c. 1875. 520 N. Lamar Blvd.
This wooden house, its siding milled to look like ashlar masonry with prominent, raked mortar joints, resembles buildings found in places such as New Orleans or St. Louis, which was the previous locale of its original owner, Charles Howry. Commonly labeled as Italianate, it might be better described as Second Empire, though it lacks a mansard roof. Oral traditions have it that the building was designed by local architect Alexander Stewart, its parts cut to order elsewhere and shipped by boat to Oxford, or that its parts were ordered from a catalog. In any case, the house is unusual: outwardly symmetrical with a projecting pedimented central bay, but entered off center from the north porch.