A Queen Anne Delight in Sebree, Webster County, Kentucky

I adore architecture, but I’m no builder. My forays into construction as an adult consist of assembling wooden trellises from scrap wood, and then painting the entire ramshackle affair bright colors. Fully cognizant of my lack of skill, I love seeing the houses that true builders construct for themselves. Last year, while winding my way through Webster County, Kentucky, I chanced upon the circa 1901 McMullin-Warren House, a concoction of texture and decoration, built by the local owner of a planing, scoll, and and lath mill.

The facade of the McMullin-Warren House in Sebree, Kentucky.

David W. McMullin, owner of said mill, was also the only recorded building contractor at the turn of the 20th century in Sebree, a railroad town founded in 1868. Apparently, many houses in Sebree can trace their lineage to McMullin, who used the houses he built as an advertisement for his carpentry skills and his mill.

Section of the 1903 Sanborn map of Sebree, showing the McMullin & Orsburn Planing Mill.

The 2.5 story frame masterpiece that is the McMullin-Warren House is surely more valuable than any billboard.

A detail of the gable and second story polygonal bay window.

The Queen Anne style is known for its attention to detail and irregular, often asymmetrical footprints and forms. Queen Victoria may have died in January 1901, but the architectural period that bore her name lingered on across the country, especially in rural Kentucky.

Side elevation.

A tower, spindles, fretwork, friezes of spoolwork, shingles, curves and angles – the McMullin-Warren House proclaims the builders craft – for surely most, if not all of the sawn and turned ornamentation dancing across the planes of this house came, if not from David W. McMullin’s hands, then from his mill.

Stained glass highlights several of the windows  – windows of many different sizes and shapes. I imagine that in 1901 the stained glass also served as a foil for a exterior paint scheme that was not all white.

Detail of the corner tower.

McMullin may have gotten the plan and design for this house from a builder’s guide, catalog, or magazine. Neoclassical details, such as the modillions  at the cornice line and the Ionic columns on the wrap-around porch, hint at “new” architectural styles hovering on the horizon. 

The foyer of the house. Image from the National Register of Historic Places files, photo by Sara Page, circa 1987.

I only had about a half hour in Sebree before making my way back east to central Kentucky, and could only drool in passing at the exterior of the house. There are, however, a few photos of the elaborate interior of the McMullin-Warren House on file with the National Register of Historic Places.

The entry foyer is a paean to the Queen Anne style, with a parquet floor, a richly detailed staircase, and elaborate double front doors below a screen – the exterior of the doors do not reveal the sumptuous nature of their other side!

The McMullin-Warren House – in miniature, on the left, and the full-size version on the right.

One of the most endearing aspects of this local landmark? The playhouse in the front yard, which dates from around the same time as the main house. I wanted to take it home for my own daughter – since if she depends on my craftsmanship, all she’ll get are garden trellises.