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Main Street Houses

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1820s–1880s

Despite the effects of commercial development around an I-95 interchange, Main Street in this former center for textile and iron manufacturing presents an opportunity, as does Prospect Square in Wyoming, to watch Greek Revival meld into Victorian styles in a series of modest houses; here, however, the scale is larger and the houses are set farther back from the street.

A row of flank-gabled Greek Revival duplexes for mill workers mixed with gable-fronted single-family houses culminates in number 1026 Main Street ( HO2.1). Exceptionally for mill workers' housing, the paired center doors of this duplex are fronted by an impressive Doric porch. Not even overseers were normally accorded such regal recognition. Did it originally house the upper echelons of the mill supervisory staff, if indeed this was mill housing? At number 1054 ( HO2.2), the porch for the same type of house is Tudorized with octagon columns, the first-floor windows are hooded with Renaissance-inspired cornicing, and the eaves are bracketed. All are early Victorian elements, so modestly asserted that their incongruence is hardly noticed. Nearby, at number 1050 ( HO2.3) is a bare-bones version of early Victorian Italian Villa Style—Greek Revival now put behind. At number 5 Bank Street (intersection of Main and Bank streets) ( HO2.4), a late Victorian house in the Queen Anne style flaunts splendid porch supports on vergeboard ornamentation under the gable with quatrefoil and pointed-arch cutouts playfully evocative of the Middle Ages.

The early Victorian brick commercial building at 1081 Main Street, Barber's Hall (c. 1865; now altered), once accommodated the local bank and an upstairs community hall.

Writing Credits

Author: 
William H. Jordy et al.

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