County of building: Saint Charles County
Location of structure: Jefferson St., 3rd house W of N 5th St., N side, St. Charles
Built: 1918
Architect: Unknown
Architectural Style: Craftsman/Bungalow
Original Occupant: Robert Lamb
Map
"244. 512 Jefferson Street; Craftsman; circa 1918; Contributing
Built circa 1918, this 1½-story brick Craftsman bungalow has a scored concrete foundation and a side-gabled roof with wide overhanging eaves and knee braces in the gable ends. Broad gabled dormers are on both the front and rear slopes and each has a band of three 1/1 windows below a continuous lintel. In the gable end of the dormer are brackets and the walls are finished with asphalt roofing shingles. On the
rear slope is an interior brick chimney with concrete cap. The 2-bay façade has a full-light wood door with full-light leaded glass sidelights, and a transom is over the door and each of the sidelights. To the east is a large 1/1 wood window. The door opens onto a ¾-width gallery that has a shed roof with exposed rafter tails that have deep notches. Battered brick piers extend to ground level and have concrete
caps upon which rest the Tudor-arched frieze. Below the wood deck are framed lattice panels. The concrete stairway is flanked by brick knee walls and at the top of the stairway are brick pedestals. A flat
baluster railing encloses the porch." ~ NRHP Nomination Form
"Built: 1918 ca.
Style/Design: Craftsman/Bungalow
The Robert Lamb House was built c. 1918 as the home of Robert, Nola and Opal Lamb. The house was not shown on the 1917
Sanborn map but was drawn on the next map in 1929. Although the county parcels database estimated the date of construction
as 1930, that was obviously an estimate since this address is first listed in the 1918-1919 city directory (and not in the 1917
directory). Robert was a policeman. Miss Nola Lamb worked at International Shoe Company, a nearby factory, and Miss Opal
Lamb worked at the Stave Factory. That year, the Lambs apparently had a boarder, listed at 512 ½ Jefferson, Charles Becker. By
1921, neither of these families lived in the house and by 1925-26, Edward J. Pundmann was listed as the homeowner, remaining
at least through 1961. This house replaced a pre-1893 house on the site, which had become flats before its demolition. The
Robert Lamb House is a great example of a Craftsman bungalow, one that appears to retain all of its significant architectural
details, including the full width porch with battered corner columns, the broad front and rear gables on the side gabled roof, the
wide eaves and exposed notched rafters, original windows, full light front door with leaded glass sidelights, wood porch floor,
wood storm window enclosed rear porch and even the asphalt faux brick siding in the gable ends. Depending on what other
Craftsman bungalows are in St. Charles, and the state of interior details, this house might be one of the best local examples of
this architectural style.
"This 1.5 stories, red brick, side gabled Craftsman bungalow has broad gabled dormers on both the front and rear elevations, each
with three 1 over 1 windows below a continuous sill. Like the main roof, the dormers have wide eaves with knee braces. The full
width porch has a shed roof that extends at a shallower pitch off the main roof, and it has rafter tails notched with deep slits. At
each corner there are battered brick piers which connect to the shallow Tudor arched beams that span the openings. The brick
piers extend to concrete bases at ground level and have concrete caps as well. The wood porch floor retains its latticework in-fill
between the porch piers and its original flat baluster porch railings that extend to brick newel posts on either side of the broad
entry stair, which is offset to the west of center in line with the entry door. The door is a full light wood door with leaded glass, full
light sidelights, and a transom is over the door and each of the sidelights. There is a large 1 over 1 wood sashed window in the
east bay of the facade and a small, elevated, leaded glass window at the west end of the facade (probably positioned at a stair
landing). On each side of the house, the gable ends are clad with asphalt, faux brick siding, which may not be original to the
house since that product was probably not widely used until the 1930s, but it is an alteration within the period of significance of
the district. The second floor has paired, 1 over 1 windows and the first floor has additional 1 over 1 windows with dressed stone
sills. On each side, the scored concrete foundation is visible as a raised water table pierced by the vertical light, awning windows
in the basement. On the east elevation, there is also a canted bay window with a wide eave shed roof. It has a 1 over 1 window
on the front facet but not on the east side. The brick chimney is centered on the rear slope, but it has a newer metal chimney
cap. On the rear, there is a partial width enclosed porch that has a shed roof that is an extension of the main roof, and there are
notched exposed rafters in the wide eaves. It has a beadboard railing/wall with a series of wooden storm windows enclosing the
porch. It has lattice work below the wood porch floor. The rear door is still the 4 pane, half light wood door. To the east of the
porch is a wood, sloped, trap door entry to the basement. Both the front and rear porch have concrete steps which appear to be
replacements. The gutters are not historic. The green asphalt shingles on the roof and the dormer walls are probably
replacements, but may be the same material as was used originally.
"The rear yard is paved for parking, but the front yard still retains its sloped upper yard that extends down to a public sidewalk. It
appears that the lower set of concrete steps and the sidewalk leading to the porch, as well as the porch steps, have all been
replaced recently with newly poured concrete." ~ St. Charles Historic Survey Phase I, PDF ages 228-23