Romanzo N. Bayley House - Kirkwood, MO - Victorian Style Architecture on Waymarking.com

County of house: St. Louis County
Location of house: Argonne Drive, between Woodlawn Ave. & Smith St., north side, Kirkwood
Style: Italianate (Victorian Era)
Built: main house: 1858; secondary bldg.: 1900

"The Romanzo N. Bayley House, at 419 East Argonne in Kirkwood, St. Louis County, Missouri, is a large two story frame house with arched windows, a bracketed cornice, and irregular massing. It is a highly intact example of Property Type B. Italianate Houses. It meets the registration requirements for that property type set forth in the MPS Cover document "Historic Resources of Kirkwood, Missouri." The large house provides an early example of the Italianate style as it was used for houses in Kirkwood. Typically Italianate features include a bracketed cornice, arched windows with heavy molding, and a front porch with paired square posts. The core of the house takes the form of a large gabled ell. The massing is made more irregular by the addition of a polygonal front window bay, an ornamental metal balustrade along the top edge of the one-story front porch, and a pair of twostory side ells, one of which is open at the ground floor. The house is like most other examples of the property type in Kirkwood, in that it is two stories tall, and of frame construction. The multi-light windows of the house, which are all early or original, have arched tops, and flanking shutters which echo the line of the window arches. A two-story addition on the back of the house has flat topped windows and similar building materials. Although not original, the addition does appear to be at least a century old, and has therefore been assigned a construction date of ca. 1900. The house faces south to Argonne, and is set well back from the road. It is nearly twice as far back from the road as the other .houses on the block. The rear yard of the property, which is relatively small, contains a two story frame carriage house which is roughly as old as the house itself. The carriage house is the only other resource on the property; it is a contributing building. The period of significance for the property runs from the original construction date of ca. 1858, to ca. 1900, by which time the rear ell and carriage house were both in place. The Bayley House is notably intact, in excellent condition, and immediately recognizable to its period of significance." ~ NRHP Nomination Form