I can find no information on this little cottage that once belonged to the Cherry family and stood at 740 High St., today the site of the east entrance to City Hall. The house was probably constructed about 1870 as the porch supports strongly resemble those of the Peters and Dunn houses that were built in the late 1860's. While the exterior was a little on the plain side the interior made up for it with typical Victorian exuberance. The walls and curtains have been decorated with pine bows and leaves for some unknown celebration. All in all it's a very pleasant room.
I don't see much in common with the porch supports of the Peters or Dunn houses. The Cherry house windows are better indicators of the age of the house. The Cherry house has 6 over 6 sash windows which would probably date it to the 1850s or early 60s. The shiplap ceiling instead of lathe and plaster in the parlor might also indicate earlier construction than the Peters house which has lathe and plaster in the main rooms downstairs and hallway and shiplap in the kitchen and bedrooms. The Dunn house is actually composed of two earlier houses, moved to the site and attached together to form a T shape. You can see that in the different ornamental moldings at the gable ends, by examining the framing from under the house and by the mis-matched 2nd floor levels. I suspect the decorative two-level front porch seen in Dunn house historic photos and now missing was constructed shortly after the Peters house was finished. Those porch support details and proportions of the Dunn house are quite similar to those of the Peters house except all the curves of the ornamentation are reversed.
ReplyDeleteGreat blog posts BTW.
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