George L. Bidwell House
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Burnham Historical Building (George L. Bidwell House)
1861–1863. 204 E. Church St.
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(Photograph by Kathryn Bishop Eckert) -
(Photograph by Kathryn Bishop Eckert)
Overlooking Broad Street, formerly Adrian's premier residential thoroughfare, and fronting the pleasant Dennis and State streets residential district, is the largest, finest, and most exuberant Italianate house in town. The large brick cube is topped with an ornately bracketed, low-pitched, hipped roof and culminates in a belvedere. A scalloped cornice echoes the round-arched motif of the single and triple windows and of the balustraded bay windows and balcony. A one-bay, fluted, Corinthian-columned front porch adds to the Italianate splendor. George Bidwell (1819–1889), a hardware and dry goods merchant who came from Colbrook, Connecticut, and Livingston County, New York, arrived in Michigan in 1836. The house speaks the boisterous language of a self-confident and ambitious client at a dynamic moment in time.
Writing Credits
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Data
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Location: Adrian, MichiganRegional Overviews:Materials:
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Citation
Kathryn Bishop Eckert, "Burnham Historical Building (George L. Bidwell House)", [Adrian, Michigan], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/MI-01-LE4.
Print Source
Buildings of Michigan, Kathryn Bishop Eckert. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2012, 187-187.
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