One of my favorite books on my architectural library shelves is “Painted Ladies: San Francisco’s Resplendent Victorians”, filled with pictures of the “great ladies” festooned with elaborate ornamentation and three or more colors. Last year I featured the Federal style house at the corner of Goldsborough and Harrison and admired this irresistible house across the corner that combined the best of the Queen Anne and Victorian styles. On the day I visited today’s feature, I first walked around the house and admired the massing and the rich range of details enhanced by a color scheme of light green, cream and deep purple.
The street elevation is a delightful composition with its full front porch, two second floor windows offset above the front door and single window, the hipped roof punctuated by a single dormer window and the magnificent corner turret. I loved the textures of the scalloped siding that clads the roof dormer, second floor walls and accent walls of the first floor with a band of purple trim separating the scalloped shakes from the lap siding of the main floor. Other accents of purple include bands around the porch columns, skirt board, window, door and eave trim. The turret is the “hinge” that connect the front elevation with the side elevation along the side street. The gable projection at the side appears to be a later addition and is currently furnished as a billiard room but could also become a family room. At the end of the side elevation on the second floor is a room I coveted with its wrap-around windows that creates the ideal sleeping porch. Below the sleeping porch off the kitchen is an open porch festooned with fretwork between turned columns.
The front door opens into a spacious foyer with a bay projection and a long vista past the “U” shaped open stair to a hall leading to a cozy library with a seat below the side window. The magnificent stair of stained oak is beautifully detailed with paneled newel posts, treads and elaborate skirt boards accented by white risers. To the left of the foyer is the living room with its corner turret and bowed windows. Floor to ceiling ornamentation includes the chair rail separating the patterned wallpaper from the painted wall with a wallpaper border in another pattern below multiple layers of molding and the ceiling with a wide white border surrounding a third patterned wallpaper. The fireplace chimney projects into the room and backs up to the adjacent dining room’s fireplace and is detailed with fluted side molding and swag details underneath the mantel.
The focal point of the dining room is its side wall bay projection and this room’s interior design includes a chair rail between the toile patterned wallpaper from the vertical striped wallpaper below. The firebox is covered with a ceramic mural that reminded me of the artist Susan Stockman’s work and opposite the fireplace is a built-in china cabinet. The rear door leads to a short hall to access the billiard room opposite closets and a secondary stair next to the kitchen. The rear wall of the billiard room connects to an “L” shaped room with built-ins, exterior door and a ½ bath that would be a convenient office.
I admired the kitchen’s brick herringbone patterned floor, tin ceiling and the windows at the side and rear walls that define the breakfast area. The kitchen sink could be switched with the Bertazzoni range on the exterior wall to give the cook a window overlooking the back porch.
The three second floor guest bedrooms have great interior architectural appeal with two of the rooms having bay shaped projections and the third bedroom’s bonus of the exquisite turret. At the rear of the house is the spacious primary bedroom suite that includes the sleeping porch. The hall space between the secondary stair leading down to the kitchen and the primary bath could easily be incorporated into the master bath if an expansion is needed.
The third floor has the same trim detailing, paneled door and wood floors as the other two floors but here walls are painted to accentuate the delightful interior geometry from the intersections of the knee walls with the sloped ceilings that follow the underside of the roof framing above for a sculptural effect.
One of Easton’s Historic District gems, with a level of detailing and construction quality not easily found today. A corner lot that allows more sunlight and privacy, great flow for entertaining with shops and restaurants nearby- I thoroughly enjoyed my tour of this “Great Painted Lady”!
For more information about this property, contact Chuck Mangold with Benson & Mangold Real Estate at 410-822-6665 (o), 410-924-8832 (c) or [email protected]. For more pictures and pricing, visit www.122GoldsboroughStreet.com, “Equal Housing Opportunity”.
Photography by Jennifer Madino
Spy House of the Week is an ongoing series that selects a different home each week. The Spy’s Habitat editor Jennifer Martella makes these selections based exclusively on her experience as a architect.
Jennifer Martella has pursued her dual careers in architecture and real estate since she moved to the Eastern Shore in 2004. Her award winning work has ranged from revitalization projects to a collaboration with the Maya Lin Studio for the Children’s Defense Fund’s corporate retreat in her home state of Tennessee.
lois Hamilton says
walk by so often, loved “getting inside” thanks