One of hundreds of house designs published by the Radford Architectural Company of Chicago in the early twentieth century, Design No. 1131 is an eclectic composition in that it combines Colonial Revival, Queen Anne and Shingle style influences.
This example in Russell, Kansas, has retained many of its original features. Let’s see what it looks like after 114 years!
That is a neat little home! Despite being a bit of a composite of various styles, I think it all works very well together. Some of the Victorian/Colonial Revival mashups are some of my favorite houses (Barber did some excellent ones in his later years).
The enclosed stair isn’t surprising, considering the compact and efficient layout. It’s interesting how many holdover Victorian aspects there are, though. Even the separate “sitting room” and parlor. I suppose the staircase could have been open in the “sitting room”, but would have monopolized the space into a foyer with minimal seating area.
I don’t know if it’s just the photo perspectives, but that upper hall looks NARROW! Something between 2 and 3 feet wide, by my guess, with a low ceiling too, that looks to be just a bit over 7′ tall (assuming those are standard 80″ tall interior doors). Although, it looks like some doors are taller than others, so maybe the ones that approach the ceiling are taller.
The interior details really are out of their time period too, with the Eastlake style doors and bullseye casing, although they are paired with plain plinth blocks. It’s interesting to see how long some of these older styles held out in the plains states.
Overall, a nice little house. Thanks for sharing!
Barber did do some amazing eclectic work! Good observations on the staircase. I think some of the doors upstairs may be transomed which would make them appear taller; I think the ceiling height is probably normal. The Great Plains have historically been behind the times whenever fashion or style are concerned. It’s still that way here, but now the lag is more like 5 years as opposed to 20 years!
That house is such a mash-up! What a cutie!