The Old Neighborhood Part I
Stop #08
450 Westcott Street
- Built: ca. 1900
- Architect: Unknown
This is a large one-family house of the type increasingly popular in the 1890s, when many builders returned to the simpler cubic house form that was the easier and cheapest way of building a spacious residence on a limited lot using pre-fab building material. The basics for one of these balloon-frame structures, built over a deep stone foundation and basement (clearly visible on the south side), is of two main levels at least two rooms deep, with a tall attic story beneath a steeply sloping gable front roof. Added features can include projecting bays and dormers, as is seen here on the south side, and porches. This house has an ample full width two-story porch that even wraps around to the north side on the ground level. It has been rebuilt and the brick stairs and piers supporting double wood supports are additions.
This house has its essential features intact, although the shingle siding was added – sometime between the 1920s and 1950s. Beneath this still be narrow clapboard siding and perhaps decorative shingles in the front gable where the original multi-pane decorative windows are still in place. A similar multi-pane stairway window is still in place on the south side, too. This is now a rental property, advertised as having six bedrooms and two baths.