Mills House - Osawatomie, Kansas - Victorian Style Architecture on Waymarking.com

For a very small town in Kansas, this is quite the structure. It sits on a quiet side street. The blue building with the typical Queen Anne tower makes this house a bellwether example of the late Queen Anne style. Signage on the front of the house reads:
"Mills House Circa 1902 Listed on the National Register of Historic Places

The William Mills House (ca. 1902-1904) is located at 212 First Street in Osawatomie, Miami County, Kansas (pop. 4,459). The two-and-one-half-story, balloon frame, cedar lap sided Queen Anne structure stands on a rusticated limestone foundation and is covered with a cross gabled, hipped roof with asphalt and wooden shingles. A full basement stands beneath the house. The building has an eastern facade orientation and measures approximately seventy feet from east to west and fifty feet from north to south. The building maintains a moderately high degree of interior and exterior architectural detailing but its condition is slightly deteriorated.

The facade of the house is defined by a three-story tower which projects from the southern part of the eastern elevation and a one-story porch which extends north from the eastern elevation's center and then wraps around the eastern third of the north elevation. The porch is supported by Ionic capitaled wooden columns. A pergola projects from the south side of the porch. Rock-faced and half-timbered gables project from the east, north, and south elevations, angled bays stand below them. Brick chimneys with corbelled pots rise from the roof slopes of the east, south, and west elevations. The chimney on the eastern roof slope exhibits recessed panelling on its four sides. Galvanized metal roof ornaments cap all of the roof apexes. The roof, now covered with asphalt shingles, with the exception of the tower and pergola roofs, which are covered with wooden shingles, was originally roofed with single color, dark slate shingles. The wooden belt course which tops the foundation, the corner posts which mark each corner's conclusion, the plain fascia board which surmounts the second story, and the bracketted second story overhang outline the house.

The fenestration is generally 1/1 with wooden surrounds. Some of the windows are fixed with leaded glass panes.

- National Register Application

Historic Name: Mills, William, House
Historic Function: Domestic
Subcategory: Single Dwelling
Present Function: Domestic
Subcategory: Single Dwelling
Residential/Commercial/Religious Style: Queen Anne
Physical Description/Remarks: cross gable and hip roof
Plan Form: Irregular
Roof Form: Complex
Stories: 2 1/2
Condition: Excellent
Principal Material: Wood
Architect/Designer/Builder: George F. Barber
Year of Construction: 1904
Certainty: Estimated
Date Notes: National Register nomination states construction was between 1902 and 1904.
General Remarks: General design from George Barber catalog with many additional details designed by Mr. Mills.
Ancillary Structures: Garage/Carriage House
Ancillary Structure Remarks: Original garage / carriage house sits southwest of main house.

- Kansas Historic Resources Inventory for Mills House

Public/Private: Private Tours Available?: no Year Built: 1902-1904 Web Address: [Web Link]

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