The Victorians

Original Victorian Homes were works of art and they will never be duplicated. These "Modern Houses" as they were called in 1890 serve as wonderful guides for today's Victorians. At the turn of the century the Victorians craftsmanship and vivid colors came to symbolize the American spirit of exploration and ingenuity and represented the owner's stature within the community. In their day these homes revolutionized the way the wealthy lived. Cheap machine produced nails, consistent lumber, and mass produced wood details offered the artist and craftsmen new opportunities to show off. Inventive central heating, sealed windows and doors, indoor running water and interior gas or electric lights raised not only the level of comfort but the costs to construct. The esteemed multi-roofed, steep pitched attics and turreted second stories were actually camouflaged containment areas for water tanks providing running water and the necessary pressure to push hot water up from the first floor boilers to the second floor bathrooms relegated to the rear of the house.

Though supplemental heat from fireplaces was still necessary, the advent of coal/oil fired furnaces in basements distributing convection air through central floor vents was a preview of things to come. Large basements partially above grade also provided the Gregarious Victorian homeowner the chance to chat at eye level with the carriage trade while avoiding wheel dust. Even a cursory study of these homes reveals art and engineering's most fashionable hour. For the lucky few It was good-bye to the countless wood toting, water bucketing trips, and an invitation to the most decorative, elaborate, purely American and sentimental form of Architecture ever seen.

They were charming but impractical, with few baths and room sizes out of proportion to todays family preferences. Exteriors though appealing were too elaborate for contemporary tastes and too costly for builders to reproduce. But the distinctive third stories and deep-covered wrap around porches endure as todays homebuyer looks for space and value in a home.

In step with the Victorian spirit we have developed a unique multi-level Victorian Home...of which no two are alike.

Click picture for an illustration

The incomparable Victorians were complex and imaginative. Merchant Victorians renditions, range from the more stylized "Celeste"- a Queen Anne period Victorian to the "Patricia" a simple Folk victorian.

The Patricia