Ed

At 918 Main St….Some of the most impressive mansions are found on this street, dubbed “Millionaires Row” by the locals. Indeed there is…I posted a Gothic red brick fantasy from this very street two posts ago. This towered beauty is but three houses up from that Gothic manse. Constructed in 1890 for banker James Rufus Jopling, the handsome red brick 🧱 mansion with its contrasting white stone banding & details, truly makes it a visual treat. I also love its lacy cast iron porch. Joplin died in 1913 and the manse passed out of the family in 1928 when the heirs sold it. The house has passed thru many hands and is still a privately owned house to this day. #victorian #victorianhouse #victorianarchitecture #victorianstyle #archi_ologie

At 208 Madison St…. One of the finest neighborhoods where Lynchburg’s prosperous citizens dwelt is in the Garland Hill Historic District, where the grandest of homes line Madison St overlooking the James River. Such is the case with the handsome Romanesque mansion of John W. Craddock, one of the principal founders of Craddock-Terry Shoe co. Craddock commissioned notable local architect E. G. Frye to design his manse built of buff brick & stone in 1897. The owners initials “JWC” can still be seen above the porch. The 6,000 sq ft house was on the market, so if you google the address you can see it’s fine interiors. However I am haunted by the #lostmansion of Ambrose H. Burroughs which used to stand next door on the right at 220 Madison St. Burroughs was a prominent lawyer who also got into cigarette manufacturing. Which seemed a good choice of enterprise, being this is tobacco country. Needless to say…this enabled Burroughs to build the most impressive mansion on the street in 1889. Constructed of buff brick with sandstone trim, it was a mix of styles, with Jacobean gables & dormers, a Moorish arch, and a castle like tower with crenellations. I’m sure the interiors must have been equally grand! He left his “castle” in 1920 to move to New York. The mansion was bought in 1926 and converted to apartments. Tragically it was lost in a fire 🔥 in 2006. Its matching carriage house still exists being used as a home. Photos: (1-3) Craddock house (4) details showing owners initials (5) Bourrough’s mansion in late 1890’s (6) circa 1970’s (7) circa 1990’s (8) 2006 fire #romanesque #romanesquearchitecture #romanesquestyle

At 878 Main St…..on our Virginia trip, had to go thru Danville and took a slight detour onto Main St (Millionaire’s Row) for a “must see again” house (saw it in 2019). But oh so worth it! What an eye feast this Victorian Gothic is! The red brick manse was originally built in 1874 as a mansard for wealthy businessman Charles Sublett. When Sublett died in 1876 his widow married another prosperous businessman Edward Miller in 1878. Miller did a total remake in 1885 of the mansard inside & out into the scrumptious Gothic you see now….so unique…so magnetic. Pulls you right in…definitely one of my all time favs!🖤 The last remaining family member died in 1997. The mansion had amazingly been in the family for 123 years! By this time the house was in decline and was auctioned off in 2000. Fortunately the new owners over the past 25 yrs journey have restored it to its original splendor and more! Bravo 👏 👏 A side note of interest: the surrounding ornate cast iron fence is not original to the house. The superb fence once graced the demolished Jedediah Wilcox Italianate mansion in Meriden, CT. If you want to dive deeper … google the Wilcox house AND the Sublett/Miller house for interior restoration photos. you won’t be disappointed!👍 Photos: (4) detail of fence (5-6) porch & door (8-9) vintage photos 1880’s (10) house in late 1990’s *porch gone on side tower & door missing (11) Wicox mansion *note fence. #gothic #gothicstyle #gothicarchitecture #victoriangothic #victoriangothicstyle

At 215 Kalorama St…..very handsome Richardsonian Romanesque town house of rough-cut ashlar brownstone. It’s an impressive facade which is only one room deep, built to update an Italianate mansion. The original house was built in 1882 for G.G. Gooch, a businessman. Later the house was bought by Arista Hodge another businessman. In 1891 Hodge commissioned local architectural firm “Collin’s & Hackett” to design the front of the mansion in the more popular style. The sides & the rear of the house remain the original red brick Italianate structure. In fact the original entrance to the house can be accessed thru the recessed area under the archway, where you can still see an original windowed corner of the old house. Interesting…😏 The house was on the market, so if you google the address you can see the interiors from the old listing. #romanesque #romanesquearchitecture #romanesquerevival #romanesquerevivalarchitecture

At English Embankment 68… exploring the lost glittering glory of the palatial mansion of Baron Alexander Stieglitz, banker, financier, & industrialist. Born in St. Petersburg in 1814 of German Jewish descent, Alexander came from a rich banking family. After the death of his father in 1844, Stieglitz inherited his father’s banking-house “Stieglitz and Co”, also becoming a banker for the Emperor. Securing six loans for the government at 4% & funding the Crimean War (1853-56), only continued to add to his wealth. In 1860, Stieglitz sold his bank & personal enterprises, to found the State Bank of the Russian Empire for Emperor Alexander II, which he would be its sole governor. At this point, he was really rolling in those rubles! Like his European contemporaries of the Rothschild banking family, Stieglitz built a lavish Italian Renaissance style palace in a very Rothschild style in 1859-62. No expense was spared where the opulent interiors were completed by German & Austrian craftsmen. The cost for this sumptuous abode was 3.5 million rubles or 25 MIL in today’s dollars!😳 Stieglitz died in 1884 and the house went to his adopted daughter. Finding the mansion too vast to maintain, she sold the house to the State Treasury in 1887 as the residence for the Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich & his wife. During the Bolshevik Revolution, the duke was arrested & executed. The mansion & contents were confiscated for the Republic. Currently the mansion is empty & decaying with partial renovations for stabilization. The posted interior photos were done by Italian painter Luigi Premazzi who meticulously documented them in 1870. (2)grand staircase (3-4)ballroom (5-6)concert hall (7-8)yellow drawing rm (9-10)white drawing rm (11)grand salon (12) gold drawing rm (13)main study (14)baroness’ study (15)state dining rm (16)supper room (17)dining rm (18)breakfast rm (19-20)library #lostmansion #palace #gildedage #gildedagemansions

At 210 Copley St…..the cold winter sky contrasts beautifully against the warm glow from the lights of this QueenAnne house. It truly gives this victorian an inviting storybook charm. The home built in 1886 for prominent banker George W. Copley is known as “Copley Hall”. The main exterior features of house is its large octagonal tower and its fanciful wrap around gingerbread porch. The 3,700 sq ft home has been on the market so if you google the address you can pull up the old listing and view its thankfully, unchanged interiors. #queenannevictorian #queenanne #queenannestyle #queenannecottage

At 412 N. May Ave…..the house of many gables, dormers, and a many angled roof. This charming Stick Style built in 1890, has such a fantastic complex facade…. Truly a delight to look at. Love the warm grey & yellow paint job too! 🩶💛 #stickstyle #stickstylevictorian

At 16388 Old Valley Pike….perfectly framed by naked trees, this Italian villa has a classic central tower. The mansion was built in 1868 for Dr. Christian Hockman. The house had been empty & neglected, but has been purchased and renovated for a B&B named “Hockman”Manor”. Yay!🙌 #italianate #italianatearchitecture #italianatestyle

The advent of the Industrial Age, brought on an easier, more economic, and a wider range of travel with the invention of locomotive 🚂 and steam ships 🚢. Victorians were traveling farther away from their homelands to exotic destinations. Once such place was the land of the Moors (modern day Morocco) with its accessible location on the Northern African Atlantic coastline. Visiting Victorians were dazzled by the rich colorful complexity of Moorish/Moroccan art & architecture for sure….and brought home crates of delightful finds to decorate their homes with. Some Victorians even had whole rooms designed in the Moorish style filled with such appropriate treasures. With the exception of the colored photos, most of the rooms shown here, sadly no longer exist….but these vintage photos show what great lengths the Victorians tried to capture the very essence of Moorish decor in their domestic settings. You’ll have to fill in imaginatively the wide range of vibrant colors from these black & white photos… Photos: (1) Chateau de Monte-Cristo, France (2) entrance hall, Pasadena, CA (3) Moorish parlor (4) Sylvester Everett mansion, Cleveland, OH (5) Moorish drawing room (6) London reception room (7) Seattle, WA reception room (8) John Hubinger mansion library made to look like a tent Keokuk, IA (9) William Church parlor Denver, CO (10) Moorish dining room (11-12) Cornelius Vanderbilt NYC mansion smoking room (13-15) John D. Rockefeller smoking room In Brooklyn Museum (16) Moorish double parlor *all photos are from the internet *

At Simsville….Yes still building dream mansions in the Sims4 game. Like I’ve mentioned before….i don’t play the game of micromanaging little Sims lives….BUT I do get to play out my passion for architecture & interior decoration with this game. Yes!!🙌 Instead of building another Victorian style house….i thought I’d try my hand at a Neo-Classic style manse in buff brick. The interiors are French influenced except for an English library!😏 Photos:(1-4) exterior (5) small formal garden in backyard (6) stair hall 7-8) drawing room (9-11) library (12-13) dining room (14-15) upper hall (16-17) blue bedroom (18-19) green bedroom *please zoom in to see details 🙏 #sims4house #showmeyourbuilds #sims4build #sims4builds #sims4housebuild #victorian #victorianhouse #victorianarchitecture #victorianstyle #archi_ologie #archi_love #houseaddict #housestalker #oldhouselove #brickstory #oldhouseenthusiast #iloveoldhouses #thisoldhouse #historichouse #houseportrait #americancastlesff #facadelovers #historicpreservation #dreamhouse #theamericanhome #priceypads #chasing_facades

At 14th & Clifton St….I love those Gilded Age suburban castles.🏰 After all, “a man’s home is his castle”. So the quote goes, and many a rich man of that era, made such a claim come true. Take for instance the castle mansion of Amiz L.Barber completed in 1886. Barber amassed his fortune by real estate development and pioneered the asphalt industry which earned him the title of “Asphalt King” (yes you can thank him for all those parking lots!😁). It was fortunate that Barber also lived in the capitol city, because he got many a government contract to pave many a street & boulevard in D.C. But enough politics, let’s get to the castle. With that title Barber earned, a king needs his 🏰 ….Barber commissioned Philadelphia renowned architect Theophilus P. Chandler Jr. to design his castle. Chandler was best known for his churches & mansions built in the Gothic, Romanesque, & Châteauesque styles and typically of stone.👍 Situated on top of a small hill, Barber’s rock mansion looked quite impressive with its 4story tower jutting above the tree line. Barber called his new home “Belmont” after his wife’s NY hometown. Barber died in 1909 at the age of 66. His widow lived in the castle till her death in 1912. The heirs sold the #lostmansion to a developer and it was demolished in 1915 to make way for a new neighborhood. As an interesting side note, for a summer home, in 1890 Barber bought “Ardsley Towers” in Ardsley, NY which was part of the former estate of the late Cyrus W. Fields who was the Father of the TransAlantic Cable to Britain. That fantastic châteauesque stone mansion was also torn down in 1928.😖 Photos: (3) porte cochere with view of stables behind (4) main staircase (5) drawing room (6) dining room (7) library (8) master bedroom (9) tower bedroom (10) son’s bedroom (11) children’s bedroom (12-13) Barber’s summer home (14) dining room (15) study #gildedage

At 250 Gibson St… Can you imagine spending the summer in a sprawling dark Victorian country estate near a lake?? I certainly can…..and so could financier Frederick F. Thompson. Coming from a banking family, Thompson continued his father’s banking legacy, and was a cofounder & lifetime director of First National Bank of NYC which later became Citibank. At the height of his career it was time to build a summer home, away from the bustle of NYC where he and his wife Mary, also had a Madison Ave town house. When they had wed back in 1863, they purchased a farm in Canandaigua. It was called “Sonnenberg” (sunny hill) by its German owner. Eventually Thompson would acquire a total of 160 acres for his country estate. Thompson hired Boston architect Francis Allen to design his summer home. After the original farmhouse was leveled, construction began in 1886. The 40 room mansion was completed in 1887! Wow! It’s a wonderful combination of QueenAnne, Jacobean, Tudor, and Romanesque styles. Tragically Thompson would not enjoy his summer retreat for long, dying in 1889. His widow, Mary stayed in the manse thrusting herself into gardening creating nine themed gardens between 1902 and 1919. The Thompson’s were childless, so when Mary died in 1923, the estate was left to her oldest nephew Emory Clark. At the beginning of the Depression he sold the estate to the VA in 1931. The VA built a hospital complex on the adjacent 100 acres and used the mansion for doctors & nurses housing. After 40 yrs the mansion had fallen into decline. In 1972 the VA transferred the ownership to a nonprofit preservation society which has since then & continues to restore the immense estate. Sonnenberg is now a house museum & venue. 🙌👍 The mansion is sparsely furnished, containing no original furnishings. You’ll hafta imagine the interiors filled with all the gorgeous clutter that the Gilded Age victorians loved. Photos: 4-5) inner courtyard garden, 6) colonnade, 7) entrance, 8) staircase, 9-12) great hall, 13-14) drawing room, 15) library, 16-17) dining room , 18-19) upper hall, 20) Mary’s bedroom. #gildedage #countryhousestyle