Minor Details

I was waaaaaay up on the ladder today so I took some close-up shots of the gingerbread detail on the second story. Being that my house is a late Victorian Queen Anne it doesn’t really have the layers of trim and big heavy molding as the Stick/Eastlake, Gothic Revival, or Italianate homes of earlier decades. Remember, in just a few short years the Arts & Crafts and Craftsman styles would dominate the domestic home styles. Below is a full shot of the house again so you’ll know what you’re looking at.



The two close ups are of the sunbursts designs over the second story window and the repeating, stylized floral relief that is on the frieze. I’ve also include another shot of the downstairs sunburst to compare to the upstairs ones. The upstairs ones are much small and simpler. I can’t wait to paint them!

Second Story Sunburst


First Story Sunburst


Floral Relief


I estimated there are about 300 of the floral carvings around the house. They just go all the way around, one after the other. Each one is about a foot wide. Someone once told me they were called “Aero Smiths” (or Arrow Smiths) but I’ve never been able to confirm this. When I started to write the narrative to add the house to the National Register of Historic Places I tried to track down the source and got know where. It turned out to be a friend of a mill owner was told that someone who worked there read it in an architectural book when he was in collage in Massachusetts, or something like that. What ever they’re called I really like them. There are 3 or 4 houses in town that have them as well, although none of the designs are identical. As you can see in the full shot of the house I’m missing about 30 of them where the addition was put up. Grrrr! I plan to replace them but it’s not a top priority.