2. Taylor's Field Historic District - National Register Nomination

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United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018 Taylor’s Field Historic District Saint Joseph County, IN Name of Property County and State Sections 9-end page 29 housing in Taylor’s Field had is evident in many of the larger homes, in comparable scale and styles, lining South Street east to Lincoln Way (photos 22-24). Some of the district’s earliest architecture is vernacular in forms of gable-front, upright-and- wing, T-plan, and gabled-ell design. The gable-front house was an early house type constructed in developing towns, often after the first generation of side-gabled homes were built. Narrow urban lots were more conducive to the gable-front house, which had a narrow front wall compared to its longer sides. There are only a few examples of historic gable-front houses in the district dating to c.1885 in a row on Columbia Street. Thought to have developed from the gable-front house type is the upright-and-wing type which is composed of a gable-front section (upright) with a side-gable section (wing) on the side of the upright section. This housing type is thought to have developed from the initial construction of one part or the other first, followed by the construction of the second part of the house as funds permitted or as the family grew. There are two examples of upright-and-wing houses in the district. They were built c. 1880 and are located near each other at 532 Columbia (photo 16) and 320 South Street (right side of photo 15). Both examples have two-story upright sections and one-story wings. Other variations on the gable-front plan with added ells to the house include the T-plan and gabled-ell. The T-plan was used in great regularity in the district from 1885 through about 1905 and is represented by ten examples. Two notable examples include a one-story example at 618 Carroll Street, built as a small Italianate/Free Classic cottage c. 1890 (right side of photo 13) and a simple one-and-a-half story example at 418 South Street (left side of photo 21) built c. 1905 with carpenter-applied Queen Anne features. The following narratives provide information on the most prolific styles and examples of those styles found in the district. These include Queen Anne/Free Classic, American Four Square, and Prairie Style. Queen Anne & Free Classic The Queen Anne Style was popular between 1880 and 1910; it was named and popularized by a group of 19th century English architects led by Richard Norman Shaw. The historical precedents used had little to do with the Renaissance style popular during Queen Anne’s reign; rather they borrowed from late medieval examples of the proceeding Elizabethan and Jacobean era. Spindlework popularly used with the style and free classic subtypes are American interpretations and became the most dominant form of the style in the United States. As Free Classic adaptations were made to the Queen Anne style, they increased in popularity and the transition to Classical Revival and other competing styles occurred with ease.