_Overall Dimensions._ Width: 78 feet by 25 feet in central section,
and 20 feet in wings. Height: central section, two and one-half
stories; wings, one and one-half stories; sunporch, one story.
_Foundations._ The central section of the house stands on brick
foundations which are carried up through the basement walls.
A brick wall extending upward to the second floor divides the basement
into two sections and served as part of the original foundations. In
the basement, a series of arches in this wall permitted passage
between the two sections. In 1960, the upper portions of this wall
were found to have deteriorated to the point that it was necessary to
pour concrete footings in the basement and erect a series of steel
columns up through the wall to relieve it from bearing the weight of
the second-floor beams and floor joists.
The east wing (present living room, former kitchen) rests on brick
foundations, with the present wooden flooring laid over the original
cobblestone floor of the old kitchen. The west wing (present kitchen)
rests on concrete footings and slab at grade.
_Wall Construction._ Walls are constructed of medium red brick (3
by 9 by 12 inches), using the following bonds: central block
front--Flemish bond; central block rear--English bond; central block
end walls--English bond; east wing--American or common bond, with
seven courses of stretchers to each course of headers; west
wing--American or common bond, with six courses of stretchers to
each course of headers.
_Chimneys._ Interior brick chimneys are located in the center of the
east and west ends of the central block. These chimneys have separate
flues for four fireplaces (two each on the first and second floors)
and measure 5 feet by 2 feet 8 inches. Three courses of brick are
corbelled to make the capping of the chimneys.
The end walls of the east and west wings of the house also each have
an interior chimney centered in the wall. The chimney in the east
wing, measuring 3 feet by 1 foot 8 inches and having three courses of
brick corbelled for a capping, was used for the fireplace in the old
kitchen which occupied that part of the house prior to 1942.
_Doors and Doorways._ The front doorway is inset (1 foot 8 inches) in
an entrance faced with white painted wooden panels. The entrance is
framed by a plain triangular pediment and pilasters without
decorations on either shafts or capitals. The front door is a
six-panel door, designed to harmonize with the interior doors which
are originals. Over the door is a four-light rectangular transom.
The rear entrance is a 6 by 8-foot portico, built up three steps from
ground level. Along the sides of the portico are 3-foot railings,
inside of which are wooden boxes which serve both as storage boxes and
as seats. The portico roof is supported by wooden Doric columns set at
its outer edges, and the front end of the roof is a plain triangular
pediment. The rear doorway has a transom and door similar to the front
doorway.
The kitchen door opens onto a 4 by 4-foot wooden porch with railing
and three steps to ground level.
The sunporch door has interchangeable screen and glass panels for
winter and summer use and opens on the front of the house at ground
level.
_Windows and Shutters._ In the central block, the front doorway is
flanked by French windows, with 12-over-9 lights in double-hung wooden
sash. The rear windows on the first floor are 9-over-9 lights in
double-hung wooden sash. Windows on the second floor front and rear
sides are 6-over-6 lights in double-hung wooden sash, as are the
dormer windows and gable end windows. The windows on the first and
second floors of the central block have 2-foot 10-inch wooden sills
and full-length louvered shutters hung on pintles (two on each side of
the window frame). Window frames, sills, and muntins are painted dark
green.
In the east and west wings of the house, the front windows are
6-over-6 lights in double-hung wooden sash. The rear window in the
east wing (living room) has a dead-light picture window (6 by 4 feet)
flanked by windows with 6-over-9 lights in double-hung wooden sash.
Window frames, sills, and muntins are white, and full-length wooden
shutters are dark green.
In the brickwork of the house, flat arches have been laid over all of
the windows on the first floor, except over the windows on the rear of
the central block.
The sunporch on the east end of the house is of frame construction and
has nine windows (2-1/2 by 5 feet) on three sides.
_Roof._ Photographs taken about 1900 show the house with an enclosed
porch across the front and a sheet metal roof on the porch. In
contrast, the central block of the house and the kitchen (east) wing
have shingled roofs (figure 5). Photographs in 1936 show the central
portion of the house with a sheet metal roof (figure 7). In 1942, the
roofing on all parts of the house was replaced with specially made
concrete shingles, which are still in place.[90]
The roof is a simple medium-pitched roof with plain gable ends.
Interior chimneys are centered in each end of the center section and
in the east end of the living room (former kitchen) wing.
Full-length copper gutters are incorporated into the eaves and project
approximately six inches above and beyond the cornice.
Cornices on the front and rear of the center section of the house are
composed of dentils, running approximately three segments per foot.
Identical plain wooden cornices are used on the front and rear of the
two wings of the house.
Each wing has one dormer centered in the front and two on the rear
sides of the roof. The center section of the house has three dormers
on the front side of the roof. All dormers have a single window,
consisting of 6-over-6 lights, set vertically in the front face. All
dormers have beaded ship-lap siding laid parallel to the pitched roof.
This latter feature appears to be a change made in 1942 since
photographs of the house in 1885 and 1936 show the siding on the
dormers laid parallel to the ground.
_Enclosures._ A post and rail fence stands at the edge of the front
lawn and, together with a line of hemlocks growing immediately inside
the fence, forms a screen between the house and the entrance road
leading in from the Little River Turnpike. In the rear, a semicircular
screen of boxwood frames the lawn.