Friday, February 12, 2010

The Thomas Drummond Residence

This home was built as a retirement home for former judge, Thomas Drummond.  Constructed in 1885, it is a relatively modest home and one of Silsbee's early Shingle Style buildings.
The exterior of the home is completely wrapped in shingles.  Several details give the home's composition variety.  They include a Paladian window that punctuates the main gable, an arched recessed balcony over the entry, and a double-gable on the side.  Most of the shingles are arranged in a regular manner across the facade but some variation can be seen in the gable above the dormer.  
A feature common on Silsbee's residential work of the period can be seen in the design of the porch.  The porch is an element that stretches across the facade but unlike homes by other architects of the period, it does not wrap around the body of the house, integrating itself with the overall composition.  Instead, it is treated as an elongated element that protrudes, in plan, from the rest of the structure.  It is a carefully configured exterior room that appears as a distinct open element on the outside of the home.  This element is often not visible in surviving structures as the porches have typically been infilled or additions have been made to incorporate the porch more fully with the overall structure.

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