Pearce-McAllister Cottage
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Denver Museum of Miniatures, Dolls, and Toys (Pearce-McAllister Cottage)
1899, Frederick J. Sterner. 1880 Gaylord St. (NR)
Frederick Sterner used the Dutch Colonial mode for this two-story brick house, which Harold Pearce built as a wedding present for his bride. The plan is a modified T, with a two-story servants' wing at the rear. The wood-shingled cross-gambrel roof with three evenly spaced shed dormers overhangs a full-length, balustraded entry porch. The offset doorway is flanked by side lights and pilasters. A glazed conservatory was added to the southeast corner around 1926.
Pearce, one of many British investors in Colorado railroads, mining, and smelting, married the daughter of Dr. William Bell, vice president of the Denver & Rio Grande. The couple occupied the house until returning to England in 1907. Henry McAllister, general counsel for the D&RG, purchased the house, and his family donated it to the Colorado Historical Society in 1971. It is now a house museum, with the miniatures museum upstairs and a cast iron cat still prowling the roof ridge.
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