
hen
Cleveland wrote his 1874 description of the structures on Main Street, this
lot and the one to the north, where #307 now stands, were still occupied
by the Presbyterian Meeting-house, which had not yet moved to the site it
now occupies; an event that occurred in 1879.
Charles D. Welles bought
the lot from the trustees after the move, divided it in two, and then built
this house for his own residence in 1883. It's a very nice example of the
so-called Eastlake style, a name that refers to the elaborate carved and
pierced woodwork that generally is more in evidence indoors than on the
exterior. Eastlake is really a substyle of the predominant Victorian Queen
Anne style, with its asymmetrical massing and rich surface detail. In the
1880s the trusses in the gables such as
those
this house has were becoming popular, also the rather vertical feel of the
house as a whole. The two or three French Renaissance details, like the
mansard roof and dormer on the rectangular tower and the little mansard
hood over the big double window on the west side serve to emphasive the
building's eclectic flavor.