212 South Albany Street

Built around 1883, this Queen Anne home has elaborate Eastlake-style ornamentation. It is cross-gabled, with a slender hip-roofed tower. Note the triangular gabled dormers cutting into the tower roof, the variety of wood cladding on the walls, and the spindlework balconies with fan motif brackets.

This building may have been constucted as a rental property from the beginning. Its owner, lumberyard owner Ira C. Rockwell, lived next door at 210 South Albany, and the two houses were on the same parcel until they were subdivided in 1901. Charles Westervelt (1871-1940), president of Forest City Printing Company, bought the property in 1909 and sold it to his own company in 1916. Today it is the showroom of longtime local business Foster Custom Kitchens.

LISTEN HERE