Historical Homes
The Henry Perry house was erected in 1832, and is one of the two Greek Revival style structures in Southport which was designed with a five-columned front portico. The other, the Francis D. Perry House, was his brother’s and was built that same year. The house is a temple-front with a fan-light in the pediment and large sidelights and transom at the entry.
This imposing Greek Revival house is located in Southport and is one of a handful of the stunning Classically designed mansions near the waterfront. The house was built in 1843 for Oliver Perry a Yale Law School graduate who did not work in law, but became a successful merchant and businessman instead. Oliver H. Perry established his fortune as a shipowner and a merchant and was Treasurer and Director of the Southport National Bank. He was active in civic affairs and served as speaker of the house of the Connecticut General Assembly and commissioner to survey and settle the border dispute between Connecticut and New York. His Southport house is a stunning example of the Greek Revival style in the temple form with a two-story projecting pedimented portico supported by four Doric columns.
The John Reed House at 37 Orange Street in Nashua, New Hampshire is a testament that houses can be updated over time with thoughtful renovations, and still be pretty darn amazing! The house was originally constructed in 1840 in the then-popular Greek Revival architecture style. Within a decade, to ‘keep up with the Jones”, the house was “modernized” with Italianate style detailing, including the brackets at the eaves and the large, square cupola with round arched windows and shutters. Decades, later, Queen Anne/Colonial Revival changes were made, with the full-length front porch with turned, fluted posts, enlarged windows, and an oversized front door. The house today blends these very different styles very well and adds to the house’s significance.
Wyer Groves Sargent (1810-1900) was a descendant of the famous Sargent and Choate families and at the age of seven, arrived to the sparsely developed town of Sedgwick, Maine in 1817 with his parents. Twenty years later, Wyer has this house built in 1837. The original house was a one-story Cape house with a central chimney and an ell connected to a barn. He worked in the village of Sargentville in the town of Sedgwick as a merchant, operating a store, and traveling extensively to buy and sell goods along the New England coast. Operating a lucrative business allowed him to expand his outdated and cramped home in 1868 to the current configuration. It was then known as Maplehurst. Wyer raised the house and extended the front by adding a floor beneath it. When Wyer died in 1900 the house went to his daughter Martha Spooner. Martha sold it to Dr. Frederick Sweet. Last known, the home is still owned by Dr. Sweet’s great-granddaughter.
New Orleans, Louisiana Photography Credit: Instagram – mdlab
New Orleans, Louisiana Photography Credit: Instagram – @nola_val
San Francisco, California Photography Credit: Instagram – travistraversing
San Francisco, California Photography Credit: Instagram – travistraversing
Not all of Kennebunkport’s summer “cottages” are grand, Shingle style mansions… Glen Cottage was originally built in c.1850 as a Greek Revival style cape house. As the town developed into a desirable summer colony for wealthy residents of Boston, New York and Philadelphia, the small cottage caught the eye of a Ms. Garrard. Margaret Garrard purchased Glen Cottage in 1900 and hired Maine architect William Barry to transform the old cape, adding the dormers, octagonal bay, and door hood. Here, she ran the Bonnie Brig Tearoom for twenty years. Tea houses were important social centers for wealthy summer residents Later owners renamed the tea house, “The Old Tree Tea Tavern” and “Periwinkle” but in 1926, the name reverted to The Bonnie Brig Tearoom. Today, the cottage has reverted back to residential use with the owners lovingly maintaining the old cape.
Isaac Newton Center (1811-1889) was born in Windham, NH and arrived to the rural town of Litchfield, NH in its early days. Upon arrival, he appears to have built this homestead sometime in the mid-19th century based on its style. Like many in town, he was a farmer and was involved with the local Presbyterian Church, which is still neighboring this old farmhouse. After his death, the old farmhouse and homestead was inherited by Isaac’s youngest son, Isaac Newton Center, Jr., who was engaged in local town affairs, serving as City Clerk, Treasurer, Forest Fire Warden, and Library Trustee. The house appears as a melding of late Greek Revival and Italianate, possibly from the 1850s or 1860s.
1895 Classical Greek Revival in Marietta, GA, photo by @glimpsesofthesouth
Hale House is a Queen Anne style Victorian mansion built in 1887 in the Highland Park section of northeast Los Angeles, California. It has been described as “the most photographed house in the entire city”, and “the most elaborately decorated”. In 1966, it was declared a Historic-Cultural Monument, and in 1972 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The house was relocated in 1970 to the Heritage Square Museum in Montecito Heights where it remains open to the public.
Charles Ellis Mansion built in 1888 in Philadelphia
The David Syme House is located in Sycamore, Illinois and is part of the Sycamore Historic District. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in May 1978. The Queen Anne style home was constructed sometime around 1880. Photo by @mhunts1
Boldt Castle is a major landmark and tourist attraction built in 1900-1904 in the Thousand Islands region of the U.S. state of New York. Open to guests seasonally between mid May and mid October, it is located on Heart Island in the Saint Lawrence River. Heart Island is part of the Town of Alexandria, in Jefferson County. Originally a private mansion built by American millionaire George Boldt, it is today maintained by the Thousand Islands Bridge Authority as a tourist attraction.
George Boldt, general manager of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City and manager of the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia, and his family enjoyed an earlier frame cottage on Hart Island (the island’s original name) for several summers, which they greatly expanded. In 1900, George Boldt launched an ambitious construction campaign to build a huge masonry structure, one of the largest private homes in the United States. He engaged the architectural firm G. W. & W. D. Hewitt and hundreds of workers for a six-story “castle” as a present to his wife. In addition, four other masonry structures on the island are architecturally notable.
The construction of Boldt Castle ceased abruptly in early 1904 after the death of Boldt’s wife, Louise Kehrer Boldt. Boldt never returned to Heart Island, leaving this structure as a monument of his love. For 73 years, the castle and other stone structures were left exposed to the harsh winter weather and occasional vandals. The Thousand Islands Bridge Authority acquired Heart Island and the nearby yacht house in 1977, for one dollar, under the agreement that all revenues obtained from the castle operation would be applied towards restoration. Photo by @karleydecocker
John O’Brien Mansion in Rhinebeck, NY, photo by @ilovthehudsonvalley
Galloway House built in 1846 in Fond Du Lac, WI
Herzog Mansion built in 1886 in Hermann, MO, photo by @memphisemily22
Stick Style Victorian House on Wooster, OH, photo by @donald_boerger
The Seiberling Mansion is a historic house located at Kokomo, Indiana, United States. In 1887, Monroe Seiberling of Akron, Ohio, traveled to Kokomo to open the Kokomo Strawboard Company, which would make shoeboxes out of straw and employ seventy-five people. Within six months, Seiberling, uncle of Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company founder Frank Seiberling, sold the Kokomo Strawboard Company and opened the Diamond Plate Glass Company. He began construction on his mansion in October 1889 at a cost of $50,000, with construction ending within two years. The mansion is built in a mixture of Neo-Jacobean (Queen Anne) and Romanesque Revival styles. Photo by @skullsandkittens
George Loomis House built in 1860 in Suffield, CT, photo by @buildingsofnewengland
