514 West Banner Avenue, Christian Henry and Emma Reich Fogle House, 1896-99

This large frame Queen Anne style house sits on a prominent tree-shaded hilltop facing Freeman Street. It features classical details, decorative use of shingles between levels, and is an interesting example of an early version of German-type siding. There’s a hipped dormer in the front, a hipped roof over the front projecting bay, and numerous one- and two-story hipped projections to the rear. The hipped roof is a pre-World War II replacement of the original, more complex Queen Anne roof with turrets, etc.

There’s a large semi-octagonal bay at the northern end of the front facade while a one-story porch supported by slender Tuscan columns with a turned balustrade wraps the south end. Projecting from the northern side is a porte cochere supported by matching Tuscan columns. The back porch is supported by turned posts with sawn brackets. The house also includes five tall, corbelled brick chimneys with blind inset panels.

The house was built roughly 1896-1898 by Christian Henry Fogle and his wife Emma, although Christian died just before completion in 1898. A bathroom was added in 1937, the same year a building permit was received to "remove wood shingles" at a cost of $50. Behind the house are four outbuildings, including the only barn remaining in the Washington Park neighborhood, along with an early stone retaining wall on the Banner Avenue side.

Naturally, the structure was built by Fogle Brothers Lumber Company, of which Christian Fogle was a co-founder with his brother, Charles Alexander Fogle. (Founded in 1871 and 1872 respectively, Fogle Brothers Lumber Company and Miller Brothers Lumber Company benefited from the post-Reconstruction building boom.) Company ledgers reference Mrs. Emma A. Fogle's "farm" in 1898, which included acres of fields and pastures where cattle grazed.

Emma lived in the house until 1932. It then went to her son, Frederick Augustus Fogle (owner of Forsyth Furniture Company), who remained in the house until his death in 1940. After his death, the property was divided into lots and sold in a 1951 auction, which led to the subsequent development in 1952 and 1953 of many smaller houses along surrounding streets.

Acadia Baptist Church trustees bought the remaining buildings in 1957, utilizing them as a parsonage and missionary residence until 1989. The house then reverted to private ownership.

Fogle Farm Barn - The barn has a jerkinhead roof and shorter jerkinhead garage; scalloped-shingle gables with a 4/4 sash window, and a metal shingle roof. It is the only original barn remaining in the historic district.

Jerkinhead Roof – A combination of a gable and hipped roof form.

German Siding – A type of horizontal wall cladding in which each board has a concave upper edge that fits into the corresponding groove in the lower edge of the board above. It presents a flat surface. (Also called Dutch lap.)

Tuscan Columns – Similar to the Greek Doric order (within the five Classical Orders), the Roman Tuscan order is the simplest of the five orders. The columns are always unfluted with no ornamentation, a simple round shaft topped by a round capital.