Quincy House Tour

1401mn

1401

1401 Maine Street is an interesting house because of not only its original design, but for the work that was done after it was built. Nineteenth century society was very conscious of what was called high style. High style was a middle and upper class idea that preached what was new and trend setting was the most popular. Ideas of high style were translated to art, music, dress and, of course, residential architecture. In this house we find that the original structure was originally constructed in the Italianate style and later remodeled in the Queen Anne. The homeowner was interested in keeping up with the houses that were being built around the neighborhood so he remodeled and adhered to the high style. As said before, the original house was built in the Queen Anne style and is apparent in the brick box-like front massing, the low hip roof and the rather large cast iron window surrounds. The cornice below would have certainly been as deep as seen here but lacked much of the spindle work and ornate brackets associated with the Queen Anne addition.

Another indication that this was first an Italianate home is to look at other homes in the area. 1461 Maine Street, clearly an Italianate design, has nearly the same window and door configuration as this house. The Queen Anne remodeling of the house did not severely alter the overall form of the original house but a large wrap-around porch reduces the formality and increases the picturesque quality. The porch, an excellently preserved piece in itself, contains an array of ornately crafted woodwork and extends over the side drive to make what is known as a porte cochere (car port). This architectural element would not have been in style when the Italianate version of the home would have been built.

Another element that was added to the original house would have been the multi-colored slate roof shingles. This type of roof would have been seen on Queen Anne or Second Empire homes but not on a high style Italianate (note: the roof on this house is a historical replacement of slate shingles with an asphalt shingle system). The mixture of different style on this old house do not seem apparent sometimes because we think of all old homes as a homogeneous design. But often houses, like today, were remodeled when they fell out of style.