Following the presentation on Saturday, May 16, Sandra Bosley received a question about the exuberant Queen Anne style house on the corner of Washington and Boscawen Streets. It, along with the other late Victorian homes on that block, was owned by the Baker family, of Baker & Co. wholesale grocery fame. The so-called “palatial” residence was built by William H. Baker, the chocolate magnate of the family.
The house on the corner, known as The Gables, is not only one of Winchester’s most visibly ostentatious dwellings, but one of the designs produced by Knoxville, Tennessee-based architect George F. Barber.
Barber was a self-taught architect, learning from books like George Palliser’s American Cottage Homes and technical books published by A.J. Bicknell and Company. Barber published his first catalog consisting of fourteen designs in 1887 or 1888. The second edition featuring 59 designs was published in 1890, and his mail order architecture business boomed. Most of his plans were late Victorian confections with distinctive tower, porch, and chimney flourishes, but toward the end of his career, he produced a handful of Colonial Revival and transitional Queen Anne/Colonial Revival style designs as well.(1)
Although Barber phased out his catalog business in 1908, his work had become so widespread as to have representative buildings in all 50 states. Winchester can boast of at least five extant Barber designed houses and two known demolished designs. The Gables is the most famous example, but the known Winchester Barber designed houses are:
- 312-314 Amherst Street
- 316 Amherst Street, Bessie McCann House
- 133 North Cameron Street, Scott A. Affleck House (demolished)
- 105-107 Lee Street
- 411 Tennyson Avenue, Courtfield
- 12 North Washington Street, Judge William Atkinson House (demolished)
- 5 South Washington Street, The Gables
As noted by Michael Alcorn during his research trip to Winchester in 1998, it seems likely one person would order a George F. Barber catalog and then pass it on to a friend, so that multiple Barber houses appear in a “cluster.” As Queen Anne houses are not typically thought of when considering potential mail order houses, Barber designs are easily overlooked by enthusiasts of other mail order homes, like Sears, Aladdin, Montgomery Ward, and many more. Peruse more Barber designs at the Knox County Public Library. You just might recognize the design of another local Barber house!
