Blake-Beaty-Orton House - Jasper, TX - U.S. National Register of Historic Places on Waymarking.com

"The Blake-Beaty-Orton House in Jasper, Texas, is a two-story Victorian house with a dramatic portico on the entrance or west facade. The house rests on piers of handmade bricks and is made entirely of the native pine including the beveled siding shingles , of different shapes, vertical beaded siding as well as various ornamentations. The roof covering is now corrugated tin but was originally wood shingles . The original windows are narrow and contain 2/2 lights.

The complex pattern of roof planes with intersecting turret as well as the contrasting textures and the irregular plan are unified by the dominant entrance bay consisting of a gable resting on two elongated Roman columns—a portico of dramatic scale . Contrasting with this portico is the more conventional system of wrap around, one-story galleries with turned balustrades , slender turned posts, punched brackets and spandrels. The overlapping and combination of the two is a unique and arresting feature of this house. This manipulation of scale is an excellent example of the form in architecture not being wholly dependent on technology. The gable contains an elaborate bargeboard consisting of an intricate fan and delicate leaf and floral cut-outs and pendants— a tracery-like design producing an array of shadows on the shingled surface . The fan is outline d by a simple molding with half-round terminations.

That portion of the second floor gallery over the main entrance projects slightly as if it was an isolate d balcony, adding to the spatial sensation. These galleries have handsome newel posts, balusters and spindle friezes supported by brackets . The resultant rhythm adds greatly to the richness of the composition. A half turret with a conical roof supported by brackets projects from the wall at the second level on the north side of the portico."