Still More Homes of Lakewood, Ohio

Here is another solid and well-grounded Lakewood home. The brick foundation, stone grade wall, landscaping and front entry all anchor it firmly to its pastoral lot. The dramatic peaked mass above the front porch lends the house some grandeur, while its varied fenestration adds detail and quiet charm. The pale warmth of its siding color invite one within.

This home's composition lends it a big handsome scale. The domestic tone is first set by an attractive full-width porch overlooking the modest front lawn split by the entry walk. The tripled gabled dormer forms create a visual rhythm and articulate the house as it reaches for the sky, aided by the two brick chimneys. The well-thought-out color scheme is enhanced by the second floor wall feature and all the potted flowers at windows.

The great bulk and somber coloration of this grand Tudor are undercut by the playful yardworks: urns, statuary, planters and pavings sprinkled about the grounds. The massive and richly half-timbered second floor is punctured by sizable windows, while portions of the third floor break through in a cluster of gabled dormers (nicely reflected in the main entrance portal). Brick wraps the hefty first floor base with side porch.

We now go down in size and scale for this rather Moorish-looking home. Yet, despite its diminutive bulk, this home is still finely and sensitively detailed. A single entrance door stands recessed within its articulated stone arched portal. That portal is mimicked by the sculpted end walls turned toward each neighbor. French doors at left and right open onto a covered veranda with ornamental rail. The deep red and brown tones establish a heavy and quiet mood, lightened sufficiently by cream surfaces and glazing. All in all, a rather reserved residence, set back behind its deep and slightly mounded front lawn.

A variety of elements conspire to give this house a French or perhaps Cajun flavor: the filigreed metal porch roof supports, the oblate clerestory window at second floor center and hemisperical arch at left, the cornice line with dentils, a third floor reminiscent of a French garret, Corinthian capital decorations and a frothy color scheme. The elevated first floor appears as if designed for a flood plain, and the exquisitely detailed brick chimney is a final fillip. 

With this house, we seem to have returned to the Lakefront. The pale pastel wood shingling seems designed to beat back wind and wave. The asymmetrically canted eyebrow of the roof reminds us of cottages of Cape Cod and elsewhere on water frontage. The arched window forms seem like shipbuilders' tricks.

We finish with a house that could have won the heart of the righteous religious pilgrims that settled much of the Western Reserve. The house is austere, crisp, clean, utilitarian and well maintained. It stands amid the trees and lawn and its neighbors in rectitude and propriety, a good neighbor to all.