Victorian Houses

Richard P. Spencer House – Deep River Public Library // 1881

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The finest extant Queen Anne Victorian-era house in the town of Deep River, Connecticut, is located on Main Street and since the 1930s, has been home to the town’s public library! How’s that for adaptive reuse?! This residence was built in 1881 for Richard Pratt Spencer (1820-1910), a local prominent businessman who lived to be 90 years old. Spencer lived here with his second wife, Juliana Selden, who was 32 years his junior, and three children until his death in 1910. When Spencer’s widow died in 1932, the heirs sold the property to the Saybrook Library Association (before the town renamed Deep River in 1947), which then, in turn, sold the building to the town for a small price in order to convert it into a library. Opened to the public in 1931, the Deep River Public Library has been preserved inside and out with historic fireplaces, woodwork, and features. The only notable change occured in 1995 when a children’s room addition was built to resemble an old porch. The library even retains the original pebbledash finish in the gables, a rare detail not commonly found in typical old houses of the period.



Isaac Rich House // 1846

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The Lindens neighborhood, located just east of the civic and commercial core of Brookline Village, was long an apple and cherry orchard known as Holden Farm. Beginning in 1843, the area became the earliest planned development in the town and was laid out as a “garden suburb” for those wishing to escape the growing congestion of Boston. As originally conceived in 1843, it reflected the latest ideals of planned residential development for a semi-rural setting on land owned by Thomas Aspinwall Davis. The streets, parks, and house lots here were laid out by civil engineer, Alexander Wadsworth, who two years earlier, laid out plans for Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, the first “Rural Cemetery” in America. Early homes were built on speculation by John F. Edwards, an architect-builder, for Davis, who was strict about high-quality designs in the Greek and Gothic revival styles in his newly laid out neighborhood. This house on Linden Street was built in 1846 in the Greek Revival style and was purchased upon completion by Isaac Rich. Isaac Rich (1801-1872) was a prominent merchant and philanthropist and founder of Boston University. The house was modernized in the 1860s with the addition of a mansard roof and paired windows.

George Risley House // c.1870

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This unique residence in Wayland, Massachusetts, is tucked away on Corman’s Lane, a dead-end street near Snake Brook, a small stream leading into Lake Cochituate. The house was built around 1870 for George William Risley (1836-1913), a shoe manufacturer and Civil War veteran who settled in Cochituate Village and ran a factory there. Risley was active in town affairs and served as Selectman in 1872, the year in which the annual meeting authorized the selectmen to petition the General Court for Cochituate to separate from Wayland. The petition was ultimately never was filed and Cochituate remains a part of Wayland. The Risley House has five bays and a shallow side gable roof with broad, overhanging eaves supported by brackets. A central porch runs along part of the facade and has intricate turned posts and spindlework. The home remains in great shape and is evocative of mid-late 19th century industrial housing built for factory managers.

James H. Small House // c.1898

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After the completion of the Wayland Railroad Depot in 1881, suburban development in Wayland Center increased, where the village saw dozens of large homes built in the late 19th and early 20th century. On Bow Road, the James H. Small House was built around 1898 by and for its namesake, who worked as a carpenter and builder in town. James Henry Small (1847-1913), while not a trained architect, built this home as a late example of the Queen Anne style, as the Colonial Revival style began to proliferate in the village, showing a changing of architectural taste. The James Small House consists of a main gable-front block with a side wing that includes a square tower. The use of clapboards, differing shingles, and diagonal sticks provide variety and texture to the house and serves as a unique contribution to the village which is largely dominated by rigid symmetry and vernacular of Colonial-era homes.

Dr. Albert Phillips House // c.1875

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Dr. Albert W. Phillips (1838-1929) was born in Marcellus, New York, the son of immigrant parents from England. He studied medicine in the Midwest and later opened a medical practice in Rockport, Illinois, but in response to President Lincoln’s first call for volunteers, he returned to New York and enlisted as a private in the Union cause. He served as assistant surgeon with the 149th N. Y. Volunteers, where he saw action in many battles, including at Gettysburg. After the war, Dr. Phillips moved to the rapidly developing industrial city of Derby, Connecticut, where he opened a family practice. By the 1870s, he built this Stick style residence on Caroline Street. While working as a doctor of great esteem, Dr. Phillips was elected as the fifth mayor of Derby in 1901 and in 1903, was elected as a state senator.His home on Caroline Street in Derby maintains its unique entry porch and trusswork in the gables.

John E. Thayer Mansion // 1883

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Photo from real estate listing.

A lesser-known residence built for a member of the wealthy Thayer Family is this stately Queen Anne mansion tucked away in South Lancaster, Massachusetts. The John E. Thayer Mansion was built in the 1880s for its namesake, John Eliot Thayer (1862-1933), who graduated from Harvard College in 1885 and engaged in business before becoming one of the world’s most prominent ornithologists. John began collecting and housed his collections in several wooden buildings close to his home in Lancaster, but when these became unsafe and crowded he built a beautiful brick building in 1903 nearby, opening it to the public as a museum a year later. John Thayer hired esteemed Boston architect, John Hubbard Sturgis, who was then working with his nephew, Richard Clipston Sturgis, to design the English Queen Anne style country mansion. The residence features a stone first floor with wood-frame above that is given half-timbering treatment, suggesting the English design. John Thayer’s country mansion was a short walk away from his twin brother, Bayard Thayer’s mansion, and his other brother, Eugene’s country house, both in Lancaster. The house remained in the Thayer family until the 1960s, and was recently sold to new owners. The interiors are some of the best preserved for a country estate I have seen and worthy of the Thayer name. 

Fairlawn Mansion // 1883

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One of the great mansions built for the wealthy Thayer Family, “Fairlawn” stands as one of the finest Gilded Age homes in Lancaster, Massachusetts. This home was built for Eugene Van Renssalear Thayer (1855-1907), a financier and businessman, and his wife, Susan Spring Thayer. The gracious Richardsonianeque Shingle style house was designed by the Boston architectural firm of Andrews & Jacques as one of their first commissions after leaving the office of H. H. Richardson to establish their own practice. After the deaths of Eugene and Susan, the property was inherited by Susan Thayer Bigelow, the youngest daughter of the couple, and her husband, architect, Henry Forbes Bigelow. Under the ownership of Henry and Susan Bigelow, a massive renovation occurred, where Henry F. Bigelow oversaw in 1923, the removal of the south wing of the house, which was relocated to the south and became a detached residence, painted the brown-stained shingles white, and removed the Richardsonian arches to create a 20th century country house more in the Tudor Revival mode. From 1965, the property was owned by the former Atlantic Union College, and was colloquially known as the White House, but has since been sold to private owners. The former south wing, now a detached house, is under separate ownership. 

Detached portion of original house.

Solon Wilder House // 1883

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On Main Street in the central village of Lancaster, Massachusetts, the Solon Wilder House stands as one of the town’s finest Victorian-era residences. The house dates to 1883 and was built for Solon Wilder (1828-1889) and his wife, Olive. Mr. Wilder ran a store and served as town treasurer, doing well enough financially to build this handsome, and modern house and rear stable for the time. The Stick style house features a porch with cut woodwork, decorative trusses in gables, and wooden wall cladding interrupted by “stickwork” patterns raised from the wall surface that is meant to symbolize the structural skeleton of the home.

Robbins House // c.1850

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Originally built in the 1840s or 1850s, this stunning house on Main Street in Chester, Vermont, was “Victorianized” in the late 19th century through applied ornament, a tower, and porches. Historic maps show that this house was owned by Cyrus Robbins and his wife, who likely had the residence built in a vernacular example of the Greek Revival style, with a 2 1/2-story form with gable roof oriented towards the street. The corner pilasters remain as do the original facade windows with five on the first floor, three on the second, and a single window in the upper floor. By the late 1800s, the house was modernized with the addition of the wrap-around porch with decorative spindles and ornament and the octagonal turret with wood shingle conical roof. Today, the house is painted colors to highlight the Queen Anne appearance and details.

William Pollard House // 1899

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This high-style and ornamental house in Chester, Vermont, ranks among the state’s best examples of the Queen Anne style. The residence was constructed in 1899 for William Pollard (1854-1941), a local businessman who owned a shirtwaist manufactory in town with his brother, who lived next door. The painted-lady Victorian house features an asymmetrical plan highlighted by a three-story octagonal corner tower that is surrounded by a wrap-around porch with a delicate spindled frieze. The use of accent colors in the paint scheme further highlight the millwork details on the residence, which have all been preserved for well over a century.