Monday, June 19, 2006

Wedding Cake House




Seen while strolling in the New England sunshine .

This beautiful piece of architecture is called The Wedding Cake House and it does resemble a wedding cake, doesn't it ? The local legend is that the architectural ornamentation pieces were carved at sea by a lonely sea captain who had to leave his bride as soon as they were married. Before writing this post, I did a wee bit of research to find that the legend was in fact a fairy tale which was perhaps concocted by an overzealous entrepreneur.

The Wedding Cake House ,originally Federalist in style , was built in 1825 by a shipbuilder for his bride. The architecture of the house was altered in 1852 after the barn attached to the house burned. The shipbuilder was retired by then and decided to rebuild the barn in a Gothic style. He then added all of the spires and trim to the house so that it would relate more to the barn. So alas... it was merely modern day home improvement.... 4 years of home improvement as all the ornamentation was made by the shipbuilders own hands. What a fabulous artist he was ! Today the home is privately owned and impeccably maintained.

1 comment:

paris parfait said...

What a beautiful house! I appreciate you showing the photo and its unique history.