G.B. Vaughan House
39 Marshall Street
Watertown, Mass.
Year Built: ca. 1880
Built in ca. 1883 and set back about 20 feet from the sidewalk, the house rises 2½ stories from a brick foundation to a front-gabled roof covered with patterned shingles. Rectangular (24x30 feet) in plan, the main block is two bays wide by two deep. A two-story gable-roofed ell extends sixteen feet to the east, stepping down to a one-story eight foot long section. One chimney rises through the south slope of the main roof. On the south elevation, a first floor polygonal bay window supports a shallow second floor bay window that breaks the cornice line and is surmounted by a gabled dormer. The main entrance echoes this tower-like ensemble with the porch hood supporting a bay window topped by a tall triangular pediment. In characteristic Queen Anne fashion, the porch hood is hung with spindles and rests on turned posts with floral brackets. Wooden steps with replacement railings lead to period newel posts and balusters flanking the porch deck. Double-leafed wooden entrance doors with glazed upper panels are framed by a molded architrave. Principal windows contain two-over-two sashes except for the three sets of paired windows (two on the façade and one on the south elevation) and the polygonal bay windows, all of which contain one-over-one sashes. Simple molded casing frame the windows, with the exception of the two paired second story windows and the south-facing gable window, which have full-entablature lintels. The western-most first floor window on the north elevation has been in-filled with clapboards Notable details include shingle work and sunbursts in the three gables and deep eaves with returns at the gale ends. Corner boards and wide frieze boards outline the house as well as the projecting bays.
References
• Watertown Directories, 1882 and 1884.
• 39 Marshall Street, Form B, Massachusetts Historical Commission, 1999.
• Deed from Charles Brigham to George Vaughan, 6/3/1880, Middlesex (South) District Registry of Deeds, Book 1541, Page 235.
Images
2007
2007
2009
<<< Back to Design List
|
|
|
