They can’t all be Victorians. Built in 1910, our house is an Eastern Pennsylvania vernacular Edwardian rowhouse with an eclectic but congruent combination of late Victorian, Classical Revival, Arts & Crafts, and Art Nouveau elements. While many American houses of the early twentieth century are styled Victorians because of the their similarity to the forms that predominated in the late nineteenth century during the reign of Queen Victoria, there are some distinctive features of the Edwardian period from 1901 to roughly 1914–15 worth distinguishing.
House of Bond is among the first houses built in the West Walnut neighborhood of Allentown. The southernmost townhouse in a row of three – 114, 114½, and 116. The conjoined triplets were built as models for the newly developing neighborhood in 1910. 114½ and 116 are semi-detached, sharing a wall for about half the length of the structure, the other half separated by an open-ended lightwell providing daylighting and cellar entry for 114½.