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Sprague House

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c. 1850, c. 1870. VT 14, 0.5 miles north of VT 65
  • (HABS/HAER)

After the Civil War, John K. and Elizabeth Sprague acquired a farm on the Second Branch of the White River north of the village of East Brookfield. Almost immediately John restyled the Classic Cottage farmhouse by adding scroll-sawn window friezes and gable vergeboards. Most distinctively, he added a broad projecting, central gabled pavilion supported on a full-width front porch with square columns, which shelters one of the arched inset balcony porches especially popular throughout eastern Vermont between 1850 and 1870. However, unlike the more common round or semielliptical arches used on such balconies, this one has an ogee-arched opening and porch ceiling, a Gothic Revival variation of the balcony porches popular in the White River Valley. Two earlier examples remain in Royalton village and another in Barnard village. The Sprague family still operates the farm, and after a fire in the 1990s they rebuilt this landmark, faithfully re-creating its style.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Glenn M. Andres and Curtis B. Johnson
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Data

What's Nearby

Roxbury Fish Hatchery
Edgerton House
Chase House
Blake House
Commercial Building (Hood Store)

Citation

Glenn M. Andres and Curtis B. Johnson, "Sprague House", [Brookfield, Vermont], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/VT-01-OG1.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of Vermont

Buildings of Vermont, Glenn M. Andres and Curtis B. Johnson. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2013, 327-327.

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