Lawrence carpenter built Queen Anne rental house
The builder of this house, John C. Griffin, lived on Durham Street, right around the corner from the Queen Anne style house shown in the above photo. A carpenter by profession, he must have walked the street many times before he built this two-family rental at the top of the rise, with a view down Atkinson Street, a wonderful end to the road as you come up from the Wetherbee School.
He built what was, in the 1880's, a standard house, the shape popular on small urban lots since about 1840: two stories, front facing gable, one room wide with the entry and staircase to the side. Usually a bay window graced the front: here the bay extends to the second floor.
Mr. Griffin embellished this basic shape with 1880's Queen Anne details: paired brackets and dentil moulding, scalloped shingles shirting the second floor bay and at the peak of the gable, the corbels supporting the roof of the front porch, the curving roofs of the bay and the porch.
He understood that the house would be seen at close range by pedestrians, hence the delicate turning of the corners of the bay, the panels below the windows. He also knew how to balance the proportions so the house is pleasing from a distance.
The rhythms of the house, the windows' shapes in the bay, the massing of the bay against the facade, the two doors balanced by the window above, the scale of the gable to the house, are appealing.
Great care is being taken to repair and paint this house to let us see again its Victorian charm. On the sides its previous appearance is still visible.
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