Photos: Rebecca Brown
Do appreciate the survival of early 20th-century Dutch Colonials like this one, quaint with details. The unusual porch is intrinsic to its design and appeal.
These two Dutch Colonial-style houses are within blocks of each other in an old city in Massachusetts. Each has a gambrel roof with a wide front dormer, and both were built with front porches. The sunny yellow house retains its symmetry, its porch and unusual trim. Over the years, the other house was relieved of details, original siding, shutters—and, finally, the porch, which has been enclosed for additional living space. The incongruous pop-out window can hardly replace that amenity.
All sense of time and style has been lost, the proportions ruined, curb appeal abolished. The addition of an ersatz Victorian-style front door is sadly sweet, someone’s attempt to restore old-houseness to a shivering victim that was stripped bare.
