John K. and Susie Wadley House

This house was remodeled nine years after its purchase by the Wadleys to reflect a move away from the more exuberantly picturesque Queen Anne toward the newer and quieter Colonial Revival style. Wadley’s large fortune was derived from dealings in the lumber, railroad, oil, and hotel industries. The house’s asymmetrical massing, spindlework balustrades on the wraparound porch, and a prominent second-story window with stained glass insets are all remnants of Queen Anne. But now the porch columns are short Tuscan columns grouped in triplets rising from brick plinths supporting a dentiled cornice, and the tower, now subsumed within the curving corner of the house, is only a squat onion domelike protuberance, lower than the apex of the steep pyramid roof. The pronounced horizontal lines of the ground-level porch, which extends to form a porte-cochere, and the second-story sleeping porch contribute to a newer, more horizontal quality than the earlier Queen Anne preference for verticality. The lavishly decorated interior incorporates the curved walls of the exterior corner and includes a dramatic staircase rising from the foyer. The Wadleys significantly enlarged the house to include a formal dining room, a master bedroom, and upstairs bath, as well as adding a garage, guest house, and fishpond in the spacious side garden. Interestingly, even at this late date, it is known that both the Wadley House and the Garrison House (MI6) originally had exterior kitchens.