Pillow-Thompson House, Phillips Community College

Jerome B. Pillow and his wife, Jane, built this outstanding example of a Queen Anne house, and their descendants occupied it until 1992, when it was donated to Phillips Community College. The two-and-a-half-story wooden house showcases a splendid display of gables, turrets, bay windows, porches, and decorative woodwork, demonstrating the status, taste, and wealth of its owner, in this case from agricultural holdings. It is one of the more flamboyant works of George F. Barber, who produced at least twenty thousand sets of plans and construction documents. Barber was a master of mass marketing, publishing catalogs of designs and plans, a book of testimonials, and a monthly magazine, all intended to stir in the reader the desire for one of his designs. Upon ordering a house plan, the aspiring homeowner received scaled plans and elevations, a sheet of color samples, and a bill of materials.