March 2025.
My last stop (in this blog’s order, at least) in Springfield was the East High Street Historic District, an area containing the Victorian mansions of Springfield’s Gilded Age elite. This is really great historic residential architecture, and I’m glad I had the time to get here on the second day I visited.
For some quick background, this area was platted as an addition to Springfield by William and Gustavus Foos in 1848. It became Springfield’s “millionaire’s row” during the late 19th century, as local businessmen departed from the established tradition of living either within or adjacent to their business. One industrialist, P. P. Mast, tried to establish West High Street as the fashionable address, but ultimately East High Street won out. The area retained this status past the turn of the 20th century.
721 East High Street
This is a Chateauesque house, which dates it to c. 1880-1910. The steeply pitched roof, elaborate gables and chimneys, and masonry walls are hallmarks of the style, but the vaulting across the house might indicate a touch of Romanesque influence.
Chateauesque houses were generally designed as landmarks by architects, and this house is no exception. Its massive size indicates it belonged to an upper-class family, much like its neighbors. The house has been divided into apartments today, a common alteration to Victorian mansions once the area’s demographics change.
726 East High Street
This house is an Italianate, most obviously seen in its cross-gable massing and bracketed roofline. It could date from 1840-1885, but 1860-1880 seems more likely. What most intrigues me is the rounded, richly detailed bay window that breaks the corner of the otherwise orthogonal facade.
736 East High Street
Another Italianate house, this building’s footprint is more eclectic and seems to have been added onto over time. The mansard roof and more elaborate drip molds at the rear are Second Empire characteristics, but it blends into the (presumably) original house well due to sharing the same materials and floor heights.
I believe this house retains some of its original wooden sash windows. The ones on the principal facade are likely replacements, however.
Foos Manor
The Foos Manor in 1889. (Ohio History Connection)
At this point, we begin to explore the houses that are actually on the Register and not just ones I thought looked cool. First is the Foos Manor at 810 East High Street. This elaborate Italianate house was constructed in 1870, featuring a heavily decorated masonry facade, corbeled roof, and exquisite woodwork inside. It was built by John Foos, who established various manufacturing businesses and a bank in Springfield.
The masonry facade indicates that the client was certainly well-to-do, as it was (and still is) much more expensive to build houses out of stone or brick rather than wood.
Applied ornamentation flourishes here--the house features many carved stone features, such as the south and west porticoes, drip molds, and pilasters. Additionally, the wooden roof is crowned by a large broken pediment and bracketed eaves.
Rinehart-Bowman House
Another masonry Italianate house, this one is symmetrical in plan, unlike the other Italianates seen thus far. The Rinehart-Bowman House was built in 1873 for John Rinehart, who owned a farming machinery factory. It was sold to attorney S. Bowman in 1882. Much like the Foos Manor, this house features similar stone ornamentation and a bracketed roof with a pediment on top.
Asa Bushnell House
Strap in, because this massive Richardsonian Romanesque mansion abounds in beautiful detail. It is the grandest and most architecturally significant of any of the houses in the historic district.
The only historic photo I could find of the house. (Westcott Center)
The Asa Bushnell House was designed for its eponymous owner, the president of the Warder, Bushnell, and Glessner Company and governor of Ohio from 1896 to 1900. His partners John Glessner and Benjamin Warder each commissioned a house designed by H. H. Richardson. Bushnell intended to do the same, but Richardson died three months before Bushnell and his wife purchased the property on which the house stands in July 1886. The natural next step was Richardson’s successor firm Shepley, Rutan, & Coolidge, but the office was so bogged down with unfinished projects that they would not accept new commissions until the following year. Bushnell hired New York architect R. H. Robertson, perhaps the most well-known architect that operated in the Richardsonian Romanesque style besides Richardson himself, to design the house.
The house’s construction was completed in fall 1888, to the intrigue of Springfield’s citizens. The Champion City Times wrote: “Numerous double windows ornamented above with oddly dressed stone, eye brow windows or better known as roof peeps, red turrets surmounting the outer angles, tall chimneys towering over the roof, quaint piazzas, the porte cochere and the drives around give the new residence a medieval appearance and lend to it a beauty and a grandeur seldom surpassed in modern architecture.” [sic]
Asa Bushnell died in 1904, and his family subsequently sold the house. It remained a private residence until the 1930s, when Austin Richards bought it to open a funeral home, which still operates today.
The typical Richardsonian contrasting masonry here is Ohio River limestone and Norcross red sandstone. An interesting feature is the alternating colors of the voussoirs. The ornamentation here is absolutely bananas, and I was really enjoying myself getting to zoom in on it up close. I like this window and its paneled relief:
Note the animal carvings--two wolves or dogs look up at plumed birds, surrounded by typical vegetative motifs. I like the little springers that support the lintel above, and each has a unique design.
Detail of the central bay window:
Most obvious is the decoration. Again, there is a decorative panel in the central window pane, and it is surrounded by two columns (with differing capitals). It’s subtle, but you can make out the fancy windows above. A less noticeable detail that I particularly like is the transition between rusticated and smooth ashlar, which makes the window opening subtly pop.
Detail of the large dormer:
More typical Richardsonian stuff is going on here. A massive arch crowns a much smaller window, yet it is not out of scale. The gable is decorated on its lower ends and crest, in the same manner as the Warder Public Library. Last but not least is the checkerboard pattern of square masonry blocks, less noticeable here since it is simply a difference in texture and not color.
The corners of the house are articulated with rounded pinnacles:
The house has an L-shaped plan, which is visible in the rear. The fenestration is much wonkier, though:
The two structures to the rear are the carriage house and caretaker’s home. Robertson designed these as an eclectic union of Richardsonian Romanesque and Shingle style architecture, as seen in their liberal use of wood paneling and broadly overhanging eaves.
The carriage house was the Victorian-era version of a garage, which would be where a family (typically a wealthy one) kept their horse-drawn carriages.
The caretaker’s house is an excellent exercise in more modest, playful residential architecture of the time:
Its pleasing asymmetrical composition and broad arches add an interesting touch. Robertson even included a big wooden panel with the construction date on it (above the circular window on the right):
Last one…I liked this “cyclopean” post that held a gate at one time:
851 East High Street
This is a Queen Anne house (c. 1880-1910) executed in brick, as indicated by the many cross gables, bay windows, and other devices meant to keep the walls from becoming too flat.
Fifth Lutheran Church
Last stop…this Richardsonian Romanesque church caught my eye as I was taking pictures of the Westcott House. Fifth Lutheran undoubtedly spawned from First Lutheran downtown, as when Springfield expanded various smaller congregations were formed. It was founded to cater to demand within the east end of Springfield, and the building’s construction began in 1893. The congregation was closed in July 2017 due to declining attendance. The church building seems to still be in use by Wings of Love Crusades, Inc.
I missed a few other stops within Springfield, like the South Fountain Avenue Historic District, old South High School, and St. Joseph’s, but otherwise I’m satisfied with my coverage. As always, thanks for reading.
Sources:
A Field Guide to American Houses by Virginia Savage McAlester
https://books.google.com/books?id=YfvhVln0D20C&pg=GBS.PA419.w.1.2.0.1#v=onepage&q&f=false
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_High_Street_Historic_District_(Springfield,_Ohio)
https://ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p267401coll36/id/11701/
https://www.westcotthouse.org/events/bushnell-house-virtual-tour
https://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/OH-01-023-0041
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asa_S._Bushnell
https://archives.ccplohio.org/digital/collection/chs/id/601/
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