm going to stick with the latter designation. Harvey Howard, a druggist, built this house around 1860, but it is more famous for James B. Taylor, Civil War commander, living here from the 1880s. At the turn of the century, it became Wooster's first hospital. The house has a stark brick facde with simple stone moldings. On the first floor these have a very Greek Revival impression, being simple "labels", or flat stone pieces inset above the window. On the second floor are arched windows with 'drip moldings'. The unique features of this house are the projecting central bay which forms a porch with a triple arched Palladian opening. Above that are double tombstone windows with an wooden awning. One would usually expect a Juliette balcony below this, though it looks like there never was one. Very strange. The cornice as well is unique with Greek Revival vines applied within the frieze between the brackets, which fancy up an otherwise plain facade. Given the odd Greek Revival elements, the house has a very transitional feel to it. Large windows pierce the cornice on the sides, but I feel these are a later addition as they are both asymmetrical and bizarre protrusions into the design. The house has a strange feel, like a building with a lot of elements that don't seem to really reach their full conclusion. No tower, but a tower projection, a wooden awning but no balcony. Still, it's an interesting design that embodies Ohio's Western Reserve's conservative New England tastes.


Two Faces: The John Dorrance House, Bristol, PA

The John Dorrace House, Bristol, PA. 1862-3 Photo: Wikimedia

The back of the house. Photo: Wikimedia

The John Dorrance house is Bristol has two faces. From the street it looks like a normal, even sober, Italianate symmetrical plan villa, but from the back it displays a cascade of porches and a bizarre tower following the central tower plan. This house is one of my favorites because of the way it plays with surprise, its eccentricity, and its strange but beautiful detail. Built in 1862-3 for a mill owner, it remained in the family until 1921, when the Knights of Columbus bought the house. Currently a private home, it has many of its original features. It is also one of Bristol's only examples of Italianate architecture.

The front facade is symmetrical with a central gable and brick and sandstone facing. The house emulates grand Italianate mansions in its spare detail. The window surrounds are plain moldings, and the door is also a traditional classical design, similar to some we have seen in Providence, with pilasters and entablature over an arched door. Above the door is the triple arched Palladian window, which is a particularly Italianate shape. The lack of a front porch is strange, since this family seemed to love indulging in porches. Belt courses separate each floor, and the corners of the first and second floor have quoins. The lack of quoins on the third floor suggests that the molding served as an architrave for the frieze into which the windows are set, but it is strange that it does not follow the angle of the gable. The paired square, rather than arched windows, in the frieze is another eccentricity that is rarely seen. The sides follow the main facade and have triple Greek Revival style windows.

The back, which faces the river, is an impressive sight. Because the house is built into a slope, the basement is a full exposed story from the back. The entire facade is covered by porches; on the first and second floors, the porches have arches, but on the basement there are simply posts and a flat lintel.   The porch is appropriately painted to harmonize with the sandstone trim. The porches are divided into two separate groups because the central bay has a three story arched window that runs the full height of the tower where a circular staircase is located that connects all the floors. The arch of the window is repeated in the arch of the roof of the porch. Because it accommodates an elliptical stair, the tower is also elliptical with three arched windows on each side. My friend on seeing this house remarked how much it looks like a 19th century steamboat and he's right, especially given its setting on the water. I love this house because it embodies all the zaniness and Italianate can do, strange porches, innovative shapes, surprise, and complex design.