297. Spencer House (FY 1750)
1204 Brookstown Avenue
Contributing, ca. 1910
The Spencer House is an elegant Colonial Revival dwelling with some detailing very similar to that found at 1208 Brookstown Avenue next door (#298). The two-story weatherboarded frame house has a truncated hip roof with overhanging eaves, a central gabled dormer with a Palladian window and objets trouves work, and smaller flanking hipped dormers. The central entrance with sidelights and transom is echoed by the sidelighted doorway to the second floor deck. The house has a wrap-around porch with a slightly projecting entrance bay, Tuscan columns, a full entablature, and a plain balustrade with central “star” panels. An ironwork fire stair has been attached to the southeast side of the house in recent years, but it does not hide any of the original detailing and could be easily removed.
Although the house was depicted on the 1912 Sanborn Map, the first tax listing was not until 1917 with M. K. Spencer. The 1920 city directory lists Dr. William 0. and Mary K. Spencer at this location. The Spencer’s owned the house until 1967. (SM, TR, CD)
Garage, Contributing: Behind the house is a one-car brick garage with a steep gable roof with wood shingled gables. It was probably built prior to 1930.