Centered on Bland Road, this early-twentiethcentury neighborhood is characterized by large Georgian Revival houses set in expansive yards. Alex B. Mahood designed the house at 2306 Bland Road ( ME16.1; 1915) for himself a few years after he arrived in Bluefield. Although it is unpretentious and of no particular style, its white stucco walls, overhanging hipped roof, and asymmetrical window arrangements hint at a Mediterranean influence, a style he used in other residential commissions. An ornamental, sculpted frieze, showing horses and riders in bas-relief, is placed at the center of an otherwise unadorned portion of the second-story facade. According to his son, the frieze was a model for a panel that Mahood's mother designed for the Mercer County Courthouse ( ME1) in Princeton.
A gargantuan, curved portico, extending far to the front, dominates the Georgian Revival facade of the R. M. Garrett House ( ME16.2; 1915, Alex B. Mahood; 109 Spring Grove Avenue). Although bombastic is a word that seldom applies to period revival residential architecture, the Garrett House definitely conjures such an image. The Gage House ( ME16.3; c. 1900, 1932; 230 Parkway), a jaunty, turn-of-thecentury Queen Anne farmhouse, holds its own among its later, more sedate neighbors, even though it was moved in 1932 to accommodate one of the newcomers. A corner turret, square in section, is capped with a steep roof, and a dormer that somehow manages to terminate in an onion-shaped dome perches on the slope of the main gabled roof. A colorful Victorian paint scheme appropriately highlights the many architectural details and varying materials.
Impressively sited on a hill near the intersection of Oakhurst and Bland Road, the E. S. Pedigo House ( ME16.4; 1926, Alex B. Mahood; E. S. Pedigo, builder; 105 Oakhurst Avenue) adds a note of exotica to Bluefield's residential architecture. Its Spanish Revival style is emphasized by a tall, flat-roofed tower, tan stucco walls, arched windows, and a red tile roof. Pedigo was one of the region's major building contractors.