95 Madison Street, Peleg C. Howland, 1876 EastLake Stick style

95 Madison Street, Peleg C. Howland, 1876 EastLake Stick style

Jireh Swift sold the land opposite his home to a local builder, William Tillinghast, in 1875. In the following year, two houses were completed. Peleg C. Howland purchased the house at 95 Madison Street. Howland had come to New Bedford from Westport, and in 1851 was employed as a teller in the Merchants Bank. He married Lucy Congdon, daughter of the head cashier, that same year and became cashier at the death of his father-in-law. After the death of his first wife, he married Clara Kempton, for whom this house was built in 1875. Following her death, he married her sister, Elizabeth Kempton.

The exposed timbers are a hallmark of the Stick Style in American building, while the pierced carpentry is in the fashion of medieval decoration identified with the nineteenth century English designer and historian, Charles Eastlake. The use of several colors to emphasize the variety of carvings was a widespread Victorian practice. The house also features a steep roof and an intricate asymmetrical plan.