The Old Neighborhood Part I

This is a fine and near perfectly preserved example of a late 19th-century family house for a Syracuse professional.  The house might be described as a Queen Anne style residence because of its variegated roofline and dynamic massing, and this is so. But in fact, the house is also a fairly simple expansion of the common Four Square house type, with central cube core topped with hipped roof.  You can see that here, but the builder has animated the cube by extending polygonal  bays on the south side and in front, and surmounting these with large, even looming, gables. The front gable exceeds the width of the bay and overtops a 2-story original spindle-work porch.  The house maintains its original cut stone foundation, wood clapboard siding and decorative shingles in the gable.  After more than a century, if treated well, this house can survive for generations as a Westcott beauty.