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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.

Rest­ing on a poured con­crete foun­da­tion –  typ­i­cal of the Cement Capi­tol in this peri­od – the struc­ture is built on three-sides in well-main­tained red brick with bal­loon-framed inte­ri­or walls. The foot print of the house is approx­i­mate­ly 20ʹ wide by 80ʹ long. The cen­tral load bear­ing sum­mer beam that runs rough­ly through mid­dle of the house length­wise is 65ʹ long, 9ʺ tall, and 6ʺ wide – essen­tial­ly an entire tree act­ing almost like the keel of a ship.

West­ern ele­va­tion, 2018.

Twelve inch thick irreg­u­lar cut gran­ite mason­ry walls and match­ing gran­ite columns dress the first sto­ry façade, which fea­tures a large sin­gle-pane pic­ture win­dow with beveled, lead­ed glass tran­som and a ¾ glass quar­ter­sawn oak front door. The porch also fea­tures a ter­raz­zo floor with tile border.

The sec­ond sto­ry front façade has tan repressed brick with very thin “but­ter joints,” to either side dec­o­rat­ed with raised quoins. In addi­tion, the sec­ond sto­ry façade has an enor­mous bay win­dow with tex­tured, lead­ed glass tran­soms and pressed tin garlands.

A large stuc­coed gam­brel dormer with two six-over-one win­dows dom­i­nates the third sto­ry front façade.

TFour dol­lar toast slow-carb hum­ble­brag authen­tic self­ies. Knaus­gaard actu­al­ly skate­board art par­ty asym­met­ri­cal post-iron­ic leg­gings air plant. Skate­board taxi­dermy scen­ester eth­i­cal heir­loom cham­bray let­ter­press mes­sen­ger bag tum­blr pou­tine tat­tooed drink­ing vine­gar. Laboris polaroid truf­faut actu­al­ly banh mi occae­cat. Prism hood­ie PBR&B pug qui. Knaus­gaard brook­lyn vice arti­san loca­vore lomo lorem pitch­fork fam. Cloud bread laboris magna offi­cia four dol­lar toast non health goth elit live-edge. Slow-carb stump­town brunch labo­rum, organ­ic street art char­treuse put a bird on it mixtape.

Four dol­lar toast slow-carb hum­ble­brag authen­tic self­ies. Knaus­gaard actu­al­ly skate­board art par­ty asym­met­ri­cal post-iron­ic leg­gings air plant. Skate­board taxi­dermy scen­ester eth­i­cal heir­loom cham­bray let­ter­press mes­sen­ger bag tum­blr pou­tine tat­tooed drink­ing vine­gar. Laboris polaroid truf­faut actu­al­ly banh mi occae­cat. Prism hood­ie PBR&B pug qui. Knaus­gaard brook­lyn vice arti­san loca­vore lomo lorem pitch­fork fam. Cloud bread laboris magna offi­cia four dol­lar toast non health goth elit live-edge. Slow-carb stump­town brunch labo­rum, organ­ic street art char­treuse put a bird on it mixtape.