The William Reddick House, Ottawa, IL

The William Reddick House, Ottawa, IL. 1858 Photo: Paul Kaiser

Photo: Wikimedia

The William Reddick house is the jewel of Ottawa, IL. Built in 1858 for Reddick, an Irish immigrant, philanthropist, politician, and businessman, the house on his death was left as a library to the city until it was restored as a house museum. It is located in the Washington Park historic district and both the mansion and Reddick figured in the Lincoln-Douglas debates that took place in the area. The architect was Peter Nicholson who started planning the house in 1855. The house is reportedly considered one of the most elaborate and expensive mid-19th century homes in the whole state of Illinois and remains a particularly significant example of the sophistication of Italianate architecture in the area.

The house follows the symmetrical plan, although its style is unconventional. The Reddick house features two polygonal bays connected by a porch (pictured above) on the east façade, mimicking the pavilion plan from that side, while the west façade has one polygonal bay. Interestingly, the bays intersect directly with the front façade, giving the house the appearance of having chamfered corners. The house's basement is unusually high with large windows, almost approaching the style of an English basement. The finish is brick with limestone trim.

Befitting its mid 19th century construction, the Reddick house is not overly ornamented. On the façade there are lateral and vertical distinctions. Vertical unity is enforced by the pairing of windows on the sides of the entrance. On the first floor, these are grouped into pairs by a solid block limestone facing that gives the effect of a box window although it is very shallow. This box window effect is continued by having the slight projection extend to the basement. The balcony on top completes the effect and ties the first and second story windows together. Limestone quoins at the corners also draw the eye upward. Laterally, the segmental arched windows in the basement are ensconced in a limestone base. The arched windows with Venetian tracery on the first floor are differentiated from the segmental paired windows on the second. The belt courses and cornice further develop the house's lateral focus.

The cornice itself is beautifully inset with alternating semicircular windows and semicircular panels with rosettes. An interesting feature is that the molding above the windows projects further than is usual and is decorated with panels flanking a central rosette, making this a paneled cornice. The porch and window surrounds, all of limestone, are also plain, notable because of their strong keystones, and, on the second floor, small, almost abstract foliage bosses. The brackets are on the two s-curve type. The front door, which is flanked by sidelights and has a lunette window above looks like a conservative throwback to Federal or Greek Revival design. The front steps with their terraced balustrade seem particularly calculated to appear grand and imposing. I like how Reddick and his architect didn't skimp on the decoration of the sides; it is consistent all around the house. The enlargements of the above photographs below highlight a couple details.

The house's website has a great deal of information including interior views and floor schematics.

The Thomas Jefferson Southard House, Richmond, ME

The Southard House, Richmond, ME. 1855 Photo: Taoab

 

The Thomas Jefferson Southard house, at Richmond, ME, was built in 1855 for one of the largest shipyard owners in Maine. Southard was also an important state politician and was a big developer in Richmond. He might have been the designer of the house, according to the HABS data pages, since he learned joining as a youth, but he also might have bought some plans. The house is considered one of Maine's most important Italianate homes and is built on an impressive scale. The Southard house follows the symmetrical plan and has clapboard siding with verge boards at the corners. The detailing and state of preservation are impressive. On the first floor, the window surrounds are plain enough, but a panel with flanking brackets support deep balconies for the segmental arched windows on the second floor that have rectangular eared moldings and cornices. The front door has the glass surround within an arch and a strong front porch with large brackets that might have a touch of the Indian about it. A unique feature of the door surround is the glass, which is painted elaborately with figures and rococo swirls. The central window on the second floor consists of two tombstone windows joined by a common arch, simulating the effect of Venetian tracery. The cornice has paired brackets and an interesting cut wooden fringe running underneath the eave. Other interesting features include the almost Gothic, pointed arch porch to the side which looks to have been glassed in and filled in at an early date, a beatuiful cupola with brackets and inverted brackets framing it at the corners, and a tent roof porch resting on brackets on the left facade. The following photographs from HABS show views of the house and interiors. 

 

 The interesting painted glass on the glass door surround.

 

 A view of the interesting wallpaper treatment in the library.

A view of the house when it was new.

The George R. Fairbanks House, Fernandina Beach, FL

The George Fairbanks House, Fernandina Beach, FL. 1885 Wikimedia

The Fairbanks house is a late Italianate, built in 1885, very late in the career of this style. Apparently, George built it for his wife as a surprise and she was not amused. Perhaps it was because he had built her a house 5 years out of date stylistically (she could never have her 'artistic home' she read about in contemporary publications), or perhaps nothing pleased Mrs. Faribanks (Victorian women could be a bit high strung). At any rate, the house is currently a bed and breakfast; check out their website. There are some good interior photos, which show how the interior is an odd mishmash of Renaissance Revival, Queen Ann, and even Arts and Crafts elements.

The house is an irregular plan Italianate, a plan which had by this time gotten a lot of mileage. In this case, the projecting pavilion is flush with the tower, although a board defines the tower from the pavilion, keeping the elements in their place. Stylistically, the house actually looks like it was built in the 1850s. It is sided in wood, and the ornamentation is kept to a minimum. The cornice is simple, with plan brackets and an architrave molding. The windows have simple moldings, although the balcony attached to the double tombstone window is a neat flourish. The pediments on the doubled windows on the left side is also a bit of spice. The porch has heavy, very Italian looking arches framed by pilasters. At the entrance, the arches form a triple arched Palladian window, a very American feature. Even the side porch incorporates the Palladian motif. It seems very appropriate to Florida to emphasize porches and balconies; at the beach everyone wants to be outside. Unlike the usual triple windows, the tower top has quadruple arched windows, no doubt to allow a better panorama. Although the house is Italianate, it has not escape the influence of Queen Ann. The box window over the entrance, especially the type of windows it has with heavy dividers, are very Queen Ann in style, as are the railings and the elaborate brickwork on the chimney. The double height box windows at the sides also smack of Queen Ann, and look more like San Francisco architecture than that of the East Coast. I suppose though that they participate in the eccentricity of shore architecture. A cute feature is the little dormer window in the hip roof. If someone built this for me, I wouldn't complain!

The Oliver Ames Jr. House, Easton, MA

The Oliver Ames Jr. House, Easton, MA. 1862 Photo: Joel Abroad

The Ames house in Easton, MA, was built by Oliver Ames Jr. a member of a prominent local family who owned a shovel factory and was involved in the Union Pacific Railroad. It was designed by George Snell, an English architect who opened a firm in Boston in 1850. The house is clapboarded with wooden corner quoins and follows the symmetrical plan. It certainly reflects Ames' family stature in Easton. The house has several fancy features. On the first floor, the window hood moldings are typical bracket and cornice types; a wooden belt course separates the first and second floors. On the second floor, the windows are segmental arched with brackets, pediments, and carved doodads inside the pediments (people loved their carved doodads). One odd aspect is the tiny sills on the windows, which look almost comically undersized. The main porch is very deep with square columns with chamfered corners. It looks like it could be a port cochere. The central window on the front and side facades are double tombstone windows with a fantastic curving pediment over them that curves from the corners to a point. This shape almost looks Eastern European baroque, but can be found in Italianate houses, even though it's decidedly un-Italian. The cornice has paired brackets and is simple, with a thick architrave board and a panel, making it a paneled cornice. A central pediment breaks the cornice and has a small fanlight window.

A neat feature of the house is how the side facade is so well finished. It has a projecting central bay that echoes the central bay on the front (except it has a bay window). The stunning feature of the house is the cupola. The cupola has brackets and inverted brackets at the corners, giving it a flowing, almost exotic, look. Elaborate carvings top the triple arched windows. The hip roof curves up to an attachment at the center which serves as the base for the finial. It has pediments on four sides. This looks a bit pagoda like, since the roof moves up in stages. It's a wonderful cupola that rounds of an interesting house. Images of the lovely interior can be found here.

40 Main Street, Walpole, NH

40 Main St. Walpole, NH. 1860s? Photo: Doug Kerr

This Italianate in Walpole is at 40 Main St and it currently serves as law offices. and I am guessing it was built in the 1860s because of its style, although New Hampshire tends to be conservative architecturally. It follows the symmetrical plan and has flushboard siding, which simulates plastering. The design is simple but elegant. The windows have simple cornice and bracket hood moldings with fancy decorated brackets; the central segemental arched window has a curved cornice above it, delineating the central bay from the sides. The porch is a lovely composition with a shallow arch supported by Corinthian columns with s-curve brackets that have finials. In a way, the brackets remind me of those found on Indian Italianates, with their vegetal finials and elongated appearance. The door is also segmental arched and the molding that divides its side lights and transom is also curved along with the arch, a nice feature. The cornice has a defined frieze and paired brackets with small frieze windows. What really catches my eye in this house is the cupola, which is one of my favorite types. The cupola cornice on the four sides curves along with the central window, creating an undulation in the line, something I have a real weakness for. The cupola's high base is also neat because it makes it more visually dominant, unlike the cupolas which you can barely seen above the roof. The cupola windows have unusual Venetian tracery, something that is more commonly seen on facade windows.

The Benjamin Franklin Webster House, Portsmouth, NH

Benjamin Franklin Webster House, Portsmouth, NH. 1880 Photo: Patti Gravel

Benjamin Franklin Webster was a prominent builder in Portsmouth, NH, a city famous for its colonial architecture, who was responsible for many Victorian buildings in the area. This impressive structure is his own house that he designed for himself and his wife in 1880. The house is well preserved and is owned by a funeral home that is committed to preserving the beauty of the home (kudos to them!). The house follows the irregular plan, an appropriate choice for a house built on such a grand scale. The plan is not exactly followed, since the recessed wing has one extra bay than usual, and the tower is far higher than usual. The skill of Webster can be seen, however, in that the lengthening of the facade is balanced out by the heightening of the tower. Overall, the house is flushboarded, an impressive treatment for an entire facade.

The late date is no doubt responsible for some of the elaboration of details, which strongly reflect the designs of the 1870s. Everywhere on the house, the careful thought of an architect is evident in the fine and sometimes unique details. The window hood moldings have pediments on shelves supported by carved brackets with a strip of dentil molding. The pediments alternate between simple triangular ones and round ones which are broken by a keystone. An unusual feature is that beneath the porch, the windows have no moldings, but instead have long brackets helping to support the roof, an interesting and no doubt practical feature. The corners of the house have wooden quoins. The porch itself, supported on a lovely stone and wood base, has arched openings, somewhat odd Corinthian capitals, and brackets. It bows around the Renaissance Revival front door at the base of the tower. The cornice has the unique feature of having groups of triple brackets, with a long bracket flanked by two smaller ones. Dentils and a frieze of rosettes enliven the design.

The tower is a particularly beautiful design. It has pairs of windows going all the way to the top, eschewing the expected arched windows or triple windows on the stop stage that are usually found. The treatment of the paired windows is elaborate, with pilasters and wooden fringe defining them. Above the third stage of the tower, it transitions from being a square to an octagon with chamfered corners. This is handled with beautiful curved scrollwork that responds to the shape's transition. The octagonal top stage has windows on four sides with the intervening sides blind with arched panels. The whole is topped with an elegant balustrade. In every way, the home is fantastically preserved, and shows the careful thoughts of a designer rather than a builder.

 The bracketed windows under the porch.

The Edward Payson Ferry House, Grand Haven, MI

The Edward Ferry House, Grand Haven, MI. 1872 Photo: Ed Post

The Edward Ferry house in Grand Haven is a breathtaking example of the elaboration (some might say monstrification) of architectural forms in the 1870s. Built in 1872, it follows a traditional side hall plan, with clapboards, but the simplicity of the plan is made up for in details. The window molds are particularly zany. The windows themselves are shallowly arched, but are surrounded by a flat topped trefoil molding surounted by a pediment with shelves. This is further modified by turnings, decorated keystones, incised designs, and s-curves to give it an eared shape.The cornice is even interrupted by the pediments that jut into the frieze. The cornice as well is complex, with elaborate brackets, hexagonal windows and panels, and a unique feature, an overhanging fringe with incised decoration. The fringe, contrary to what we've seen, does not come at the architrave below the frieze, but is set on the upper part of the frieze. Thus, the cornice is paneled with a fringe band. The side has another interesting feature, an elliptical window with a pediment above it, a rarity in Italianate design. The steps are an unfortunate addition, which could have occured sometime in the earlier 20th century. I imagine that originally, there was a flight of stone steps with some over the top balustrade that echoed the fun of the house. It is currently a vacation rental property and bed and breakfast. The site of the house has some interior pictures.