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.


The David Q. Liggett House, Wooster, OH

The David Q. Liggett House, Wooster, OH. 1861 Photos: Wikimedia

The David Q. Liggett house, which goes by a variety of names based on those of different owners, was built in 1861 for a significant merchant in the town. It follows the irregular plan, but since the recessed wing is so short (only one bay) it gives the impression of following the rotated side tower plan. The house seems to have been altered by successive owners who added in the late 19th or early 20th century a Colonial Revival porch and glassed in vestibule. You can see from how this wraparound porch marrs the facade how troublesome it is to mix architectural vocabularies. Still it has a bit of charm, like a sock thats been mended with many colorful patches. A large and exuberant Second Empire addition seems to be attached at the back. The strapwork adorning the facade is also probably an older addition, suggesting the influence of the Stick Style or Queen Anne. Still the house retains most of its Italianate features. The design of the facade is simple enough, with plain molded surrounds adorning the windows which are jazzed up a bit on the round arched window on the tower. I'd guess that if the strapwork is not original, the house was brick or stuccoed. The cornice again is plain with double s-curve brackets and an architrave molding; the cornice continues around the tower with a particularly large roof, making it seem like the tower is stuck on the roof rather than an independent entity. The tower is a particularly cool example. It has double tombstone windows with thick moldings. Instead of the usual hip roof, though, it has a sharply angled hip roof with a small monitor with semi-circular windows topped by an iron cresting. This is a lovely little feature that makes some steps toward Second Empire without embracing the mansard roof. Although the house is well painted, I do think the pink a bit much. After all, who really wants to live in a doll house?

The William Judd Mix House, Oregon, IL

The William Judd Mix House, Oregon, IL. 1874 Photo: Teemu008

The William Judd Mix house in Oregon, IL was built in 1874 for Mix, a store owner and merchant, and is a lovely example of Illinois Italianate design. It is currently a bed and breakfast. It follows the rotated side tower plan, an interesting variant on the general Italianate plan types with the tower and a projecting pavilion taking up the front facade. The facade is brick with what looks like limestone detailing that forms the simple window hoods. The windows show a variety of shapes, though double tombstone windows seem to predominate. The variation in the bay window on the front, with two round headed windows flanking a window with filleted corners (a very big feature of the 1870s) is particularly nice. The cornice, which is of the paneled type has double s-curve brackets and dentil moldings. I like the front door surround, which is wood and features an interesting little semicircle in the center of the molding. The tower facade itself has a recessed blind arch in the brickwork, which adds some distinction to that element of the facade. The tower's upper stage has unusually two pairs of double tombstone windows set in rectangular frames, a nice feature, with moldings forming pilasters between them; a tall finial completes the vertical thrust found in this type of plan. There is an interesting side porch to the right that seems to be Gothic, with four point arches. A final note, the house has a more steeply pitched hip roof; this seems to be a feature of Illinois houses of the 1870s.

 

The Nelson Stillman House, Galena, IL

The Nelson Stillman House, Galena, IL 1858 Photo: Richie Diesterheft

Photo: SD Dirk

This is a truly impressive house in a town of impressive homes. The Nelson Stillman house was built in 1858 by a successful grocer. After serving as a nursing home, it is now the Stillman Inn, a bed and breakfast whose owners have restored missing original features of the house and have taken excellent care of the property. As far as the plan goes, it is a typical irregular plan house with brick facing and a simple architrave and bracket cornice. The unique design features of this house are what really set it apart from the usual. First, the most noticeable feature is the tower. Unlike the traditional Italianate tower, this one has a strong ogee shaped gable on all four sides, a feature which is rarely seen (Norwich, CT has some similar towers). The ogee has no brackets, perhaps because they were just too hard to cut. It covers a double tombstone window topped by a round window. As if the tower gables weren't enough, an octagonal, almost Federal, cupola tops the tower with an open platform for viewing the surrounding countryside from the hill on which the house sits. I am not sure I have seen an open cupola like this on an Italianate, and I find it rather pleasing, even if it interacts a bid oddly with the ogee. Two other features catch my eye. First is the fact that all the windows on the front of the house are double (one is triple) and covered with wooden awnings with fringes, that make the house look rather festive. The tent shape to the awnings echoes the curves on the cupola roof and the tower gable nicely. Third is the porch, which, although it seems standard enough, has odd bits of jigsaw work hanging down from the cornice over the brackets. This is a bit of whimsy that is almost Steamboat Gothic in its inspiration and fun. It again adds curves into the house's design, giving the porch cornice a sort of undulation. The sides of the house are much plainer, keeping with the Victorian spirit of thrift which always seemed at war with their desire for display.

Photo: Eric Olson

The Daniel Barrows House, Galena, IL

The Daniel Barrows House, Galena, IL 1858-9 Photo: sfgamchick

Galena, IL is one of the best preserved Victorian towns in the US. It's charming streets and wonderfully preserved architecture make it a prime spot to look at interesting homes. The Daniel Barrows house was built in 1858-1859 for a local merchant in a variety of concerns. It later became an Odd Fellows hall and in 1938 was sold to the city of Galena for use as a museum, a use it retains to this day. The house is of a simple but grand design, following the symmetrical plan and faced in brick with wooden accents. The central bay is distinguished by a deep projection and pilasters laid in the brickwork. Each of the windows on the facade has a classical pediment, and the sparseness of ornament on the windows gives it a slightly Greek revival air. Federal design is present in the shallow curve of the transom over the door. A town like Galena in the relatively new state of Illinois was bound to be a bit behind the times! The cornice features a full classical architrave and frieze with double s-curve brackets. Within the central pediment, there is an interesting wooden fringe that further defines the central bay. Another interesting feature is the broad patio which runs along the front of the house and curves gracefully around the porch; the woodwork on which it sits is a particularly fine example of the jigsaw. The chimneys look like they have some interesting blind arches in the brickwork. I do wish that the wood of the cornice were painted to match the porch and window pediments. I am not sure whether this is historical coloring or not, but it seems to me like mid-19th century owners would have wanted it painted to look like uniform brownstone trim!

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.