In honor of Historic Preservation Month, I’d like to share one of the things I enjoy most about historic buildings: their evolution and change. That may seem to be at odds with the whole idea of historic preservation, but buildings are physical expressions of history, left to us to appreciate (or not) and read the generations of modifications wrought by people long gone. Nothing is static in this world, and just as the practice of preservation changes (as I noted in my post earlier this week), and we all change and age, buildings change to reflect new needs or simply to be “on trend.” I could provide innumerable examples of historic buildings with additions, stylistic renovations, and the like, but in the interest of time, I’ll stick with just one, the Dr. William Pawling House in Danville, Kentucky.
Façade of the Dr. William Pawling House.
This two-story, brick, side-passage, double pile plan dwelling was built around 1847 for a local physician, William Pawling. The Greek Revival style house was in the same block as the Courthouse, just to the northwest of that structure and many commercial buildings. It is shown on the 1876 map below as the S.V. Rowland House (blue arrow).
Section of the 1876 Map of Boyle and Mercer Counties, Kentucky, by DG Beers and Company.
The house miraculously escaped a disastrous fire that consumed much of downtown Danville in 1860. According to local sources, it was one of only four buildings in a two block radius to survive the conflagration.
The porch, looking east.
I imagine the original house either had no porch, and let that spectacular doorway on the facade speak for itself with calm dignity. The door, with pilasters and recessed panels, has the requisite transom and sidelights (though it appears the transom has been painted over, a change that I do not applaud). Of course, the dwelling may also have had a one-story portico centered on the entryway, so at the east side of the house. The Sanborn Fire Insurance maps from 1886 and 1891 show a frame porch of roughly those proportions.
Section of the 1886 Sanborn map showing the Pawling House.
The current porch was added between 1891 and 1896, and spans 2/3 of the façade and then wraps around the east elevation. It’s a stylistic change, and it’s a delicious piece of work.
Section of the 1896 Sanborn map showing the Pawling House and its fashionable new porch.
The porch has turned and chamfered posts, and all of the fancy trim work (gingerbread ornamentation, many people might call it) that characterized the Eastlake style and many a Queen Anne style house from the Victorian period.
The wrap-around porch.
A circa 1972 image of the facade and west elevation of the house. Photograph from the survey/NRHP files.
The porch itself underwent change with the rise of the automobile age. At some point after 1914, the porch floor on the east side of the house was removed to provide access to a small one bay wide garage that had been added to that side of the house. Amazingly, the porch itself was saved, and formed a carport of sorts over the access to the garage.
Purists may quibble over this transformation, but the addition of a garage/carport is a historic change.
Detail of the garage.
The house today serves as professional offices, as it has for some time, I believe.
There are doubtless other changes that either I failed to observe (or am not mentioning) or are not visible from the street (I think all of the chimneys have been taken down below the roofline), but what I did see is an engrossing narrative of historic change. A building that tells a story just by the features on the outside – that’s something to celebrate and be glad that it has been preserved.
Thanks