From The Archives

History and Details of Home

From the street as one enters the original oak double doors the multicolored ceramic mosaic tile floored vestibule becomes apparent. The next door is a single oak door which leads to the 8 foot wide hall. The floors are quartered oak with oak and walnut borders in the hall. The ceiling is 10 feet downstairs and upstairs. The custom molded darkly stained pine woodwork and door molding is uniform throughout the house. From the hall there are four choices: to the right is the staircase to the second floor (the newel still has its original combination gas and electric light), straight through the hall is the door to the dining room, through the hall and to the left is the back parlor, and immediately to the left from the front door is the door to the front parlor.

Let's first consider this front parlor. The doors are double sliding oak 8 foot doors. The original spool portière is still in place with the portière rod mounts. A portière is a set of heavy richly colored curtains (in the winter) usually made of heavy brocade or velvet with some sort of fringing usually of gold or some contrasting color. They were basically decorative but did help to reduce drafts on cold days when the doors weren't closed. In the summer the heavy portière was removed and replaced with white or light colored lacy curtains.

This 15 foot square front parlor has the square projecting bay in one corner and a fireplace in the other. The windows had curious vertically sliding louvered shutters. The first of this design the author has ever seen. They were designed much the same as window sash, but are much thinner and have no sash cords. These shutters have been removed and are in storage in the attic. Most of the windows in the house have the original window sash cranks, however.

The fireplace mantle in the front parlor is a magnificent work of art. It is metal painted and decorated in a floral motif. Above the first shelf is a beveled mirror flanked by two oil lamp shelves. This fireplace originally had a coal grate.

Moving on to the 15 foot square second or back parlor, there again is a set of double sliding doors separating the parlors, with a spool portière. But in this one the portière rod is still in place. The fireplace mantle in this room too is superb. It is slate and metal grained to look like oak. The area surrounding the fire opening is faced with scenic ceramic tiles depicting a mother and children doing household chores and two people in colonial style dress.

In the dining room, the floor is a beautiful multicolored ceramic mosaic design. The door between the rear parlor and the dining room is the most stunning in the house. First of all it is a single sliding door which is five feet wide and eight feet tall. It contains glass panes which are acid etched with a very delicate geometric pattern.

On the far wall, furthest from the hall, is a set of three doors patterned after Palladium design. There is a central swinging double hinged door, leading to the butler's pantry (back hall), which can be swung either way depending on whether the person is going into the dining room or into the kitchen. This used to be the only access to the kitchen from the main house. On either side of this, 8 foot door are two smaller, narrower doors. The one to the right leads to the dumb waiter which travels from the basement (where there originally was a coal/wood cook stove) to the dining room. The one to the left leads to the pass-through in kitchen china closet.

Second Floor

Going upstairs there are a total of 4 bedrooms. These consist of three main chambers, one above each of the three main rooms downstairs, one smaller 9 by 12 foot chamber above the front hall, and one larger maids bedroom over the kitchen has been converted to a laundry room. This smaller front bedroom has an original gas wall sconce and is being used as an office.

The bedroom above the main parlor is obviously the master bedroom. In it, there are the tower windows which, all but one, have curved glass sash, and the unusual vertical sliding shutters mentioned previously. But in this room the vertical shutters are still in place. In the round lower bay is a curious curved radiator. On the pier next to the tower bay is a set of original gas candle sconces which most likely flanked the lady's dressing table. This room along with the next bedroom above the back parlor originally had small coal/wood heating stoves in the corner where the chimney is. The room is highlighted by five curved windows set into the tower. Three extra windows were recently made when the owner replaced several that were broken at an unknown time in the past. The replacement windows were made to replicate the original antique glass.

The walls of the bedroom above the dining room have the following inscription which was Uncovered when the old wallpaper was removed: 'Papered August 12, 1891 by W.K. Britton and A.H. Richardson.'

The back stairs lead up to a back bedroom which is being used as a laundry room and bathroom. Originally there was no communication between the front main 4 bedrooms and the back bedroom because the back rooms were for the servant(s). But at some later date, the wall was removed and the front and back upstairs halls were joined.

The house has a massive finished attic which in times gone by has been used for large galas. The roof on the attic is unusual because there is an original skylight cut right into the steeply pitched roof making it so that there are two gabled roof ends facing each other right smack in the middle of the roof.

This is the first Queen Anne Tower house built on East Street and possibly in Washington CH. Three years after this house was completed, Dr. W.E. Ireland took the same design, reversed it, refined it, and constructed his Queen Anne Towerhouse directly across the street. It is uncertain whether any other houses of this design were ever constructed in Washington CH as no others have survived.