Quincy House Tour

1254

1254 Park Place, one of the newest houses on the block, was constructed in 1910 by Quincy Architect, George Behrensmeyer in the Craftsman style. The Craftsman style like the Queen Anne, utilizes building materials left in their natural form. They are constructed to emphasize their texture. Materials such as rough cut stone, hand made clay roof tiles and exposure of a timber frame structure make this stand out from houses of the Victorian era. Where this and many other Craftsman style houses differ, particularly in Quincy, is their formality and utilization of symmetry.

Although not completely symmetrical, the entry is in the center of the house, and many of the first and second story windows sit aligned with each other. The use of symmetry and formal planning seen in this house is a product of its turn of the century vintage.

At the time, formal Beaux Arts classicism was the predominant style popularized among the upper class. Many architects were trained in this method of design and carried it with them through their development of a new modern architecture.

This house exhibits many of these same formal ideas that link the new Craftsman style to both the Victorian and the Neo classical. However new design ideas can be seen in this house. For example, the porch begins to become more related to the over all architecture of the house rather that "tacked on" like in the Queen Anne. The slope of the roof pitch has become lower and the house is wider and more horizontal in proportion.

This house had very little ornament. What ornament it does have has been abstracted and blended with structural elements, as seen on the beams that sit above the entry porch and the side porch.

The house is clad in a blond brick and appears more organic in form because its color resembles the colors of the earth. Stone planters flank either side of the entry to this house. We begin to see not only the use of nature in materials but the literal use of nature as part of the building design. Houses such as these were the beginnings of a Twentieth Century modern architecture.