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John A. Wallace Residence; Wichita, KS
The John A. Wallace Residence at 1021 North Lawrence (now re-named Broadway) is confirmed to have been designed and built by William Henry Sternberg in the mid-1880s. This brick residence with a limestone foundation was located just to the south of the Hacker Residence (1055 North Lawrence) which is also suspected of being a Sternberg design/build. See photostream for image of the Hacker home. The Wallace home was built with a single-story heated carriage house finished with a small belvedere or fancy cupola, but unlike many of the carriage houses of the day, this carriage house was built of brick and trimmed out in limestone - more substantial than most carriage houses which were of wood (even when the main residence was brick). The Wallace Residence has a number of stylistic features consistent with other confirmed Sternberg designs including: an ornate slate roof comprised of bands with varying tile shapes and different slate colors for each band, two-story bay windows, double multi-tiered decorative fountains flanking the front entry way (also seen at the Greiffenstein Mansion), double front doors - a common Sternberg design (also seen on Sternberg Mansion), decorative porches on the third floor (too small to be functional) - seen on the A.W. Bitting house and many others, three main porches on the ground level, three ornate highly corbelled chimney flues and fancy milled gingerbread woodwork. In Sternberg designs, roof cresting was commonly used on the very apex of the house (as seen here), but also somewhat to a lesser extent on lower dormer apexes (as in the M.J. Oliver home). There was likely some decorative or very small porch(es) on the south side of the residence (side not showing in image). Yet another design element that appears frequently in Sternberg homes is a two-story small square bay area (see note outlining this element in image above). In Sternberg designs, this square bay is ALWAYS topped with a shed-style roof with a pitch that frequently is different from the roof it connects to. A two-story square bay with a shed roof is also seen on the Albert Hess residence at 637 N. Emporia in Wichita, KS and is only one of the reasons why the Hess residence is suspected of having been designed / built by W.H. Sternberg.
Typically, slate tiles are thought of as varying shades of gray, a wide array of natural slate colors was widely available in the late 1800s. Slate colors varied from gray, black, blue-black, purple, rust, orange, blue-green, light gray and even yellow. Banding a roof in different slate colors was not uncommon as was ornamenting one's roof with geometric designs frequently of flowers, trefoils, quatrefoils, greek keys, diamonds and/or other geometric shapes. Frequently several different shapes of slate tiles such as scalloped, beveled or square tiles would be incorporated within a roof. And the way the tiles were layed (such as overlapped or fanned) also varied. Sternberg used very light-gray and very dark gray slate tiles in the roof of his own house at 1065 N. Waco Avenue, so he was clearly aware that slate tiles came in more than one color. Some of these slate tiles were "discovered" still on the roof in 2010 and have been saved.
Years before this house was built, Sternberg was promoting himself as both an “architect and builder” of homes, specifically “designing and drafting” services. An advertisement for Sternberg, Hall & Co in the 1869 - 1870 Chenango County, New York Directory noted, “Being Architects and Builders themselves, they know just what is wanted for a house and how to prepare it. Give them your patronage if you would have everything in first-class style.” Some have tended to think of W.H. Sternberg as mainly a contractor, but indeed the architecting and design services that he did himself were a substantial portion of his business. At Sternberg's millwork factory in Norwich, New York, his designing and drafting business was co-located in the same building as the millwork factory. At one point they were two distinct businesses operating out of the same building, both being run, of course, by Sternberg.
This image shows a small box out next to the curb, right next to the street between the two hitching posts. This is likely a stone carriage step so that when a carriage arrived the door would open and the ladies could comfortably step out of the carriage and onto the stone carriage step without showing too much leg! This stone likely had the address of the residence ("1021") and even the last name of the owner ("Wallace") chisled into it. This residence, with the multi-tiered fountains, stone carriage step, iron fence and dual decoratively carved stone hitching posts, reinforced to visitors that they were arriving at a very fine address. This was intended to impress.
The sidewalks appear to be paved with cement which was certainly available at this time. Portland cement had been around for about 50 years when the Wallace home was built and even steel-reinforced cement structures had been around for about 10 years (known as "ferrocement"), although the idea of paving streets with cement didn't happen until the 1890s. Brick walks were also common as a sidewalk material as were wood planks. Sternberg did use cement as a building material within his homes primarily for decorative lintels, brackets and cornices but not as a main structrual material.
Unfortunately the Wallace home has been torn down to make way for commerical "development.".
John Wallace was a dealer / agent of agricultural implements for the Walter A. Wood Harvesting Machines business at the time this home was built.
Any thoughts, comments, ideas or additional information about this residence are welcomed and appreciated!
Image is a scan off of an original print out of the 1887 Kansas Atlas.
John A. Wallace Residence; Wichita, KS
The John A. Wallace Residence at 1021 North Lawrence (now re-named Broadway) is confirmed to have been designed and built by William Henry Sternberg in the mid-1880s. This brick residence with a limestone foundation was located just to the south of the Hacker Residence (1055 North Lawrence) which is also suspected of being a Sternberg design/build. See photostream for image of the Hacker home. The Wallace home was built with a single-story heated carriage house finished with a small belvedere or fancy cupola, but unlike many of the carriage houses of the day, this carriage house was built of brick and trimmed out in limestone - more substantial than most carriage houses which were of wood (even when the main residence was brick). The Wallace Residence has a number of stylistic features consistent with other confirmed Sternberg designs including: an ornate slate roof comprised of bands with varying tile shapes and different slate colors for each band, two-story bay windows, double multi-tiered decorative fountains flanking the front entry way (also seen at the Greiffenstein Mansion), double front doors - a common Sternberg design (also seen on Sternberg Mansion), decorative porches on the third floor (too small to be functional) - seen on the A.W. Bitting house and many others, three main porches on the ground level, three ornate highly corbelled chimney flues and fancy milled gingerbread woodwork. In Sternberg designs, roof cresting was commonly used on the very apex of the house (as seen here), but also somewhat to a lesser extent on lower dormer apexes (as in the M.J. Oliver home). There was likely some decorative or very small porch(es) on the south side of the residence (side not showing in image). Yet another design element that appears frequently in Sternberg homes is a two-story small square bay area (see note outlining this element in image above). In Sternberg designs, this square bay is ALWAYS topped with a shed-style roof with a pitch that frequently is different from the roof it connects to. A two-story square bay with a shed roof is also seen on the Albert Hess residence at 637 N. Emporia in Wichita, KS and is only one of the reasons why the Hess residence is suspected of having been designed / built by W.H. Sternberg.
Typically, slate tiles are thought of as varying shades of gray, a wide array of natural slate colors was widely available in the late 1800s. Slate colors varied from gray, black, blue-black, purple, rust, orange, blue-green, light gray and even yellow. Banding a roof in different slate colors was not uncommon as was ornamenting one's roof with geometric designs frequently of flowers, trefoils, quatrefoils, greek keys, diamonds and/or other geometric shapes. Frequently several different shapes of slate tiles such as scalloped, beveled or square tiles would be incorporated within a roof. And the way the tiles were layed (such as overlapped or fanned) also varied. Sternberg used very light-gray and very dark gray slate tiles in the roof of his own house at 1065 N. Waco Avenue, so he was clearly aware that slate tiles came in more than one color. Some of these slate tiles were "discovered" still on the roof in 2010 and have been saved.
Years before this house was built, Sternberg was promoting himself as both an “architect and builder” of homes, specifically “designing and drafting” services. An advertisement for Sternberg, Hall & Co in the 1869 - 1870 Chenango County, New York Directory noted, “Being Architects and Builders themselves, they know just what is wanted for a house and how to prepare it. Give them your patronage if you would have everything in first-class style.” Some have tended to think of W.H. Sternberg as mainly a contractor, but indeed the architecting and design services that he did himself were a substantial portion of his business. At Sternberg's millwork factory in Norwich, New York, his designing and drafting business was co-located in the same building as the millwork factory. At one point they were two distinct businesses operating out of the same building, both being run, of course, by Sternberg.
This image shows a small box out next to the curb, right next to the street between the two hitching posts. This is likely a stone carriage step so that when a carriage arrived the door would open and the ladies could comfortably step out of the carriage and onto the stone carriage step without showing too much leg! This stone likely had the address of the residence ("1021") and even the last name of the owner ("Wallace") chisled into it. This residence, with the multi-tiered fountains, stone carriage step, iron fence and dual decoratively carved stone hitching posts, reinforced to visitors that they were arriving at a very fine address. This was intended to impress.
The sidewalks appear to be paved with cement which was certainly available at this time. Portland cement had been around for about 50 years when the Wallace home was built and even steel-reinforced cement structures had been around for about 10 years (known as "ferrocement"), although the idea of paving streets with cement didn't happen until the 1890s. Brick walks were also common as a sidewalk material as were wood planks. Sternberg did use cement as a building material within his homes primarily for decorative lintels, brackets and cornices but not as a main structrual material.
Unfortunately the Wallace home has been torn down to make way for commerical "development.".
John Wallace was a dealer / agent of agricultural implements for the Walter A. Wood Harvesting Machines business at the time this home was built.
Any thoughts, comments, ideas or additional information about this residence are welcomed and appreciated!
Image is a scan off of an original print out of the 1887 Kansas Atlas.