826 Longmeadow Street (#47 The Downing House - Late 1850's)

In the late 1850's Stephen Colton built a small Gothic Revival cottage based on the designs of Andrew Jackson Downing in Downing's Country Houses published in 1850. Downing describes the design as "a cottage made ornamental with trifling expense, and without sacrificing truthfulness to that kind of tasteful simplicity which is the true touchstone of cottage beauty". Of obvious interest are the high pitched roof and dormers with highly carved parge boards, often called "gingerbread".

[Photo contributed by Rachel Port]
[Text reprinted with permission from The Historic Homes of Longmeadow
© 1988 & 2012 Hall/Hayes - All Rights Reserved]


click to view