Historical Homes
This mammoth, irregularly shaped Second Empire house haughtily overlooking its surroundings from an iron fenced yard provides a fitting introduction to the district. Built of brick with a profusion of stone trim and a modicum of iron cresting, it has a prominent third-story mansard roof punctured at every conceivable opportunity by arched dormer windows. A four-story tower glowers over the entrance, which is protected by one of several porches with bracketed cornices. Behind, in the alley between Juliana and Market streets, the original carriage house echoes the main house on a diminutive scale.
William N. Chancellor, for whom the house was built, had a finger in every slice of Parkersburg’s pie. A banker and an investor in lumber, transportation, and utilities, he served twice as the city’s mayor and twice as a state legislator. He built two of Parkersburg’s major hotels, one of which still stands , and served as president of the West Virginia Commission for the 1893 World’s Columbian
Selections from America’s Historic Houses
