Victorian Houses

Edward Johnson House // c.1886

Buildings of New EnglandLeave a comment

Central Falls, Rhode Island, is not necessarily known for its residential architecture, but like any good industrial city, there are some excellent examples of Victorian houses from the mid-late 19th century to be discovered! This is the Edward L. Johnson House on Cross Street in Central Falls. The house was built around 1886 for Mr. Johnson, a manufacturer, who resided here for some years with his wife, who founded the Pawtucket Women’s Club in 1899 and was an active member of the Daughters of the American Revolution. The house is an excellent example of the Queen Anne architecture style, from the various siding types including clapboard and patterned shingling; its steep cross-gable roof; and its variety of windows, including a shallow bay on the first floor and oval and half-round windows in the 2nd-floor porch. 

Odell House // 1887

Buildings of New EnglandLeave a comment

Built in 1887 for Charles Odell and his wife, Alice, this Queen Anne house on Winter Street in Salem, Massachusetts, stands out as a high-style example of Victorian architecture on the street notable for early-mid 19th century architecture. The house lot was purchased by the Jewett Family who lived in the brick house next door and long used the lot as a garden. Charles and Alice Odell married in 1888, so this Victorian home was built for the newlywed couple to raise their family. Charles A. Odell (1863-1931) worked at his father’s insurance and real estate business, later assuming ownership of business upon death of his father and was a district agent for New England Mutual Life Insurance Company. Sheathed in a combination of wood clapboards and shingles in a variety of patterns, the house has a steeply hipped, slate roof punctuated by cross gables and hipped dormers. The predominant window sash style consists of a distinctive sash in which the upper displays a triangle with central muntin over a conventional two-light lower sash. The property has been lovingly preserved for well over a century and is a landmark example of a Queen Anne style house in Salem.

Charles H. Farnam Mansion // 1884

Buildings of New England3 Comments

Charles Henry Farnam (1846-1909) was a lawyer, genealogist, and the son of Henry Farnam, a wealthy railroad industrialist in New Haven, Connecticut. Following his father’s death in 1883, Charles, who may have inherited a small fortune in the will, purchased a house lot on the finest residential street in New Haven, Hillhouse Avenue. The existing house on the lot, the Benjamin Silliman House, was relocated to front Trumbull Street (and recently relocated again to 85 Trumbull Street), clearing the site for his new mansion. He hired esteemed architect J. Cleaveland Cady, who designed a large, Queen Anne/Romanesque masonry home unlike anything else on the Avenue. The house features an asymmetrical plan, corner tower, a Flemish style gable, fancy brickwork and terracotta detailing, and a slate mansard roof. Charles H. Farnam would sell the property to Henry S. Parmelee, a noted businessman and piano manufacturer, who also is credited with inventing the first automated sprinkler head and as a result, owning the first building in the United States to be equipped with a fire suppression system, his piano factory. Parmelee hired local architect Leoni Robinson, to design a rear addition for the house. Parmelee died in 1902, and the property was maintained by his widow and daughter, until it was acquired by Yale University in 1920. Today, the Farnam Mansion is occupied by the Economics Department.

Roughwood // 1891

Buildings of New EnglandLeave a comment

Roughwood is a historic estate house on Heath Street in Brookline, Massachusetts. The main residence and the various outbuildings on the grounds were designed by the Boston architectural firm of Andrews, Jaques and Rantoul, and built in 1891 as the summer estate of William Cox, a wholesale dealer in the footwear industry. Mr. Cox died in 1902 and the property was sold to Ernest Dane, the year before he married Helen Pratt, the daughter of Charles Pratt, a wealthy New York businessman and philanthropist. Mr. Dane was a banker who served as President of the Brookline Trust Company. The Dane’s owned the property for decades until the property was eventually purchased by Pine Manor Junior College in 1961. The estate house remained a centerpiece of the campus. In the early 21st century, Pine Manor College saw financial distress, and was saved by Boston College, who acquired the campus and its existing students as Messina College, which opened in July 2024 for over 100 first-generation college students. Architecturally, Roughwood is a high-style example of the Queen Anne/Shingle style of architecture. The mansion is built with a puddingstone and brownstone first floor and a second floor of varied patterns of wood shingles, all capped by a slate roof. The facade is dominated by towers and dormers and the great rustic entrance portico with dragon’s head brackets. To its side, a 1909 Tudor Revival addition served as a music room for the Dane’s family and while stylistically unique, is designed with impeccable proportions.

Emerson Gaylord Mansion // c.1871

Buildings of New EnglandLeave a comment

Emerson Gaylord (1817-1899) was a businessman and politician from Chicopee, Massachusetts, who operated the Gaylord Manufacturing Company and later, the Ames Sword Company, furnishing military swords and other goods for the Union during the Civil War. His business did extremely well and he became one of the wealthiest men in the industrial city. In 1856, Gaylord purchased the property at the corner of Springfield Street and Fairview Avenue and resided in a home here until years following the war, when he demolished the original structures on the site in 1870 to build a new home currently known as the Gaylord Mansion, worthy of his stature and notoriety in Chicopee. In 1962, Elms College purchased the Gaylord Mansion for $50,000. In 1997, an Elms College Cornerstone Campaign raised $100,000 to refurbish the exterior of this historical treasure. In February 2020, the Gaylord mansion underwent another renovation by the college to transform the interior into a classroom-meeting space with dorm residences on the top floors dubbing it “Living-Learning, Community and Cultural Center”.

Griggs House // 1891

Buildings of New EnglandLeave a comment

This fancy Queen Anne Victorian residence can be found in Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts, and is one of the most unique houses in the industrial city. This property was built and occupied by David B. Griggs, a builder in Chicopee under the firm D. B. Griggs & Sons. The firm was very busy in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as Chicopee saw rapid industrial prosperity followed by a population boom, growing in population from over 9,000 residents in 1870 to 36,000 in 1920. Builders like David Griggs were able to grow to upper-middle class and buy property on desirable house lots and build large homes for their family, as was the case here. David Griggs died in 1896, five years after his home was built, and the property was inherited by his son, Millard Griggs. While the residence is covered in vinyl siding (original siding and trim is likely underneath the present siding), the house retains much of its original fabric including the brackets, delicate open friezes at the porches, and four-story tower.

Justin and Sarah Spaulding House // 1886

Buildings of New EnglandLeave a comment

Justin Spaulding and his wife, Sarah (Cooley) Spaulding erected this house on Springfield Street in Chicopee, Massachusetts, in 1886, and would later be known for their philanthropic gifts to their home city. Justin Spaulding (1838-1906) was a wealthy grocer who amassed a small fortune operating stores in the industrial Lower Pioneer Valley. The Spaulding House is one of the finest Queen Anne style buildings in Chicopee, and is notable for its asymmetrical form, tower, ornate gable detailing, porches with original balustrade, and the chimney with inlaid terracotta tiles. Justin Spaulding died in 1906, and Sarah C. Spaulding (1840-1907) would pass away a year later. They had no children. In her will, Sarah bequeathed funds for the first purpose-built library in Chicopee and money for a memorial chapel in a local cemetery. The Spaulding House was acquired by the Academy of Our Lady of the Elms (now Elms College), moved to its present location in 1920, and was converted to the Office of Admissions for the College. Besides the need for a new coat of paint, the house is lovingly preserved!

Foster Mansion // c.1860

Buildings of New EnglandLeave a comment

This large, Italianate style mansion is located at 417 Sharon-Goshen Turnpike, the main street through West Cornwall Village, Connecticut. The house was built around 1860 for Stephen Foster (c.1816-1863) a merchant and railroad contractor who had constructed a portion of the Housatonic Line railroad near West Cornwall. He and his wife, Helen, previously lived in a Greek Revival style house across the road until they moved into this stately residence. Mr. Foster would not get to enjoy his mansion long as he died in 1863. Helen Foster remained at the home until her death in 1875. The high-style Italianate residence was likely built by master-carpenter C. W. Marsh, and features all the hallmarks of the style: overhanging eaves with decorative brackets, elaborate window and door moulding, two-over-two windows, and a shallow hipped roof with dormer.

Joseph Fletcher House and Stable // 1889

Buildings of New EnglandLeave a comment

With red brick and slate siding and all the finest trimmings, this house looks like a present wrapped under the Christmas tree! The Joseph Fletcher House is located at 19 Stimson Avenue in Providence, Rhode Island, and is an excellent example of a Queen Anne residence with the innovative use of siding types often found in the style. The residence was built in 1889 for textile manufacturer, Joseph Edward Fletcher (1866-1924), the son of wealthy, English-born manufacturer, Charles Fletcher. The Fletcher house and adjacent stable were designed by Stone, Carpenter & Willson, one of the most prestigious architectural firms in New England at this period. It is believed that the site was developed by Charles Fletcher, as a wedding gift to his 23-year-old son and daughter-in-law following their marriage. The home was recently sold, and the interiors are as stunning as the exterior!

Porphyry Hall // 1880

Buildings of New EnglandLeave a comment

The Jacob E. Spring Mansion, also known as Porphyry Hall, is a high-style estate house located in Danvers, Massachusetts, that is one of the finest and most unique in the state! The house was built in 1880 for Jacob Evans Spring (1825-1905), who was born in Brownfield, Maine, and at the age of twenty, he went to Argentina and amassed a fortune in the wool business in Buenos Aires between 1845 and 1865, when he returned to the United States. Jacob and his wife, Sara Duffy, would purchase a large farm in Danvers and began planning for their family country home. Their residence was built on a high hill over two years and constructed of over 40 types of stones of irregular size and color with door and window sills of Nova Scotia freestone with arches of the doors and windows and corners of brick. The mansion was designed by architect George M. Harding of Boston, and built by several skilled masons over many months. Mr. Spring named his estate, “Porphyry Hall” with Porphyry meaning an igneous rock with large crystals in a fine-grained matrix; suitable for the walls of their mansion. The Spring’s lived lavishly at this home and spent nearly all of their fortune, selling the property after just ten years to the Xaverian Brothers, who opened it as Saint John’s Normal College. In 1907, the compound was re-organized as a Catholic boys prep school. In 1915, a chapel was added to the rear of the building, constructed from gray fieldstone to blend with the main house. Have you ever seen a building like this?