Strain, W. A., House - Lancaster, TX - Victorian Style Architecture on Waymarking.com

"The two and a half story frame late-Victorian structure with gabled wood shingle roof and brick foundation has an asymmetrical plan. Its guttering system around the roof sends rain water through a charcoal bin to a cistern. The house was originally painted a deep rust color with cream colored trim. It is now white with black trim. Some of the original metal roof cresting has been removed. There is a wide band of imbricated shingle siding between the first and second floors around the front and two sides of the house. The shingle siding is repeated on gable ends and around the third story of the turret. One-over-one double-hung sash windows are used predominantly on all facades of the house. There is a large central corbeled brick chimney with two evenly spaced brick belt courses encircling it, and a smaller, very simple brick chimney toward the southeast (back) of the house.

The northwest (front) facade shows a ground floor gallery wrapping around the southwest corner of the house with a wide central pedimented entry, turned columns, spindled and cut-out balustrade and cut-out spandrels. The second story gallery directly above stops at the southwest corner of the house. Beside the gallery, three windows separated by muntins have a stained-glass transom above on the ground floor. A horizontal stained glass window is on the second floor with a low-pitched pediment above. Both triangular pediments on this facade are trimmed with dentils and applied serpentine wood moldings. The single-light casement window in the gable end above once contained stained glass. The peak of the gable end is spanned by a cut-out bargeboard. There is a three-story turret on the north corner of this facade, its cone-shaped shingle roof topped with a metal finial at its peak. Circular windows on the third floor once contained stained glass. There is a carved wood medallion above the second story window on the turret."