Fitch-Gorham-Brooks House (Jabez Fitch–Charles Gorham–Harold C. Brooks House)

Regarded as an outstanding example of Greek Revival, this house is a two-story, pentastyle, temple-form brick building, painted white, with a giant Ionic portico. Ornamenting the pediment on the portico is a half-moon window, with two sidelights decorated with wrought-iron grilles, imitating traditional Greek Revival doorways. Although the portico appears symmetrical, the five fluted columns are spaced unevenly to accommodate the window arrangement. The use of five columns in the portico in this work and in Stonehall ( CA18) is unusual, since the Greek preference was for an even number of columns.

Jabez Fitch (1795–1843), a prominent merchant, temperance advocate, and Presbyterian, built the house. Charles Gorham (1812–1901), a mercantile partner of Chauncey Brewer, banker, and politician, bought it in 1851. According to a contemporary account, his wife, Charlotte Eaton Hart Gorham, presided “with gracious dignity over the beautiful home, which, as it occupies an elevation, and is of imposing architecture, is one of the notable residences of Marshall.” Harold C. Brooks acquired the house in the twentieth century and contracted with Jensen to design the grounds.