12 Overwrought Victorians and one Alley

[botias]

I quit the gym a few years ago. Now I just walk around the town. Maybe I have a huge thing for Victorians because I grew up here, but nevertheless I am in the tall clover. This is the perfect storm of Victorian houses. There was an economic boom when the style was popular, the available building material is virtually rot proof, and it took very well to turning and carving. Then the prosperity faded away. If this city had become a metropolis in the intervening hundred years, very few of these would have survived the ensuing commercial development. I finally took a camera with me to share a few of my faves.




These first three I only recently discovered. *stares*






There are many, many of these more modest homes, of which mine is one. It's the garden that I can't resist here, though I like what they've done with the place very much. I want a purple banana palm in my yard! And what is that purple shrub spilling onto the sidewalk? *wants*



The promised alley.



Some people probably don't like anachronisms like satellite dishes and security lights, but I rather like them.



Wow. Way to show off for the Joneses. And it was showing off. If you look at the backside of these houses they are quite plain. Love the stained glass window with all that curved wood.







This is the one I would want to live in. It has all my favorite elements and it's conveniently painted my favorite color scheme.



This is a local bed & breakfast which is fully restored and decorated inside as well. It's not my favorite, but I can't help but be impressed by its ornate trim. Palm trees were 'in' some time in the last century, and many of these older homes have mature palms. I love that California touch.

My favorite paint job. What? I never claimed to have refined tastes.

Comments

[zanthinegirl.livejournal.com]

Those are so much fun; especially that last one. I love looking at the painted ladies!

[botias.livejournal.com]

Glad you enjoyed. :)

[petzipellepingo.livejournal.com]

I do like it when they use paint to accent all the gingerbread details. Very nice! Thanks for sharing.

There's a community north of my City (http://www.thestylishhouse.net/2009/06/beautiful-historical-victorian-homes.html) that has an annual homes tour (http://www.romeohistoricalsociety.org/RHS%20Brochure%202%20Walking%20Tour.pdf).

[botias.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the link. I like the way the showed examples of the different styles.

[deborahw37.livejournal.com]

It's Toytown! YAY!

[botias.livejournal.com]

They do look like doll houses don't they? I'm sure when they were built all those flourishes were serious bidness.

[empresspatti.livejournal.com]

I would quite cheerfully live in any of those houses!

[botias.livejournal.com]

Me too. I would happily adopt any of them.

[gillo]

Wow - so very Victorian yet all made out of wood! Amazing to me - we have so many houses of that vintage here, but even the humblest are brick - the really posh are stone. Wooden houses were very rare here in that period.

Great pictures - these houses are tremendous fun.

[botias.livejournal.com]

Brick buildings are very rare here, and old ones elsewhere still have the power to astonish me. In Colorado there were large old brick school houses still in use! Around here, they have a tendency to fall down in the earthquakes you see.

Thanks!

[louise39.livejournal.com]

Oh, the colors! And the pretty details!

It's like opening an old book and have the pictures come to life - in color!
We have almost no Victorian-type houses. Some have detail but in white or beige.

the available building material is virtually rot proof, and it took very well to turning and carving. Do you know what it is? Pressure treated wood [rot-proof] can't be cut now [OSHA regs].

The gardens are so lush. Ah, the California sun.

[botias.livejournal.com]

My wording was kind of ambiguous there. These houses are all built of old-growth heart redwood from stem to stern. It can't be cut now either, in a manner of speaking.

California sun! Hah! I haven't seen blue sky or temps over low 60's for weeks. I'm at the northern/coastal end of things and it's been a summer that wasn't. But truly, the plants do like the mild and the overcast just fine. And the overcast is good for taking outdoor pictures. There's a giant diffuser up there in the sky.

[louise39.livejournal.com]

There's a giant diffuser up there in the sky.
It makes for lovely photos!

[silverusagi]

Wow, so many of them and all beautiful! We have one street in town that is peppered with Victorian houses (used to have more, but some got torn down), but none of them except one is that ornate. There are a couple more scattered about town, but that's it. One of our neighboring towns has *tons* but it's a very poor area, so many of them have fallen into disrepair.

[botias.livejournal.com]

Glad you liked. :) Some are in disrepair here as well. I daydream of winning the lottery and rescuing them all.

[diachrony.livejournal.com]

Oooo, pretty houses! The last one is like a bag of jellybeans - or My Little Ponies.

[botias.livejournal.com]

Glad you liked. :)

[cleoius.livejournal.com]

Wow, dig that crazy color scheme for the last house picture!

[botias.livejournal.com]

I think it's fun!